Facing a classroom of their peers in a church hall filled with literature on preparing for college, three teenage girls led the others in an opening prayer.

"Dear God, I want to thank you for bringing us all here today. Thank you for giving us the power to do this. I want to pray for our speakers and for all of those here today to learn and to succeed in school," said Yolanda Nelson, 15, a sophomore at East Allegheny High School.

She and her partners in a candy business they run out of the First Presbyterian Church of Duquesne organized the recent Leaders for Tomorrow class to help other high school students prepare for the future. With a $5,000 grant from Pittsburgh Presbytery's Self-Development of Peoples Committee, they bring in guest speakers on topics ranging from etiquette to study skills to personal finance. Students who faithfully attend the eight-session class will earn up to $150.

Their candy business, ANGEL Treats, is a self-help project of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which underwrote its launch in late 2007 because there were few jobs for teens in economically devastated Duquesne. ANGEL stands for Always Needing God's Everlasting Love, and the business is as much about love as money.

No one has gotten rich, but the three girls who run it now have spending money and hire other teens.

Church officials who gave the initial grant were so impressed that they asked them to find a way to share what they had learned. When they applied to Pittsburgh Presbytery for a $3,000 grant to start the classes, they were given $5,000 and told to take more students.

"You know it's from God when you get more money than you asked for," said the Rev. Judi Slater, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Duquesne.

They hope the classes will help other students replicate the experience of Courtney Robinson, 17 and a junior at West Mifflin Area High School, who was an indifferent student before she became a founder of ANGEL Treats. She started caring about math because she needed it for accounting.

"I love school now. My favorite subject is English," she said. She's looking at colleges and plans to major in business.

Yolanda, the youngest of the ANGEL Treats girls, came up with the idea for Leaders for Tomorrow. The classes meet twice a week for two hours each. Students are paid $7.15 per hour to attend, with a bonus for perfect attendance. Those who miss two classes or show a poor attitude can be dismissed. Halfway through the course, one of the initial 17 students has been dismissed for poor attendance.

The ANGEL Treats girls will speak at one session to share lessons from their candy business. They chose other speakers from among teachers, guidance counselors, retreat speakers and other leaders they knew.

They also chose as a theme a Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11, which had helped inspire them to start ANGEL Treats: " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.' "

On Tuesday, two men spoke on succeeding in high school. The Rev. Eugene Blackwell, a Presbyterian minister and pastor of House of Manna Faith Community in Homewood, described his road from gangbanger to pastor.

"I wish I had had a program like this when I was your age," he told the students.

The pastor said he came from a broken home and his Christian upbringing was derailed by his mother's drug addiction. In his teens, he joined a gang but was scared straight when he tried to shoot someone and the gun didn't fire. Football got him to the University of Pittsburgh, where he returned to faith in Jesus.

Of the 30 teens he ran with in Chicago 20 years ago, 16 are dead. All but one of the others are either in prison or strung out on drugs or booze, he said.

"If God has a purpose for your life, your purpose starts now," he told the students. "You can do it my way and have all of these bad memories. Or you can start right now. You can dare to be different."

Damon Young, an East Liberty native who worked for a college preparatory program for disadvantaged high school students until it lost funding recently, urged the students to "take ownership" of their plans and decisions.

"You have to take control of your future," he said. "It all comes down to you -- and God, obviously. God gives you the power to make choices."

Successful students don't ruin their minds with drugs or alcohol. They eat breakfast every morning so they can concentrate, he told them. He urged them to attend every class, comparing the instruction to a serial TV show where viewers can't follow the plot unless they watch all the episodes.

When a boy admitted that he had failed a subject because he didn't do the work, Mr. Young praised him for taking responsibility rather than blaming his failure on others. He also offered advice on building good relationships with teachers.

"Part of taking ownership is making sure you stand out," he said. "A lot of students feel like if I ask the teacher for extra help, people will think I'm dumb. Pride keeps you quiet. But the smartest students are the ones who get that kind of help."

His advice on getting along with teachers sparked many questions, some from students who believed teachers had treated them unfairly. He counseled them on how to address such issues calmly, outside of class.

The class closed with prayer. Then came a cake and a chorus of "Happy Birthday" for Yolanda, who turned 16 the next day. A girl who never dreamed of college, she now is one who is dreaming beyond it.

"I want to further my Christian education. I want to do something in ministry," she said.

Her first priority for Leaders for Tomorrow was that "I wanted everyone to know that God has a plan for everyone, and that everything we do is for God."

Class member Eric Flanigan, 17, a senior at West Mifflin, wants to be a landscape architect. Some classes were eye-openers, he said.

"I learned how to eat formally in the class on etiquette," he said. "And I learned out how to sign up for the SAT and ACT."

Toni Thompson is the mother of Jasmine Thompson, 17, the oldest of the ANGEL Treats girls and a senior at Pittsburgh Westinghouse who has been accepted at four universities. Ms. Thompson brings Jasmine from Homewood, where the family moved after leaving Duquesne. Sitting in on Leaders for Tomorrow, she learned crucial information about college financial aid.

"I was taking notes and I went home and applied" for the federal aid form, she said.

Jasmine plans to major in entrepreneurial business. Through ANGEL Treats, she said, "God has kept me away from all of the trouble and violence that a lot of my other friends were getting into. He showed me the right way to live."

Working in Leaders for Tomorrow "has showed that I can be a leader just as much as an adult can be and I can help kids out just as much as an adult can."

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