GUIDE RIGHT
What is Guide Right?
Guide Right is a program for the educational and occupational guidance of youth, primarily inspirational and informational in character. Its reach extends to high schools and colleges alike. In the latter, giving due attention to the needs of undergraduate Brothers. The purposes of the Guide Right Service Program are to place the training experience and friendly interest of successful men at the disposal of youth needing inspiration and counsel regarding their choice of a life’s career, and to arouse the interest of the entire community in the problems of youth as they seek to realize lives of usefulness.
History of Guide Right
Conceived in 1922 by Leon W. Stewart, and suggested at the twelfth Grand Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, Guide Right became the fraternity’s national service program. Leon Steward is the founder of the National Guide Right movement of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Past Western Province Polemarch. Soon after the St. Louis Alumni Chapter’s beginning in 1921, Leon W. Steward and J. Jerome Peters were assigned to research possible programs that would assist in developing the youth of the Black community and to devise a “meaningful and practical approach” to the problem of Black youth underachievement. Ultimately, Brother Steward, proposed a program of guidance to be designated as “Guide Right”, with the purpose of assisting high school seniors to choose and pursue useful careers. The focus of Guide Right, from its inception, was to provide scholarships to needy and talented students, and to inform young people of the professions and other career options.
The founding objectives of Guide Right may be summarized as follows:
To help youth in selection of courses leading to vocations compatible with their aptitudes and personalities.
To assist students while they are in training, to get started in employment, and to progress successfully in their chosen fields.
To assist parents in the handling of their children by giving them opportunities to talk over their problems with those who know and are successful in their chosen vocations.
To afford the less fortunate youths a respite from the drudgery of the streets, through sponsored entertainment and cultural enrichment.
To inform youth of the values of higher education, of assistance available for continued educational pursuits.
History of Kappa League
Kappa League, a subset of the Guide Right Program, was founded on Thursday, February 12, 1969, by the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., at Alain LeRoy Locke High School. Kappa League was adopted by the Grand Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. at the 56th Grand Chapter which was held August 12-15, 1970. The founders of the Kappa Instructional Leadership League were Mel L. Davis, an Elder Watson Diggs Awardee, and Edgar H. Bishop. Under the chairmanship of Mel Davis, the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter’s Social Action Program took the form of training activity for young men of the Alain Leroy Locke High School. Called the Kappa Instructional Leadership League, it was designed to help young men grow, and develop their leadership talents in every phase of human endeavor. It provided both challenging and rewarding experiences, which richly enhanced their lives. Membership was open to male students from the tenth through the twelfth grades.