Recently, Richard T. Crane Tech Prep Common School students, Elliot Foster, Donte Smith and Michael Williams got to do something that, for most of us, remains little more than a dream: Speak face-to-face with the President of the United States of America.

Shortly after bringing many in the crowd to tears with a heartfelt a cappela performance of a song they created about what Youth Guidance has meant in their lives, Elliot, Donte and Michael stood elbow-to-elbow with their new friends - 150 of Chicago's corporate and civic elite -- transfixed as they spied President Obama strut confidently across the threshold of Youth Guidance Board member, Stuart Taylor and his wife Evonne's Hyde Park home.

"I have literally been transformed by this experience," stated Donte Smith. "I can't thank Mr. Taylor and his wonderful family enough for opening up their home and granting me this enormous opportunity."

Upon learning that he would be hosting a private fundraiser for President Obama, Taylor called Youth Guidance's CEO, Michelle Adler Morrison to share his idea for including the young men he'd shared a stage with just two months earlier at a Youth Guidance student-hosted breakfast. Advising the Secret Service that the three young men didn't have spotless backgrounds, but deserved the life-transforming opportunity that was meeting with the President of the United States of America, Taylor pushed to secure the necessary approvals for Elliot, Donte and Michael to attend the reception.

"Elliot, Donte and Michael are good kids who have had some tough breaks, some of their own doing," Taylor stated. "But they have, by way of their participation in Youth Guidance programs like B.A.M. Sports Edition, made the choice to turn their lives around...they deserve a second chance at a brighter future."

To read Stuart Taylor's first-hand account, CLICK HERE!

To read Charles Miles first-hand account, CLICK HERE!

To read Donte Smith and Elliot Foster's first-hand account, CLICK HERE!