Pat Ford, 24, has worked in her career field since high school. As academic director for the non-profit Community Youth Creative Leadership Experience (CYCLE), Ford helps provide educational support services for schools in the Cabrini-Green area on the Near North Side. Ford, who grew up in Cabrini, earned a bachelor`s degree in elementary education from Bradley University. In an interview with free-lance writer Lorraine Harrell, Ford talked about her motivation to help other young people.
I lived in Cabrini-Green for 21 years, from age 1 to about 22. I didn`t have a constant sense of fear; I felt a certain camaraderie with our neighbors. The problem with gang-related crimes wasn`t bad until I went to high school and college.
One time that sticks out in my memory was when I was home for Thanksgiving break my freshman or sophomore year in college. I was doing dishes with my mother, and we heard gunshots right outside our door. A young man in his 30s who`d been a gang leader and was doing work for the Chicago Housing Authority got killed. He was doing the roof of our rowhouse apartment, and that nice day someone shot his brains out right in front of our door.
For me, it was traumatic to experience that and then go back to Bradley and have people say, ”So how was your Thanksgiving vacation?” It hit me that my life really was different because I was exposed to situations other people only see on TV.
There`s an amount of understanding that needs to be given to students in Cabrini-Green. Some children have to deal with adult realities. Maybe someone got shot the night before class. Maybe that someone was a family member. I don`t want those students to feel like they don`t have to meet certain academic standards. (A teacher) can be demanding and understanding. It`s hard to get that balance.
I first became involved with CYCLE when I was 12 years old, just about to enter 8th grade. A friend of mine who had been attending CYCLE in the evenings for tutoring invited me to come with her. I enjoyed it so much that I participated in the program the remainder of the school year.
Not many people are familiar with how or where CYCLE originated. CYCLE was formed in the early `60s, when several members of the LaSalle Street Church saw opportunity despite a crisis. They realized that students from neighboring Cabrini-Green were having difficulty reading Sunday school material, so volunteers tutored the children to boost their reading skills.
The individual attention I got from the tutors was great. The environment at CYCLE was full of care. I felt the tutors really wanted me to be there.
Part of CYCLE`s philosophy is to promote leadership in the community. They employ high school students from the area to tutor grade school children. In my freshman year of high school, the CYCLE director asked me if I wanted to work after school to tutor. I accepted right away. The internship was for one year. In the summer, CYCLE ran academic day-camp programs. I worked there all four years of high school.
In my sophomore year at Bradley, CYCLE started its first scholarship program. I was the first recipient. I received about $1,000 per year, which supplemented the other academic scholarships and grants I received.
I always wanted to go to college. It was something I dreamed of as a very young girl. I come from a big family-three girls and three boys. I`m not the oldest. However, I`m the first and only one to graduate from college.
Being motivated about college and my career was easy for me. My mom always let me know that college was a viable option for me and that when I got to that point, not to worry about the financial end. She always encouraged me to go to college, even though it would be a strain financially.
Also, my high school years centered around CYCLE. I was exposed to different career options through CYCLE`s mentoring program, and the support system was important to me.
Most of my friends were also involved in CYCLE, so we were able to participate in many group activities, such as spring-break trips to Atlanta;
Florida; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. In Jackson I worked on a service project affiliated with a local ministry; we helped rehab houses for low-income families.
My current position as academic director involves coming up with interesting academic activities in the event that some of our students didn`t receive homework. I took on this position full-time right after college.
I was fortunate to attend excellent schools like Walt Disney Magnet School and Whitney Young High School. Many of the kids I grew up with weren`t as lucky. I am certain that a program like CYCLE makes the difference between a motivated student and a lethargic student. We have the tools to activate their minds, to get them to think about their educational choices. We bring in role models and get them (the students) involved in field trips.
It`s important for young people to realize that their aspirations are more than just pipe dreams, that they can become what they envision. I always knew education was my niche.
CYCLE has really grown over the years. By my senior year in high school, CYCLE expanded its activities to include an adult education program. The organization provides tutoring for college students and offers GED (a high-school equivalency program) and literacy classes, employment training and placement services.
In 1985, Walter and Lois Schuessler, who own a neighborhood business called Schuessler Knitting Mill, established a college scholarship fund to be administered by CYCLE. Twelve students were initially supported. Currently there are over 175 students covered in our scholarship programs.
The success of the Schuessler CYCLE Trust Fund-six students have graduated from such schools as University of Illinois, De Paul University and Spelman College-has made it possible to attract four additional programs.
The I Have a Dream Scholarship Program promises 45 students $1,500 in annual scholarship support for college or vocational school.
In March of 1988, the College Opportunity Scholarship Program was introduced to give 25 students of Jenner Grade School (near Cabrini-Green) the chance to attend college. Upon high-school graduation, these students will receive up to $12,000 in college scholarship aid through Educational Assistance Limited, a non-profit group that aids low-income students.
Another program we have, called The College Opportunity 1995 Scholarship Program, guarantees college scholarship aid to 30 6th-graders from three Cabrini-Green grade schools upon the students` completion of high school.
Our Providence-St. Mel Scholarship Program is currently providing
(financial aid) for 10 5th- and 6th-graders to attend Providence-St. Mel, through 12th grade. Refco Inc. (a local commodity trading company) is supporting the scholarships, after-school activities and a full summer program.
We select our students by going out into the neighboring schools and informing them about our programs. The schools are selected by the funder.
Some of the funders make school visits with our scholarship coordinators, invite a kid over to their house for dinner or take them out for their birthday.
More recently, I formed a motivational program for high-school girls, in which a support group of professional women meets with the young ladies once a week to serve as positive role models. I find the women through an existing network called Career Links. I also invite friends or interesting people I meet.
Some of the women come from a number of professions-banking, clinical psychology, day care, computer science. Some didn`t go to college or they went back to school at a later age. They might be single mothers or have had a baby while in high school. Their stories give the young girls hope.
My job gives me the freedom to incorporate my ideas of what I think black students should be learning about our heritage.
I tell them, ”There are a lot of black people who are doing great things, and you can be one of them.” I encourage them to become their own success stories.
Most of all, I want minority students to learn that excellence in education is for all of us, not just for a few but for all of us. We have a responsibility to learn about whatever cultural world we come from, and to integrate that into our everyday education.
