Mentors Help Kids Get Started on Right Foot: Oak Park Students Learn to Succeed in High School, Life
By Gina Damron, Detroit Free Press
Apr. 14–Some struggle with homework and tests.
Others have problematic school attendance.
But there’s one common challenge for all of the students involved in the Oak Park Business & Education Alliance’s mentoring program: high school.
And for the eighth-graders sitting with their mentors in the library after school at Oak Park’s Roosevelt Middle School on Tuesday, it’s coming up fast.
So, throughout the latter half of their eighth-grade year, part of the summer and part of ninth grade at Oak Park High School, these students will get a variety of lessons, including tips on gaining self-confidence and building relationships, just as the ninth-graders nearing the end the program have for the past year.
Officials at the alliance say these are crucial skills to prepare the kids for the future.
The alliance recently was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation to help pay for educational materials, summer field trips and camps to make the program work.
The students are paired with professional community leaders like Jerome Espy, Comcast’s director of corporate affairs for Michigan.
“You’ve got relationships everywhere you go,” he told his mentee, Bearry Hayes, during their one-on-one session Tuesday. “They affect every aspect of your life.”
Sitting across from each other at a short table in the middle school’s library, the 14-year-old read along in a workbook given to the students for the program.
“The road to success,” Bearry read aloud, “is earned with a good pit crew.”
Espy continued, “A positive support team is the crew who keeps you moving when the road gets tough.”
Bearry, an Oak Park resident, talked about his grandfather, who supports and motivates him, and Barry Sanders, who fuels his desire to become a pro football player.
Sanders “inspires me to do my best and try to make it to the NFL,” said Bearry, who plays tight end on the middle school team. “He was inspiring because when players score they dance and stuff, but he never danced and bragged.”
The philosophy behind the mentor program is take students at risk of doing poorly in high school, mold them into confident teens and instill values necessary for career building, said Lori Fidler, executive director of the business alliance.
The program, which was started a year ago, has about 32 eighth- and ninth-graders, she said. They have about 11 sessions and some summer programming, including a trip to Oakland University’s campus in Auburn Hills.
“I remember being in high school and being scared to death,” said mentor Peggy Anthony, the director of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s dental, vision and hearing program.
But eighth-grader Thea Goodwin won’t have a problem with that.
“Thea, she’s got all kinds of confidence,” Anthony said.
In the past, Thea, 13, had trouble taking tests and doing school projects. But, now the work is getting easier, and the program has helped her realize that she wants to go to college and become a pediatrician.
And it doesn’t surprise her dad, Alfred Goodwin, that she can do just about anything — that is, if she wants to. He said his daughter’s only problem is that sometimes she’d rather come home and watch television.
“Thea can be smart if she wants to be,” her dad said. “If Thea was to study, she could be an honor roll student. … Every little thing she can get to help her will help her.”
For Thea — an outgoing, talkative teen — the program has been a nice release from the grind of school.
“It’s fun,” she said. “You get to discuss about what happened at school and stuff, and you get to play games and talk to everyone about your feelings.”
Contact GINA DAMRON at 248-351-3293 or gdamron@freepress.com.
photo
Jerome Espy, 44, talks to Bearry Hayes, 14, both of Oak Park. Espy told Bearry that to succeed, he will need the support of others.
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