Our History

Former White House Presidential Communications Aide and Retired U.S. Army Chief, Warrant Officer Three, Tyrone C. Pinkins (Ty) founded The Pyramid Project. As a Rolling Fork, Mississippi native, Ty recognized the lack of business, government and public-sector exposure and development programs for youth at the base of the economic pyramid in the Mississippi Delta.

To address this, Ty felt it was imperative to launch youth development, mentorship and leadership programs like our, Youth Exposure Tour (Y.E.T.), Higher Education Exposure Tour (H.E.E.T.), and World Exposure Tour (W.E.T.).

With only a shoestring organizational budget and invaluable volunteers, Ty simultaneously created unprecedented partnerships with government agencies, corporations, universities, museums and nonprofit networks and collaborated with middle and high school officials to encourage youth to enter into grade and writing contests as a way of earning opportunities to participate in our programs. These efforts paved the way for us primarily to:

• afford the selected students, grades 6-12, to learn firsthand about the government, corporate and community dynamics, history, historical sites and broaden their horizon during once-in-a-lifetime, weeklong tours of metropolitan cities like Washington, D.C. 

• empower youth with practical strategies, solutions, resources and tools, cultivate youth leadership skills through extraordinary, interactive professional mentorship initiatives as well as government, private and public sector, university and community experiences. 

 

Our Growth

Some additional key highlights that we are honored and proud to share include that:

• we have grown from initially serving 6 boys from the Mississippi Delta to serving more than 100 boys and girls from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Texas.

• a significant increase of students and mentors continually vy to participate in our programs each year. As a result, our budget requirements have grown significantly in wake of the demand for our services. This means that we are at an exciting point in our development where we must raise more funds and offer more programs.

• we have expanded our program tours to designate a different student per day to serve as The Pyramid Project Student Ambassador. With one-on-one mentor guidance and youth leadership training, we teach each Student Ambassador how to lead students briefings to present each day’s agenda, lead presentations to convey The Pyramid Project’s educational materials based on our unique Power, Responsibility, Inspiration, Determination, and Excellence (P.R.I.D.E) curriculum while cultivating their professional and personal-relationship building skills.

• alumni of our programs, along with their parents, continuously share that unlike any other, The Pyramid Project effectively and efficiently: 

  • helps equip youth with the necessary awareness and wealth of knowledge; 

  • demonstrates how youth can become successful leaders; 

  • helps youth transform their lives to manifest their personal, academic and career-related ambitions; and

  • facilitates youth’s access to invaluable program mentors and resources that grant them with the essential exposure and innovative tools to realize lifelong benefits not only for them to survive, but excel and succeed.