Her sweet-as-honey voice is a cover, as is her unassuming nature. Truth is, Jessica Soutavong, 13, of Elgin is a dynamo who describes herself as “bold and smart.” Her straightforward solution to remaining on her school’s honor roll: “If I don’t understand something, I ask.”
Yet Jessica’s low-income family and high-crime neighborhood put her in an at-risk category.
Fortunately, Jessica is one of 20 talented but disadvantaged 7th graders inducted last year into the pilot class of Elgin Community College’s Youth Leadership Academy. The goal of this innovative academy, which will enroll 20 students a year to a maximum of 120, is to steer the kids away from negative influences and toward education and productive lives.
By showering them with social, academic, vocational, psychological and economic resources, organizers intend to keep these straight-arrow kids straight and guide them toward their target: a free ride at ECC.
“It’s our head start,” Jessica says of the program. “I might have gone to college anyway because of my grades, but I wouldn’t have been so prepared.”
Jessica’s classmate Carlos Vale, 13, of Elgin says it is more than a head start for him; it’s his ticket to college. “I thought about going to college before, but I knew I wouldn’t have the money,” he says. “Now I know I will go to college, and there will be people to help along the way if I ever doubt myself.”
In addition to introducing the children to college six years early, the Youth Leadership Academy provides these stellar students with the tools they need to become future leaders, says project director Eary Isibue of Elgin. “Without these tools, some would make it, but most wouldn’t because their exposure to technology and to role models would be limited,” he says.
These tools include weekly leadership training exercises designed to teach brainstorming, team-building and group decision-making. In addition, each family is given a home computer, modem and computer training, and each student is assigned a mentor.
As far as organizers know, the Youth Leadership Academy is the only program of its type in northern Illinois.
For children like Carlos, whose schedule also includes a YMCA leadership group and playing in both his school jazz band and honors band, the academy program adds armor against peer pressure.
Carlos proudly reports: “The other kids at school know I’m not the type of person who will do drugs and gang-banging. They know they’re wasting their time; I can resist.”
The first class includes 10 boys and 9 girls chosen from a pool of 75 applicants in July 1996. (One was expelled from the academy after breaking the “no drugs, gangs or crime” rule.) The class includes 12 children from Elgin, six from Carpentersville and one from Hanover Park.
Its racial diversity–Mexican-American, African-American, Asian-American and whites–reflects the community. The second group, named in May 1997, includes a similar mix.
But the students have a common thread: All are labeled “at-risk,” although the term scrapes the nerves of many social service workers because conditions vary from child to child. “The at-risk kid may live in gang territory, have a low family income, lack parental or school support, or come from a single-parent household,” says program coordinator Jeanne Ang. “But it’s not just one of these things that affects the kid’s future; it’s different combinations.”
The Youth Leadership Academy evolved from a 1995 conversation between Roy Flores, ECC’s president, and Peter Akemann, president of ECC’s board of trustees.
“We were talking about ways to help kids living in poverty and crime, kids who could easily fall victim to gangs,” Flores says. “We knew the college could use its resources and talents to help some of these bright kids.”
Akemann recruited Isibue, a father of eight and a recent Ameritech Corp. retiree who wasn’t ready to kick back (“I like golf, but not every day,” he says). Isibue took the full-time post without pay because, he says, “I’ve received. Now it’s my turn to give, to offer these kids many opportunities I was able to offer my kids.”
While Gen. Colin Powell has been touring the country to recruit a new volunteer army to battle the problems facing America’s youth, Isibue has been touring the Fox Valley to recruit field trip hosts, mentors, employers willing to offer the students part-time jobs and tuition sponsors. So far, five people have promised each to pay the ECC tuition of a student.
Isibue also serves as the Youth Leadership Academy’s chief fundraiser. The academy’s first-year budget of $127,500 was funded by a grant from the Higher Education Cooperation Act, the ECC Foundation and ECC. The academy has applied for renewal of the grant. Isibue is beefing up the budget by collecting individual and corporate donations.
Flores, Akemann, Isibue and an advisory committee (made up of representatives from ECC, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Fox Valley, the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office, children’s camps, and junior highs and high schools) drafted a six-year curriculum that includes mentor assignments, field trips, exposure to the arts, computer training and weekly leadership-training classes. “Real-life stuff we wouldn’t do at school” is the way Jessica describes the activities.
The curriculum is based on 13 leadership characteristics identified by the committee: responsibility, communication, ability to influence, risk-taking, resilience, goal-setting, positive attitude, initiative, empathy, intelligence, ability to make community changes, creativity and achievement.
“We introduce them upfront to the students, then weave them into the program,” Ang says.
To qualify,a student must be a resident of Elgin Community College District 509 and have a household income that doesn’t exceed the dictated limits (for example, $28,860 per year for a family of four). Each applicant submits three letters of recommendation and completes an application.
ECC administrators interview the applicants’ parents while the advisory committee asks the students, “What is your life’s goal, and what will you do to get there?” and, “If you could change something in your neighborhood, what would it be and how would you change it?” The winning candidates convince the interviewers they can resolve conflicts, voluntarily take on responsibility, demonstrate empathy and mediate peers’ disagreements.
Although most of the academy students are top students, their grades alone don’t qualify them for academy nominations, Isibue says. “It’s more than high IQ. The prisons are full of people with high IQs. It’s an inner drive,” he says.
The greatest difference between these children and their peers is a lack of apathy, says Deb Howe, executive director of the Elgin-based Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Fox Valley, which contracted with the academy to screen and train mentors for the students. “The first thing you notice about them is that they are attentive,” Howe says. “They know they are part of something special.”
From the start, the students’ parents must pledge their support to the academy. In fact, they sign contracts promising to supervise homework, exhibit good citizenship and “participate by example.” The students promise to maintain at least a C average in school, obey the law and abide by the academy’s rules. In return, the Youth Leadership Academy promises a college preparatory experience followed by ECC scholarships.
“We knew we had to involve the families,” says Flores, who knows firsthand the importance of supportive parents. He says he was able to earn a doctorate degree, even though his parents didn’t graduate from high school, because his family stood behind him.
There are also classes for parents on leadership characteristics and mentor relationships and family classes in computer training. Most of the parents are not college graduates and many are immigrants, so the parent education program includes basics such as describing the difference between associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees and advising them on which junior high and high school courses are college prep.
One year into the program, Flores reports, “We’re watching the whole family’s outlook change; they are looking beyond the confines of poverty. We’re seeing a direct effect on the students’ families, siblings and neighbors.”
An unexpected plus: In the process of planning their children’s education and careers, many of the parents are rethinking their own career choices. “So far, at least one parent has enrolled in ECC,” Ang says.
While Isibue is the academy’s community ambassador, Ang runs the day-to-day operation. The staff, based at ECC’s downtown Elgin campus, also includes two part-time counselors who are liaisons between the students and ECC.
The counselors review the students’ school report cards (which parents sign over to ECC), then develop individual action plans for the students. For example, Carlos excels in communications and wants to be an attorney. So the counselors are helping him line up a part-time job with a law firm, a spot at a political science summer camp after 8th grade and an attorney-mentor.
Ang executes the program’s busy calendar. During the summer, there are a few activities, including a week at Camp Algonquin in Algonquin, a family picnic and an outing to a ball game. Orientation begins in August.
“We start by spelling out the benefits and the rules: no getting in trouble in or out of school, no gang activity, no unexcused absences.” she says.
The first three years of the academy (7th through 9th grades) includes presentations about social issues such as pregnancy prevention/AIDS awareness, field trips to local businesses where owners describe their work, and panel discussions with guests who have jobs matching students’ “what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up” list. In May, the students go to Springfield to serve as pages in the House of Representatives.
The academy assigns each student a series of mentors, each serving a one-year stint. “The mentors do more than model certain professions,” Howe says. “They are friends, listeners–adults other than parents who are the students’ cheerleaders.”
The schedule also includes doses of culture–treks to plays, museums and heritage festivals–and just-for-fun activities such as horseback riding at Camp Algonquin.
When the students enter high school, they will be assigned part-time jobs in their chosen fields and community service duties. And they will help the younger academy students assimilate.
As the Youth Leadership Academy begins its second year, Ang reports a few unexpected glitches, all logistical.
“A month into the program, a second meeting was held to remind the families of attendance rules,” Ang says. “That was a let’s-get-serious, wakeup call for the staff and the parents. Communicating continues to be a problem with some of the families because they do not have answering machines and a few have had phones disconnected because of unpaid bills. Transportation, too, has been a problem. Some of the families don’t have cars. Others have one car that Dad takes to work. So we coordinate carpooling and bus schedules.”
But, overall, organizers call the Youth Leadership Academy a success. People from other colleges, churches and service clubs have asked about using the program as a model.
For his contributions, Isibue was awarded a 1997 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award by the city of Elgin and received a 1997 Golden Rule Outstanding Volunteer Award from J.C. Penney in conjunction with the Volunteer Center of Northwest Suburban Chicago.
The best testimonials, though, come from the students and their families.
“Just being with other kids who are as bright and motivated has made a difference in her life,” says Robbin Steele of Elgin of her daughter, Melissa, 13, an academy student who aspires to be a judge. “She’s so proud of herself.”
For the children who are standing at life’s crossroads, where one road leads to defeat and the other leads to prosperity, the Youth Leadership Academy offers fuel, a road map and compass.
“I know at this point in my life I have a lot of choices,” Carlos says. “This is a good choice.”
