Dorion Simmons of Zion was certainly an at-risk student, or “a challenged youth,” in the words of Cal Schneider, a faculty member at Zion Benton Township High School.
Simmons, who graduated from the school in 1994, was raised by his grandfather, Robert Simmons, a long-distance trucker, because the boy’s mother had died when he was 2 and his father lived in another state. Often alone as a youngster, Dorion never got in trouble himself but saw a lot of violence and gang activity in his neighborhood.
“I didn’t have any direction in my life,” Dorion Simmons said. “It always seemed like no one cared about me, and I didn’t have any confidence in myself.”
But Simmons found his way and two years ago was chosen to be one of four students in the United States to serve on the national leadership team of Work Achievement Values in Education (WAVE), a program implemented nationwide in high schools to teach employment skills, job-survival skills and life skills. In that capacity, Simmons flies to Washington, D.C., periodically for board meetings and discusses the program with members of Congress.
The 19-year-old also is employed as a physical therapy aide at Midwestern Regional Medical Center in Zion and attends the College of Lake County with the hope of becoming a physical therapist.
Simmons credits Schneider with changing his life.
What got Simmons from “challenged” to succeeding in life was Project PRIDE (Positive Reinforcement in Daily Education), which Schneider, program coordinator, and six other concerned teachers got the idea for one day in 1991 when they sat around discussing the large number of at-risk students in their building.
“Students can be in danger of not succeeding in high school academically or because of home environment or even if the family is struggling financially,” Schneider said.
Because there were no funds available for the program, Schneider, 38, and his colleagues came up with the idea of a one-on-one mentoring program using volunteers. These people, recruited from among the staff and faculty the first year and since then from throughout the community, meet at least twice a month with their students, once at regularly scheduled PRIDE events such as breakfast and luncheon meetings with speakers and individually at times they choose within school hours.
Students usually are recommended for the program by teachers, but membership is voluntary. “Mentors become an adult friend,” Schneider said. Their first job is to build rapport, then to encourage the youngsters in the areas of grades, goals, attendance and attitude.
Richard Dreyer, 63, who retired in 1992 as assistant superintendent and principal and still does consulting work for the high school, has been a volunteer from the beginning. He was Simmons’ mentor. “My role on the faculty did not get in the way, because we touch base with these young people in a non-threatening sense. They realized we were putting on a different hat,” he said.
“He was very down to earth,” Simmons said. “His professionalism gave me something to look up to.”
“Before he got in that program,” Robert Simmons said of Dorion, “he would just go off and never tell me where he was going. Project PRIDE got him interested in education and his grades improved. Now he’s always busy.”
Miriam Portegys, 80, of Zion, whose children and grandchildren attended Zion Benton, became a mentor four years ago when Schneider made a presentation on the program to the Zion Woman’s Club. “I have always been interested in young people,” she said. “I owned a beauty shop for 50 years and trained many young girls.”
When she met her first student, Sherwina Degraffenereid, four years ago and saw how many problems she had, she thought, ” `Oh, boy, where do we go from here?’ ” Where they went was from abysmal to good attendance, to improved grades, to a young woman now taking courses at the College of Lake County.
Portegys, who has started with a new student this year, said, “I wish more retirees who say they are bored would become active in this.”
There is a need, Schneider said. Last year there were 175 students in PRIDE, with a waiting list of 40 who never received a mentor. This year they are able to accommodate only 150 out of a student body of about 2,000, and that is with some of the 100 mentors taking on more than one student. They could use another 150 mentors, Schneider said. “Men are harder to find, and because 60 percent of the at-risk students are boys, we really need them,” he said.
While some mentors can help a child academically, those unable to can refer them to one of several tutoring programs at the school. They also can steer students to sources for help with personal problems, but they do not try to solve problems themselves, Schneider said.
Schneider volunteers his time as program coordinator, working with an advisory committee made up of community leaders, parents, business people and students. This year the Zion Exchange Club, a service club, is working closely with Schneider on the project.
Schneider spends countless hours recruiting mentors, promoting the program and planning PRIDE events, including service projects that the members perform for the community such as cleaning the parks and collecting food for the needy.
Community service as well as the PRIDE gatherings give the young people a sense of identity and purpose, Schneider said.
John Nikolovski, a Zion Benton senior and PRIDE president, said that when he started in the program as a freshman, he had a history of problems with his schoolwork. Although he has straightened out his academics and is college bound, he said he has stayed in the organization because he feels he is a good role model for the other young people. Dreyer is his mentor.
Schneider’s efforts on behalf of the program have paid off in the form of a $5,000 grant last spring from United Way of Lake County, helping to pay for activities such as the luncheon and breakfast meetings. Before that the only money came from student fundraisers, Schneider said.
In 1994 Project PRIDE was recognized with a Governor’s Home Town Award for excellence through volunteerism.
“I am especially proud of Cal because he was one of my students,” Dreyer said. “He has a phenomenal way of working with students. He is a leader and an organizer. (Project PRIDE) looks easy because we have a Cal Schneider working on it for 12 months.”
Schneider, who also is developing a mentoring network for elementary schools, is finishing a second master’s degree at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb in administration, is married and the father of two small children.
“Hopefully we can make a difference,” he said. “Zion has so much potential, and if the community can pull together, we can solve problems. No one agency can do it alone.”
