About Ashanti
Who is Ashanti Branch?
Ashanti Branch, M.Ed., is the Founder and the Executive Director of The Ever Forward Club. He’s made a career of mentoring youth and showing students how they can achieve their potential. While Branch received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, he soon realized that teaching was his calling.
Raised in Oakland, CA by a single mother on welfare, Ashanti Branch forged a new path and attended California Polytechnic – San Luis Obispo, studying Civil Engineering.
Despite a career as a construction project manager, Ashanti quickly found his true calling in teaching after tutoring struggling students. After discovering his life’s passion, he hoped to ignite enthusiasm in those he taught.
As a first-year teacher in 2004, he founded The Ever Forward Club. The organization mentors middle and high school students, particularly underserved and at-risk men of color. Branch’s work has helped 100% of students in The Ever Forward Club graduate high school.
Branch has since spent 19 years mentoring youth, 10 years as a math teacher assisting inner-city students and was awarded a Fulbright Exchange Fellowship to India among other accolades.
Ashanti Branch is on a mission to change the way schools help students realize their potential.
Ashanti Branch appears in “The Mask You Live In.” The documentary follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity.
The Ever Forward Club’s hands-on workshop for Oakland students, “Taking Off the Mask,” is featured in the documentary.
Ashanti’s work helps young men set aside the restrictions of masculinity and get in touch with their true selves.
Learn how you can make an impact, too.
Articles, Lectures, and Resources
- Talks at Google "Taking off the mask - How to come alive by first getting real"
- TEDxMarin "The Masks We All Wear"
- PBS News Hour "Harnessing Boys' Strengths to Improve Academic Achievement"