A lot of 13-year-olds like to focus their energies on bicycling, swimming and hang-time imitations of Michael Jordan.
But not Ahazi Dismukes. He has lived in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development on Chicago`s South Side since he was 7. He has seen drugs sold and bought, witnessed a murder and heard gunfire so often he no longer flinches. Life has taught Ahazi to focus his energies on staying alive.
But Ahazi is about to beat the odds.
Thanks to a program called High Jump, he is preparing to attend one of the Chicago area`s most prestigious high schools-Lake Forest Academy in north suburban Lake Forest. He`ll move onto campus at the end of August.
High Jump began in 1989 with funding from the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation. It is a two-year program of educational enrichment for carefully selected, disadvantaged minority pupils in the Chicago Public Schools. More than 25 students have been placed in private high schools.
To get up to speed academically, students spend summers after 7th and 8th grade taking special classes at Chicago`s Latin School, a nationally renowned private high school at 59 W. North Blvd.
”High Jump provides an opportunity for good and bright kids to prepare themselves for entry into Chicago`s most competitive high schools,” said Robin Lester, former headmaster of Latin School.
Ahazi is a June graduate of John Farren School, in the shadow of the Taylor homes at 5055 S. State St. Based on a recommendation from his physical education teacher, Chuck Steadman, Ahazi was accepted into High Jump two years ago and began attending the extra classes at Latin School.
In his last two years at Farren, Ahazi more than justified his selection for High Jump. He scored well on math and reading tests and was 1992 class president and valedictorian.
At Lake Forest, Ahazi will meet regularly with school counselors to help him adjust to the new academic and social environment. Board members of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation, which helps finance High Jump, will make periodic visits to campus to check on Ahazi`s progress.
Ben Rothblatt, executive director of the Fry Foundation, said the main objective in financing High Jump is to provide quality education to inner-city kids. The Murphy Foundation was founded by James K. Murphy, a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and president of the foundation. The Murphy foundation pays up to 95 percent of the four-year high school scholarships, while the Fry Foundation pays the program`s administrative costs and the enrichment classes at Latin School.
In addition to Lake Forest Academy and Latin School, private schools that have accepted High Jump students are De La Salle Institute, Francis Parker School, Loyola Academy, Providence St. Mel High School, St. Ignatius College Prep and the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Students commute to those schools, whereas Ahazi will board at Lake Forest.
Students are selected for High Jump only after taking a battery of tests in reading and math. Finalists are interviewed by the High Jump committee. Each applicant is notified by mail of the committee`s decision.
Ahazi, a tall, polite 13-year-old with a quiet demeanor, said his mother, Jessie Dismukes, and Charita Pruitt, a Farren teacher, have been his most important influences.
Pruitt, who was Ahazi`s 5th- and 7th-grade teacher, said Ahazi is dependable, self-motivated, a self-starter and ”an all-around good kid.”
One of the ways Ahazi has avoided gangs is by spending most of his time-when not in school-inside his home.
Farren Principal William V. Auksi said Ahazi is well-rounded and ”most likely to succeed.”
”The goal of High Jump is twofold,” said Joanne Jones, director of the program since 1989. ”We try to aid talented, highly motivated, economically disadvantaged minority youngsters in attaining their goal of a quality secondary-school education in public, parochial and independent schools with well-respected college-preparatory programs; and to maximize their potential for success once in these high schools.”
But even the program`s biggest boosters are quick to point out that scholarships and classroom preparation are only part of the formula for success.
Christine Plase, a college-prepared nurse who recruits students for High Jump, put it this way: Parents must first believe in their child. ”The parent is the wind beneath the wing.”
