CHOICES Education Group Receives $150,000 in Grants from Bank of America and UPS.

Donation helps non-profit serve more than 39,000 teens nationwide

SEATTLE -- The CHOICES Education Group, a Seattle-based social enterprise, announced today it has received a $100,000 grant from the Bank of America Foundation, the charitable arm of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and a $50,000 grant from the UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of UPS (NYSE:UPS). The Bank of America Foundation grant will be used to deliver CHOICES in middle schools using their own employees as volunteer presenters, and the UPS Foundation grant will be used to deliver the CHOICES program using volunteers from local Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs.

This represents the seventh consecutive year of CHOICES sponsorship by the Bank of America Foundation and the fourth consecutive year of CHOICES sponsorship by the UPS Foundation. Both foundations doubled their grant amounts from last year. Bank of America has given more than 7,700 hours of volunteer service in 22 states on behalf of CHOICES. The UPS Foundation has helped CHOICES serve more than 20,000 students in 20 states in the last three years.

The new Bank of America and UPS grants will serve more than 39,000 students nationwide that would otherwise not have access to the program. CHOICES is an interactive decision-making workshop that empowers teens to achieve academic success in pursuit of their career and life aspirations. In two hour-long sessions, business and community volunteers take students through real-world exercises on academic self-discipline, time and money management and goal setting.

"Every school day 7,000 students become dropouts. The leadership from Bank of America and UPS in committing foundation resources to stem this appalling statistic is a powerful example for others to follow," said Leo Muller, Executive Director of the national not-for-profit. "CHOICES helps kids at a crucial point in their lives, when they are old enough to think realistically about their future but are young enough to still do something about it."

Through their social enterprise business model, the CHOICES Education Group licenses CHOICES to businesses, chambers of commerce and service clubs for an annual program fee based on the number of students served, and then provides the training, materials and support needed to implement and manage the program in local communities. CHOICES is a powerful tool for building and sustaining effective business-education partnerships in local communities. Volunteers from the business community facilitate the program, bringing their real-life experiences right into the classroom and serving as positive adult role models for the students. Other major business partners include Nordstrom, Russell Investment Group and Verizon.

About The CHOICES Education Group

The CHOICES Education Group is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise started in 1985 with initial funding from Pacific Northwest Bell (now Qwest Communications). CHOICES has been delivered to more than 6 million students since 1985.The CHOICES workshop is currently being delivered to 200,000 students per year in 47 states in the U.S., three provinces in Canada and two sites in Australia. More information about CHOICES is available at www.choices.org or by calling 1-888-CHOICES (1-888-246-4237).