Lil Durk's foundation sends Chicago students on NYC educational trip

CHICAGO - Grammy Award-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk gave local students the chance of a lifetime.

This week, he flew 19 Chicago High School students to St. John's University in New York.

The students have been in New York since Tuesday as part of an all-expenses-paid trip provided by Lil Durk's Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.

The students had never met the rapper, but as they were telling him, "Thank you," he joined our interview by phone.

"You know, God works in mysterious ways. You got to push each other. I'm saying from the littlest things to the biggest things," Durk said.

Lil Durk said he created the nonprofit to help provide students with opportunities he's never had.

Since 2020, the Spring Break Transformative Tour has been fostering college and career readiness, giving students a unique opportunity to engage directly with university faculty and students, explore diverse career pathways and fully immerse themselves in a vibrant academic environment.

They also get the opportunity to learn about different careers from people in some of the most prominent jobs in the country.

"Our goal is to get these young thought leaders to get the exposure. They had an opportunity this week to visit Saint John's University in Queens, New York, where they were able to learn about some of the programs that align to their passion. And outside of that, there's corporations that we've been very fortunate working with, the Brooklyn Nets, they provided a roundtable for the youth. They got the chance to learn about some of the careers behind the scenes in the NBA," said Kevin Freeman, Executive Director for Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.

To date, Durk and his Neighborhood Heroes Foundation have serviced 50 students and given $100,000 in college scholarships.