Founded in 2002, KIPP Baltimore operates joyful, academically excellent public charter schools and alumni support programming that prepare students with the skills and confidence necessary to successfully pursue individual pathways to careers of highest aspiration. KIPP Baltimore enrolls approximately 1,500 kindergarten through eighth grade students in two schools on a shared campus in the former Walbrook High School building in West Baltimore: KIPP Harmony Academy (grades K-5) and KIPP Ujima Village Academy (6-8). Including our signature KIPP Forward (formerly KIPP Through College) program, we support more than 3,000 current students and alumni. KIPP Baltimore is part of the national KIPP Public Schools network. KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) began in 1994 with 47 fifth-graders as a college-preparatory program housed within a public middle school in Houston, Texas; today, we are a network of 280 schools, 15,000 educators, and 175,000 students and alumni. All KIPP public charter schools are locally-run, non-profit organizations; each region is governed by a board of directors.