About Us

 Rico Solomon and Nakoya Solomon have over thirty years of combined experience in education. Both have received their Bachelor of Science Degree and Master’s Degrees.  Rico currently has a BS and MA in Music Education respectively from South Carolina State University and Winthrop University. Nakoya currently holds a BS in Mathematics, an ME in Civil Engineering, and an MS in Data Analytics respectively from Savannah State University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Western Governors University.   Presently, Rico is a teacher in North Carolina and Nakoya is an Operations Analyst for a Media and Data Analytics company.

Rico’s first two years as a high school band director burned a fire within him to expose his students to higher education. He arranged various opportunities for his students to be exposed to College Life by visiting different universities and inviting Collegiate band directors to audition his students for possible scholarships. These efforts proved to be helpful which resulted in numerous students receiving full to partial band scholarships. 

Rico transitioned to middle school band and wanted to continue his efforts in exposing middle school students to collegiate opportunities. This passion led him to create an organization named the "College Committee" at Statesville Middle School. This organization was geared toward exposing the entire student body to higher education. During his tenure with the College Committee, he invited collegiate groups to perform, arranged opportunities for the students to attend college tours, sponsored numerous collegiate exposure contests, held a College Fair, and invited various collegiate speakers.

After leaving Statesville Middle School, Nakoya supported and encouraged Rico that he should continue his efforts in exposing all youth to higher education. As a team, Rico and Nakoya organized and arranged collegiate activities for the children within the church. These activities included the Honda Battle of the Bands, certificates and gift cards for honor roll students, guest youth speakers, and several trips to South Carolina State University. 

As youth, both Rico and Nakoya were both exposed to higher education, which changed their perspective about education. They want other low-income and minority children to have that same perspective because it is their belief that “Kids want to be what they see. ~ Rico Solomon” They found joy and delight in providing these opportunities for youth to experience college life. This ignited a drive and a passion to want to do more for our low-income and minority students and thus IYCE was created, Inspiring Youth through College Exposure.

Rico and Nakoya are committed to serving the youth and plan to take their efforts to another level through IYCE.