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Transforming Lives Through Education

Every Mind Matters means that our community’s health and vitality depend on the contributions of every member.  People of every background, creed, color, national origin, gender and sexual orientation participate in improving our economy, our education, our health and common purpose. In turn, our community empowers each of us to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

But poverty, neglect, poor health, chaotic homes and other challenging circumstances limit the pursuit of education and our progress. That hurts all of us. That’s why Every Mind Matters is also the core mission of the Albee Aryel Foundation.

Every Mind Matters is not a scholarship. In Albee Aryel Fellowship is a vehicle for learning and a safety net. We have high expectations of our Fellows. We expect and demand commitment to studies and academic excellence, and we hold our Fellows accountable.

In return, we throw a support and safety net around them. Sure, we backstop tuition and books, and we provide tutoring and career guidance. But because poor health or unexpected bills can easily ruin an academic career, we protect our Fellowws by providing, free of charge, commercial health and dental insurance and we pay medical and dental bills. Some of our Fellows don’t have enough to eat, so we provide groceries. Others do not have a place to live, so we provide rental assistance. We put gas in their cars or hand them public transportation passes.

The Fellowship is named after my late mother, who always believed education was the key to success. Legally, the Albee Aryel Foundation is a charity.  But Stacey and I don’t think of this effort as a charity.  Rather, Every Mind Matters is a sound investment in young people. The return on that investment is the wonderful things those young people will accomplish for our community and the larger American society.  Our investments started early, years before we registered the Foundation as a non-profit corporation in August 2021. I ran a pediatric and adolescent medicine practice in Reno, called Reno Center for Child and Adolescent Health. It was, in many respects, an outpatient intensive care unit because so many patients were severely disabled and chronically ill. Most of them were poor, or from the lower middle class, and the majority (but not all) were racial or ethnic minorities. I saw very bright kids who liked to learn, and were turning in homework using smartphones, because they could not afford computers at home, and their parents, often immigrants, could not help with homework. We applied a couple of simple remedies: We purchased laptop computers, printers and the Microsoft Office Student Edition for these patients, and I carved out a little time during office visits to help with a math homework problem or offer a short impromptu talk about US or European history. I encouraged them to think about applying to college and to apply self-discipline in class so they would be adequately prepared.

But while this helped in the short term, a big problem still loomed. Without adequate financial and social support, experienced mentoring and guidance, these kids would not attend college. Sometimes they were hungry because there wasn’t enough to eat at home. Stacey and I realized that I needed to do more to help them. We identified and watched the students with the highest potential, and we began supporting them financially. We paid tuition and fees at Truckee Meadows Community College and at the University of Nevada. We paid for books; we sometimes made car payments and bought groceries. We bought one family a refrigerator. We realized, though, that we needed to formalize this activity and organize it better, and make it possible for others to help us, so we transformed it into a Fellowship. I instruct all the Albee Aryel Fellows to find happiness, live a fulfilling life through knowledge and self-discipline, and remake a little bit of world in their own image, so it will be a better place for all of us.

Stacey and I don’t accept a salary or any other compensation for my work. Thank you to my dear cousin Tali Ariel Babai, who lives in Israel, for the Foundation’s logos.

Ron M. Aryel, M.D., M.B.A. Executive Director

August 18, 2026 IRS 501-c-3 authorization letter