A college scholarship that begins in high school for DeKalb
Amid all the dismaying news about education, we forget that there are students achieving remarkable things despite poverty and fractured families.
I listened to 20 0f them tonight at the Simon Family Foundation awards at the Emory Conference Center. These high achieving students from DeKalb high schools are the newest class of Simon Scholars, chosen not only for the adversity in their young lives, but for their determination to rise above it. Unique in that it identifies students as high school juniors and offers them not only financial support but college advice, SAT prep and a team of caring adults to guide them through their last two years of high school and onto college, the Simon Scholars program was created by California philanthropist Ron Simon. Since the program began in 2003, there have been 300 scholarships awarded nationwide.
“I don’t want just to write checks and tell the students to do their best,” said Simon. “Anyone can do that. I want to do more, and to do it at an earlier age with these students. I want them to know that they really can be competitive in college because they will have the same preparation tools and opportunities as students that came from more privileged backgrounds.”
While Simon and his daughter Dr. Kathy Simon Abels were on hand for the event, the spotlight fell on the students, many of whom, despite honor roll, chorus and debate team, did not know if they could go to college because of the cost and because of the responsibility they felt toward their families, most of whom were headed by single mothers.
Speaking to the 150 people in the audience, the students stole the show with their passion, their eloquence and their gratitude.
“If this is a dream, please don’t wake me up,” said Vincent Shinholster of Redan High School. “I want to live this dream for six years, through two more years of high school and four years at Georgia Tech.”
Seantel Williams, also a Redan junior, talked about coping with domestic violence and losing a home to foreclosure. “This scholarship has changed my life and brought me closer to my goal to attend Spelman College or Georgia State. Mr. Simon, every time I walk into a high school or college class, I will work to bring honor to my Simon family, my family and myself.”
With six other siblings and a father suffering from a heart condition, Kevin Smith 0f Redan said he had doubted college would be possible for him. “I felt it would be too much of a burden on my family. Now, with this opportunity, how can I not go to college?”
Paisley Maxwell, a Chamblee student who was 10 when she lost her mother to breast cancer, spoke directly Mr. Simon, “Mr. Simon, to the world, you’re a person but to this one person, you’re the world.”
It was a hopeful night. We all need to get out more and see students like this in action.
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11 comments Add your comment
Maureen's accountability metric
September 15th, 2009
11:53 pm
Two words: Intrinsic motivation. You can nurture it, you can encourage it, but try as you might, you can’t mandate it.
Speaking of DeKalb, why is Superintendent Crawford Lewis creating new administrative positions while teacher retirement benefits are being reduced, with no promise that future furloughs won’t occur?
What message does it send to teachers that Lewis asks them to sacrifice, then turns right around and rewards someone with a newly created “Corporate Wellness Director” position?
And what message does the board send about their lack of respect for teachers in DeKalb by approving the position with a unanimous vote?
Maureen's accountability metric
September 16th, 2009
12:03 am
To give credit where credit is due, the info about Lewis creating a Director of Corporate Wellness position came from the DeKalb School Watch blog.
Maureen you think it might be time to once again ask Lewis for some accountability for having one hundred million dollars more in administrative positions than Fulton County does?
Are these administrative positions, in light of cuts made to teacher benefits, truly in “the best interests of students”?
old teach
September 16th, 2009
10:55 am
“Amid all the dismaying news about education, we forget that there are students achieving remarkable things despite poverty and fractured families.”
Which brings me to a point I have raised here many times: HOW CAN WE CONTINUE TO BLAME TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS FOR STUDENTS’ LACK OF ACHIEVEMENT??
Obviously, these students sit in the same classes in the same schools in which many if not most students are not achieving at all. Even what may be considered the worst of schools has its achievers.
The academic achievement of the top 8-10% of students in public schools compares very favorably to students in private schools. So why all emphasis on lousy teachers and/or inadequate facilities?
e
Ernest
September 16th, 2009
11:07 am
MAM:
Not to be an apologist for DCSS, but where are you getting your data? I went to the following link on the State DOE website:
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=211&PID=61&PTID=67&CTID=216&StateId=ALL&T=0&RID=102
After selecting the district, I selected ‘Personnel and Fiscal’ from the top tab then ‘Revenue and Expenditures from the 2nd row of tabs. I then looked at the 3rd set of data, Salaries and Benefits as Percentages of Revenues and Expenditures. Looking at the Total Salaries and Benefits column, I saw the following values:
Fulton – $6,252,613
DeKalb – $9,599,681
I see a difference of just over $3.3 million. When you factor in that DeKalb had roughly 13,000 more students than Fulton and also look at the per FTE expenditure (Fulton – $9,746.13 vs. DeKalb – $9,898.29), it is hard to see where DeKalb is spending 100 million more in administrative positions.
Ernest
September 16th, 2009
11:09 am
I forgot to point out, those were the values for the General Administration category, which I understand correlates to Central Office employees.
Maureen's accountability metric
September 16th, 2009
11:27 am
Ernest,
I saw it on this blog, if I’m not mistaken. Admittedly not the best source of information LOL. So there’s no misunderstanding when I say “on this blog” I’m referring to a poster, not the moderator.
Still, if I’m not mistaken on this, the poster Cere confirmed the data, and this poster is the once who runs, or is involved with the DeKalb School Watch blog.
I still have to ask, should Crawford Lewis be creating even a single new administrative position at a time he’s raiding teacher retirement to spare furloughs, and yet still can’t promise furloughs won’t be forthcoming?
What kind of message does that send to teachers?
Maureen's accountability metric
September 16th, 2009
11:38 am
Ernest,
Something jumps out at me with the $9,599,681 number you found in the DeKalb Total Salaries and Benefits column.
Let’s round that to an even ten million. Then take a very conservative estimate that each administrator costs 50 thousand a year. Multiply 50,000 time 200 administrators and you are right at the $10 million figure you cited.
Something tells me, especially under Crawford Lewis, that there are way more than 200 administrators in all of DeKalb County Schools!
I hope someone will repost with the information, because even knowing DeKalb, I found the one hundred million dollar figure to be surprising.
Ernest
September 16th, 2009
12:13 pm
MAM:
A very legitimate question was raised with respect to the ‘Corporate Wellness Position’. I know the person approved for this position and aware of her qualifications. We can sit back a ‘rationalize’ the need for that position (and salary) given the current economic climate. A Board member raised similar questions, albeit after the vote to approve.
In fairness to all superintendents now, no one can promise there will not be furloughs. Yes, DeKab chose to reduce payments to employees retirements in lieu of furloughing employees. This placed their reserves in a tenuous position going forward. Some districts like Gwinnett had healthy reserves yet chose the furlough route. Each district made a ‘business’ decision based on their forecasts of future income.
Add to that, the State of Georgia recommended that several school districts (maybe all) request class size waivers. This was done because they are forecasting lower property tax income thus wanted district to have the flexibility to increase class sizes in place. This waiver would only last for two years. I also ‘heard’ their is a consideration of a special session this fall as a result of the decline in tax revenues.
I am still surprised that many education employees have not acknowledged that we don’t have the money to provide increases. Salaries and benefits make up 87-93% of school budgets. If you have less money, you either eliminate increases or reduce staffing levels. You saw the numbers above regarding monies spent on general administration. Even cutting that in half will not cover the reduction of income.
Bernake recently said we are coming out of the recession. Looking at the currently unemployment numbers, I have a hard time believing that.
A college scholarship that begins in high school for DeKalb | Get … | Freecollege.com
September 16th, 2009
3:02 pm
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Maureen Downey
September 16th, 2009
4:30 pm
Ernest, Unfortunately, I think that this is truly a “jobless” recovery. I have never known so many people out of work, and they are not all journalists.
Maureen
Ernest
September 16th, 2009
6:48 pm
Maureen:
I agree, this is a ‘jobless’ recovery. Hopefully things will turn around from an employment perspective soon.
Didn’t mean to ‘hijack’ this blog but I do want to say that the Simon scholarships have provided tremendous opportunities for deserving students in DeKalb. Not to take a shot at Emory but I do find it strange that they offer the MLK scholarships for deserving students in APS yet don’t have an equivalent offering for deserving students in DeKalb. This is especially interesting since Emory is in DeKalb. I will acknowledge Emory gets a LOT of money from Coca Cola and the Woodruff Foundation, which are based in Atlanta.