AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson joined President Obama to commit $18 million to education programs with a youth mentoring component. This funding supports the company’s goal of providing youth across the country 1 million hours of mentoring by AT&T employees through the end of 2016.

At the event, the White House released a new report from the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The findings reinforce previous research and calls to action found in the Building a Grad Nation Report and Mentoring Effect Report, both released earlier this year and supported by AT&T. The research makes clear that the presence of caring adults is essential to helping young people succeed in academics, life decisions and careers.

For the 2014-2015 school year, AT&T Aspire —a $350 million commitment focused on high school success and workforce readiness for students at risk of dropping out of school – will expand employee mentoring efforts through the Aspire Mentoring Academy. These employees work with underserved middle and high school students to provide academic tutoring, expose students to a variety of career paths and connect the importance of learning in the classroom to their future. Today, employees are more than half-way to meeting the 1 million hour mentoring goal set in 2012.