Dustin Phillips & James Jesse founded Opportunity Resource Services with the goal of alleviating poverty in rural communities by providing more opportunities for education, access, and exposure for first generation, low income youth.

ORS was awarded their first Upward Bound classic program and Upward Bound Math & Science program funded by the Department of Education. Both programs provide academic support, career mentoring, college advising, and financial aid counseling to at-risk youth.

ORS established the Johnson County Educational Opportunity Center, thanks to funding by the Department of Education. The center serves no less than 1,000 individuals every year, providing college access support, college and financial aid advising, GED preparation, and so much more.

ORS was awarded two Upward Bound classic programs and two Upward Bound Math & Science programs. One of each were new and the others were renewals. These grants continue to provide academic support, career mentoring, college advising, and financial aid counseling to at-risk youth throughout Johnson County.

When ORS started the vision was simple: we wanted to bring educational resources to rural Texas communities. This is still part of who we are, but we needed to answer the question, “why?” In 2018, we answered it, and changed our stated vision to A Texas Without Generational Poverty. Our work at ORS is all about fighting generational poverty in Texas. We do this by connecting Texans to higher education & building educated communities. After all, education is the fastest and surest path to prosperity.  

Despite the pandemic, ORS staff continued to serve, providing clients access to our full array of educational services. ORS quickly switched to online programing to ensure program continuity.

ORS established the Dallas County & Tarrant County Educational Opportunity Centers, once again thanks to funding by the Department of Education. Each program will serve no less than 850 individuals annually, providing college access support, college and financial aid advising, GED preparation, and so much more.

ORS starts two new programs in Dallas and Tarrant counties. A new Upward Bound program started at Southwest High School in Fort Worth and Lancaster High School in Lancaster has been chosen for a new Upward Bound Math & Science program.