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. Guide Right encompasses many of our youth oriented programs such as mentoring, college preparatory programs, and tutoring. However, the Flagship Initiative of the Guide Right Service Program is the Kappa Leadership Development League (Kappa League). 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.

Guide Right is a program of the educational and occupational guidance of youth, primarily inspirational and informative in character. The purposes of the Guide Right Service Program is 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. The basic objectives of Guide Right may be summarized as follows:

1. To help youth in selection of courses leading to vocations compatible with their aptitudes and personalities.
   
   
2. To assist students while they are in training, to get started in employment, and to progress successfully in their chosen fields.
   
   
3. 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.
4.  To afford the less fortunate youths a respite from the drudgery of the streets, through sponsored entertainment and cultural enrichment.
   
   
5. To inform youth of the values of higher education, of assistance available for continued educational pursuits, scholarships, loans, professional counseling, fellowships, etc., of various occupational and professional opportunities, and of the current labor demands and the trends on the (1) effect of these demands and trends on the labor market, supply rewards, etc. and (2) requirements for obtaining employment, i.e. personal, scholastic, economic.

Guide Right Award Petitions

Bert V. Wadkins Award, Jay Crosby Award, Leon W. Stewart Award, Mel L. Davis Award