Three years ago, Gloria Boateng arrived in the United States from Ghana, having had no formal education. On July 9, she stood with two of her fellow graduating seniors to be recognized by an audience of successful adults: lawyers, authors, even a Nobel Prize winner, all dressed in black tie.

Boateng, now 20, not only graduated from high school this spring, but also received offers of admission from all 13 of the colleges she applied to.

The event was Indulgence 2010, a dinner and dessert auction that raised money for the Successful Young Women’s Project, a charity organization founded by Newcastle resident Danna Johnston that focuses on mentoring inner-city Seattle girls and helping navigate college. The organization is focusing its efforts on Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School, from where Boateng just graduated.

“Most of us are not really pushed by the community,” Johnston said. “If you have someone in a program who motivates you, that can be really positive.”

The event honored not only Boateng, but also Boontu Mohamed and Aleca Gleser, the two other seniors from the Successful Young Women’s Project, both of whom will also be attending college in the fall. Maliesha Saleem and Halimo Ahmed Maie from the project also attended.

“It was great for everyone to see the girls honored,” Johnston said of the event. “It gave the community a sense of what the project is doing, of what we were really raising money for.”

Calista Phair, Miss Black Washington 2010, and both a guest at Indulgence and a mentor for the honorees, said that the event was also really positive for the girls.

“It is cool for the girls to be able to network as well as be honored and respected like this,” she said. “A lot of them have never had the opportunity to go to an event like this. I think it is really positive for them.”

The proceeds from the event will be used primarily to continue the work at Rainier Beach High School in the fall. Gwen Dupree, academic advisor for the project said that the work is really invaluable for helping the girls get to college.

“Anytime you can zero in and work with kids on a personal level, that gives them real encouragement and motivation. You can never have too many people supporting you,” she said.

Anisa Mason, health and wellness coordinator for the program, agreed and said that the change in the girls was really apparent after Johnston stepped in.

“We come in at the beginning and ask, ‘Who is going to a four-year college?’ and no one has a straightforward answer,” she said. “By the end, they were all saying, ‘I am going to be a doctor or a lawyer or a fashion designer.’ We saw a world of difference, in just one year.”

Saleem, who participated in the program last year and will be a senior this upcoming school year, said that the program brought girls from different backgrounds together.

“It brought people who didn’t usually hang out together. People we had never really talked to became our close friends,” she said.

All the girls said that Johnston and the program inspired them and helped them to realize their goals.

“When we meet successful women and listen to their stories, we say ‘Hey, I can do that. I can make it in life,’” Boateng said. “If she has done it, then I can also do it.”

Boateng will be attending the University of Washington in the fall. Mohamed will be attending Bellevue College and Gleser will be attending Howard University.

Johnston said that she is excited to continue the program next year and to take the project to other Seattle schools in the future.

“We are still finding needs,” she said. “Every time we walk into a school there is something else that comes up.”

Kirsten Smith is an intern with the Bellevue Reporter. She is a student at Northwestern University in Illinois.