YOUTH ENRICHMENT SERIES - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Secretary
• Treasurer

Bernadine Alston Cobb lives in Durham, NC where she was born and raised. Ms. Cobb graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 1984 with a BA in Economics. Currently, she is vice president/city officer, for the NC State Employees Credit Union in Chapel Hill, NC. One of her major roles is that of chief lending officer in the branch with responsibility for seeing that lending policies, documentation, controls and collections are carried out according to policy. She also directs and assigns duties of employees. She has expertise in the following areas: financial leadership/operations, auditing/budgeting, sales development; cost controls, hiring management, forecasting/planning and training/supervising. She is a certified NC notary public, a board member for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a member of the UNC General Alumni Association. She is the proud mother of one son, Julian, a 2014 graduate of NC State University who recently matriculated at Vanderbilt University Divinity School to pursue a Master of Divinity. Julian participated in the YESICAN program as a middle school and high school student.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Reverend

Job Titles:

• Chairman of the Board of Directors

Robyn S. Hadley founded the YESICAN Program in 2004 after discussions with several people in her hometown of Graham, NC, including her Pastor, Reverend Rodney K. Foxx, regarding the lack of academic enrichment programs in the community to prepare students for college. Some would say Robyn "went around the world to get back home" where she turned her passion for education and working with students and families into a faith-based, pre-college enrichment programed geared to training African American students in grades 3-12 and their families how to "navigate" the school system and ultimately prepare to get to and through college. In addition to her role as founder of Youth Enrichment Series, Inc., Robyn was the founding director of the "What's After High School?" K-12 college access program for the Alamance-Burlington School System in NC from 2005-2014. In 2012 she was recognized by The White House and the U.S. Department of Education as a "Champion of Change" for her work to assist students and families in rural communities get to and through college. In 2014 Robyn was appointed Associate Vice Chancellor for Students and Director of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program at Washington University in St. Louis. As a senior at Graham High School Robyn received full scholarship offers to Harvard, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. She was the first in her family to attend college and decided to stay close to home by attending UNC-25 miles away--where she accepted the John Motley Morehead Scholarship and became a walk-on on the Women's Basketball Team. As a college junior, she had the opportunity to spend a semester at Spelman College and in the spring of her senior year at UNC she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in England. A product of Head Start, Robyn received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy Analysis from UNC in 1985. She became the first African-American female from the south and only the 3rd African American female ever to receive the prestigious Cecil Rhodes Scholarship since the scholarship was established in 1902. The Rhodes Scholarship provided Robyn the opportunity to study at Oxford University in England, meet people from around the world and travel abroad for three years which introduced her to the world of international business. After Oxford, her career in export import management spanned 18 years. Robyn continued her professional education by attending an Executive Education Program at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School via a scholarship from Dominion Virginia Power in Richmond. Prior to founding YESICAN, Robyn volunteered her time and expertise to hundreds of students, families, schools and organizations in NC and nationally over a 25 year period. She provided personalized guidance to individuals and families in the process of evaluating and selecting academic courses, enrichment programs and summer camps, applying to college, applying for scholarships and financial aid, planning college tours, pursuing internships, interviewing, exploring travel/study abroad opportunities, transition to college and work life and networking. Robyn has appeared twice on NBC's Today Show, as well as on UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch after the release of her first book. She has been featured in news articles and magazines such as Alamance Woman, UNC General Alumni Review, Jet, the St. Louis American and Delta Journal, the official magazine of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. of which she is a member. Robyn has served on numerous scholarship selection committees including the Morehead-Cain Scholarship Central Selection Committee and the South Carolina Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee. She is a member of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars, The North Caroliniana Society, UNC General Alumni Association Board of Directors (Past Chair), UNC Black Alumni Reunion Committee (Past Chair) and a founding board member of the UNC Light on the Hill Scholarship Society. Her first book, Within View, Within Reach, was released in November 2010. It is a how to guide for any parent - college educated or not - to help them understand the college application process and how to support and assist their child through it (withinviewwithinreach.com).