(MONEY Magazine) – Justine Stamen, 33, has seen tragedy up close. In 1988 her best friend, Teak Dyer, was murdered on the eve of her high school graduation. Then in 1997, DeWitt White, who'd been her student at an academic enrichment program in the Bronx, was killed in a drug deal at 17.

White was born with no first, much less second, chance. He never knew his father. His mother died of AIDS. His family was plagued by poverty. But White was gifted--he'd taught himself piano and performed at Carnegie Hall. Yet he fell through the cracks. "I felt we'd let DeWitt down," Stamen says. "He used to say, 'When I make it, let's start a program for kids where both the arts and academics are great.' When he died I thought, God has given me so much, I'm going to do it now."

White's dream lives through the Teak Fellowship, named for Stamen's childhood friend. Launched by Stamen in 1998, Teak helps high-achieving students from low-income New York City families enter and succeed at top public, private and Catholic high schools. Every year Teak accepts 25 seventh-graders and, for five years, provides test prep, afterschool and summer classes as well as homework help, counseling and a network of peers. "My dream was to have a program where you don't just drop kids in fancy schools and not give them what they need," says Stamen. "You need summer jobs, you need uniforms, clothes, lunch money." The cost per student is about $7,500 a year; those at private schools are on full scholarship (for more details, go to teakfellowship.org).

To cover Teak's $1.1 million budget, Stamen taps her 6,500-name database--"everyone I know, from my doctor to people I've met on the bus." This year Teak's first group of students, its "pioneers," are applying to college. To celebrate, the foundation held its first major fund raiser. During dinner, several of the pioneers spoke. One, Thai Vu, is the son of a Vietnamese P.O.W. and fighter pilot whose two older children died of starvation. Thai asked his father to stand. "A lot of people were in tears," Stamen says. "We are investing in a lot more than a few kids--it's what they will do with their future."

--GAY JERVEY