Timeline
2008
- Founder and Executive Director Erica Mosca joined Teach for America as a fifth grade teacher at Daniel Goldfarb Elementary School in East Las Vegas.
- The theme of her classroom was "Leaders in Training" and her first order of business was to inaugurate all of her fifth grade students as official "Leaders in Training" members. Students were reminded daily that an excellent education would lead to college graduation and the opportunity to become a community leader.
2011
- Mosca earned a Master’s Degree in Education Policy and Management at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education where she created a “Leaders in Training” nonprofit proposal in her “Role of Policy in College Access and Success” course taught by now Harvard Graduate School of Education School Dean Bridgett Terry Long.
- Mosca, also a first-generation college student like many of her former students, returned to Las Vegas to contribute in making equitable opportunity a reality for the students in the community.
2012
- Mosca started Leaders in Training as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with her own savings and launched with 20 students in Cohort 1. Many Cohort 1 students and families were original members of her 5th grade 2008 class.
2018
- FY18 LIT more than doubled amount raised in FY17 for the second year in a row to $300,000+ as a grassroots nonprofit organization now empowering 130+ students and families in seven cohorts.
- Earned the most donors in Nevada’s Big Give in the medium nonprofit category.
2020
- Cohort 1 graduates college including some of Mosca's former 5th grade students from 2008.
- LIT will empowers 180 members from high school freshman to college graduates (Cohort 1-9) with one full-time staff member and three part-time staff members.
- 100% of LIT students in Cohorts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 were accepted to four-year universities.