Lovonya DeJean Middle School — Richmond, California
A community-driven workforce development initiative that introduces middle school students in Richmond, California to careers in maritime industries, skilled trades, STEM, and leadership — years before they choose a high school path.
Lovonya DeJean Middle School — Richmond, California
Without early exposure, countless talented young people never discover careers that could change their lives — and the industries of Northern California never discover them, either.
Career identity begins forming as early as age 12 — long before most students ever meet someone working in a skilled trade or maritime career.
The critical window where career confidence and identity begin to form
This isn't a talking point — it's the labor market, in numbers.
Sources: McKinsey analysis of U.S. Dept. of Labor data, via Fortune (2026); American Welding Society, Welding Workforce Data (2026); Center for Maritime Strategy, “United We Stand” (2026); Bring Back the Trades / F.W. Webb Co. economic impact report (2026).
“The Bay Area is home to some of the largest ship repair and maintenance facilities on the West Coast. Employers at these facilities report a significant shortage of skilled workers in the marine trades.”
Sources: Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County; Richmond Confidential (2025) & City of Richmond Economic Development Element; Resilient East Bay — Port of Richmond overview.
Research consistently shows that ages 12–14 are the critical window in which students form the interests, confidence, and career aspirations that shape their high school choices — and everything that follows.
Lovonya DeJean Middle School in Richmond, California bears the name of a woman whose commitment to her community continues to shape the lives of the students who study there today.
For over two decades, her family has carried that legacy forward — including through the Lovonya DeJean Sister Alice Belton Annual Scholarship, established in 2004.
The DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative is the next chapter: honoring her legacy by opening doors for the generation of students who come after her.
The DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative is a community-driven workforce development initiative created to inspire middle school students to discover careers in maritime industries, skilled trades, STEM, and leadership.
Through partnerships with educators, industry, workforce organizations, and community leaders, we are building a sustainable pathway from classroom to career — while honoring the enduring legacy of Lovonya DeJean.
A founding investment in DMSI converts directly into measurable reach across the Lovonya DeJean Middle School community.
Students meet real professionals and explore maritime and skilled-trade careers firsthand.
Hands-on learning, mentorship, and STEM activities build confidence and real workforce skills.
A structured pathway connects students to CTE programs, apprenticeships, and employers.
Students discover the breadth of what's possible — not just one profession, but an entire landscape of careers.
Career awareness doesn't stop at the classroom door. DMSI hosts dedicated Family Engagement Nights throughout the year — bringing parents and guardians directly into the conversation about the career pathways opening up for their students.
“Families are partners in every student's journey.”
From DeJean Middle School... to the largest maritime industrial buildout on the West Coast, 25 miles up the road.
Richmond's own manufacturing legacy — and Mare Island's 142-year Navy shipbuilding history just up the water — make Lovonya DeJean Middle School a natural first stop on this pipeline, not an afterthought.
Sources: Maritime Executive, “Tech-Sector Developer Has Grand Plans for a Bay Area Shipyard” (2026); California Forever, Solano Shipyard project materials (2026) — a proposed project, not yet under construction; McFadden Finch Holdings Co. economic analysis (2026).
DMSI is designed to feed the sectors driving Northern California's economy — and to grow alongside the founding partners who represent them.
Annual taxpayer cost of one disconnected young person — the outcome early career exposure is built to prevent
Lifetime cost per person climbs to $258,240 in lost tax revenue alone if disconnection continues
Sources: Fortune/McKinsey (2026); Hollenbeck & Huang (2014) and American Institutes for Research CTE systematic review (2024); Belfield, Levin & Rosen, “The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth” (2012), cited by U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (2023).
DMSI owns the first step — and builds the on-ramp to every step that follows.
DMSI is designed to meet the standards any funder or district partner expects of a serious workforce initiative: clear oversight, defined roles, and transparent reporting.
Founding Partners engage with DMSI in whatever way makes the most sense for their organization.
Every level includes recognition across DMSI events, publications, and student-facing materials — scaled to your investment.
Every figure on this page is drawn from a named, current source. DMSI will refresh this data annually as part of its impact reporting.
“We are not simply proposing a program. We are proposing a promise — that every student who walks the halls named for our aunt will know the doors that are open to them.”
The DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative began as a family conversation, not a business plan. Troy Belton is the nephew of the late Lovonya DeJean, the Richmond educator and community leader for whom Lovonya DeJean Middle School is named. For over twenty years, Troy and his wife Tracey carried that connection forward the way their family always had, through the Lovonya DeJean Sister Alice Belton Annual Scholarship, established in 2004 and awarded year after year to students at the school bearing her name.
What started as a scholarship became something bigger once Troy and Tracey looked closely at where their community was headed. Northern California is entering a period of major maritime and industrial growth, from the working waterfront in Richmond to the proposed Solano Shipyard 25 miles up the water, and the skilled workforce that growth will require does not yet exist in sufficient numbers. At the same time, the students walking through Lovonya DeJean Middle School's doors every day have little exposure to the careers opening up around them.
DMSI is Troy and Tracey's answer to that gap: not a single gift, but a structured, sustained pathway that starts in middle school and honors Lovonya DeJean's legacy the way she lived it, by investing directly in the students in front of her.
To create pathways that help individuals and families increase economic mobility through education, career opportunities, income growth, housing, and homeownership — building long-term stability and generational prosperity.
Creating pathways to education, careers, homeownership, and generational prosperity.
Goal: help underserved individuals and families move from limited opportunity to economic stability, mobility, and generational prosperity.
Expand access to education, career awareness, training, and skill development.
Connect individuals to careers, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, and higher-wage opportunities.
Help families increase earning potential, financial capability, and long-term wealth.
Expand pathways to stable housing, affordable/workforce housing, and homeownership.
Help families turn today's opportunities into lasting economic advancement for future generations.
The DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative is the youth workforce-development pathway within the broader Advocate For Generational Mobility mission — beginning economic mobility with career exposure in middle school, and connecting young people toward education, training, careers, income growth, housing stability, and ultimately generational prosperity. DMSI is where the Education and Employment objectives begin, years before a student ever enters the workforce.
Co-Founders of the DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative. Troy serves as Program Director, drawing on his family's two-decade history of direct investment in Lovonya DeJean Middle School students. Tracey co-founded DMSI alongside him, and together they lead outreach to schools, industry partners, and the Richmond community.
AFGM Foundation advances Advocate For Generational Mobility™ across Northern California and provides the nonprofit fiscal structure, financial oversight, and administrative backbone behind DMSI — so every dollar contributed by a founding partner is governed by standard nonprofit accounting and reporting practices.
Whether you're ready to discuss a Founding Partnership, explore an in-kind contribution, or just want to learn more, we'd welcome the conversation.
Troy & Tracey Belton
Co-Founders, DeJean Maritime Scholars Initiative
301 Georgia St, 3rd Floor
Vallejo, CA 94590
Direct: 707-727-7400
info@afgmfoundation.org
AFGM Foundation
www.afgmfoundation.org
707-727-7400