WAVE Blog

10th grader Saul Romero got a rare opportunity to speak at the White House today.  The  White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the America’s Promise Alliance asked him to explain his personal challenges and what the country can do to improve schools so that fewer students fail to graduate.  Here’s what he had to say.

Speech by Saul Romero:

Most statistics show that I am destined to become a gang member, a high school drop out, or a criminal.  But I am not any of those things. I am a great student, a leader in my community, a NAVY ROTC cadet, a son who provides financially for his family, a great employee, an intern, and a future educator.

I represent the small group of Latino students who will NOT be dropping out of school.

Picture the statistics. Of 100 Latino students, only 26 will graduate from high school.  Out of those 26, only 11 will go on to college.  And of the 11, less than 6 will graduate from college. I guarantee you, I will graduate from college. But without your help, my 94 classmates will not be so lucky.

How will someone like me graduate? How does someone that arrived in this country just 4 years ago avoid joining gangs, learn English, enjoy helping others, and want to serve America?

Let me tell you my story.

My mother came alone to the United States six years ago to give me a better life. Her help meant food on the table, better education and better clothes. It was hard – missing birthdays, holidays, Mother’s Day. It wasn’t until six years after she left that I got to spend those days with her again. Even though she motivated me, my first year in the U.S. was scary – a different language to learn, a new life and friends, and a very different culture. Because of the language I repeated the 9th grade three times. Now I am graduating to 11th grade with a 3.0 GPA, meanwhile maintaining a part-time job, participating in after school clubs and completing an internship.There were many times I wanted to give up.

In my neighborhood, a lot of kids are in gangs, and most of them don’t graduate from high school. My friends had no choice but to “live the gang life.” I had another choice.

Three years ago, I joined a program called “OLAS.” OLAS stands for Opportunities for Leadership, Achievement, and Success. In Spanish, OLAS means “waves” because it was created by a national organization called Work, Achievement, Values, and Education — WAVE.

My WAVE program is for students that are new to the United States and it is held twice a week at Bell Multicultural High School here in DC. The lessons help me gain leadership skills, build good relationships with other students and teachers, and learn things that are important to my every day life. The students don’t just sit and listen – we get up, get involved, get to know and care for each other, work in teams, and plan our own activities with guidance from our adult leader.

I’m learning skills that are making me a better student and a better person. And one day it will make me better in a career.  I will be a citizen soon — but WAVE has already taught me what it takes to be a citizen of value. It means that you work hard, share what you learn with others, give back, and lead yourself and your friends in a positive direction.

It is because of WAVE that I stand here in the White House as an Honor Roll student, and not as a gang member or a school dropout like some of my friends.  In the future, I plan to graduate, go to college, and get a degree in Education. One day I want to be a teacher. I hope that by that time, schools will be a place where no student drops out. But to get there, here are some things you must do for me, and other students like me:

1. Make sure that every school has a way of supporting the students as a whole person. Only part of doing well in school has anything to do with learning the material in the textbook.  Middle school students, and even high school students, are still growing up – and they need to know someone cares.  The most important thing I take home is how school makes me feel.  When my teachers care about what’s going on in my life, and show me that they really believe I can succeed, that’s what makes all the difference to me.  It keeps me going, especially when I work until 11:30 at night and still have homework to do. My WAVE leader is Estefani  Rondon.  She was an immigrant just like me, and now she has a college degree, a fun job as a WAVE teacher, and she is a great US citizen.  She has helped me learn that I am important and I really belong.  She has taught me that I belong in the WAVE program, I belong in school, and one day I will belong in college and in a good career.

2. Give all students – especially the ones that don’t seem interested in school — more opportunities to be a better person, a leader, and to serve the community. The more I give to others, the more I get in return.  My friends from OLAS and I are giving back by writing a play called “Through Our Eyes” that will be performed for my community on Saturday at Bell Multicultural High School. It’s about a typical family in my neighborhood – that faces alcoholism, domestic violence, discrimination, immigration and human trafficking. I’ll be playing a teenager in a gang who hangs out on the street and doesn’t want to go to school. We will be donating the money we raise to the homeless.

3. Give other students the opportunity to experience what I have in WAVE. Every student could get to meet business volunteers that come to speak to us. And every student could learn how to treat others and how to take responsibility for themselves.

My life has changed so much since I moved here. And I believe that because of the WAVE program, I will graduate, go to college, and change the life of another student some day. But I need your help. Together, we can help prevent students from dropping out of school.

Thank you, Saul, for sharing your story and your recommendations!  The OLAS program in which Saul participates is based on the WAVE After School program design and curriculum. If you have questions about the program, contact J. Tyler.

By Larry Brown — President - -WAVE, Inc.

At sixteen, Temo, from a migrant farm working family and a gang member,decided to drop out of school. Instead, he was encouraged to join a leadership program at his high school. At seventeen, Janice, a single mother from New Orleans, did drop out of school. Like Temo, she found a program, but this one for out of school youth. With adult support, respect, and an opportunity to put skills acquired on the street to work in a positive venue, they excelled. Twelve years later Temo is an elementary school principal and advisor to educators on how increase graduation rates and Janice and is a teacher. They could be the rule rather than the exception in schools across the nation.

Tuesday’s report by America’s Promise Alliance about the hemorrhaging of students from schools before achieving a diploma is a critical call to arms. Led by General and Mrs. Colin Powell; inspiring State Farm CEO, Ed Rust; and Alliance CEO Marguerite Kondracke, the press conference was packed with members of an educational choir who have sung in empty cathedrals for decades. Speakers repeatedly cited the seminal 1983 report A Nation at Risk, but none of us have been brave enough to say that in the 25 years since, we have failed! America’s Promise sets a compelling moral and economic agenda for the nation. Now it falls to every one of us to turn it into action.

Dropout summits, better data systems, increasing the age for compulsory school attendance, and establishing early warning systems represent a good beginning, but not a substitute for the effective innovation we can begin immediately!

More Head Start and pre-school programs, full-day kindergarten, and intense reading programs are the best dropout prevention strategies. There are equally promising practices for adolescents at imminent risk of dropping out. In fact, they could benefit every student and refresh many teachers as well. Let’s get started now!

Thirty years ago, futurist R. Buckminster Fuller predicted the world would accomplish most endeavors with fewer resources at an increasingly faster pace. He has been proven accurate in technology, communications, transportation, economics, and myriad other domains, even politics. Yet, we have seen only a hint of it in education. Bringing such increases in productivity to scale in schools requires the national outrage invoked by Ed Rust, the courage to make change at the heart and not just the margins, and small actions taken today, not tomorrow. As we do so, we will make school a place where students want to be and create generations of educators like Temo and Janice.

By J. Tyler  — Senior Vice President — WAVE, Inc.

Sound research from the fields of education and youth development demonstrates that helping students transition from middle school to high school makes a big difference in whether a student eventually graduates. America’s Promise Alliance’s 15 in 5 Campaign, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s publication of The Silent Epidemic, hoist the issue and stoke national outrage. But we must turn that outrage into action – and thankfully, effective innovations are available that more schools can begin today.

One way a middle school can make a difference immediately is to add a curriculum to its course offerings that is tailor-made to the developmental needs of young adolescents — one that helps them learn and practice new social, organizational, communication, and leadership skills. Implementing it for all students can rapidly improve the school culture, but it’s especially important for those students identified as most at-risk.

Middle schools should look for a flexible, experiential curriculum that:

• concentrates on personal growth, resilience amid struggles, interpersonal success, preparation for high school, career exploration and service to others
• teaches skills not commonly taught in the early grades like planning, organization, team building, networking, and conflict management
• helps every student envision post-secondary education and the world of work as places where they will eventually belong
• introduces concepts of responsibility, decision-making, choices, and consequences
• uses hands-on activities and teamwork, not the typical classroom competition

The most at-risk students – not just the natural leaders, straight-A students, and most confident kids — will thrive when given engaging opportunities to practice the concepts they learn through the curriculum.

For example, in conjunction with using the WAVE In Middle Grades curriculum, schools can establish a “leadership association” as an extra-curricular. The students get special leadership training and write their own mission related to making a positive difference in their school and community. By choosing, planning, and executing their own service projects, they learn real world lessons as they confront challenges, experience success, and feel the impact that today’s work has on tomorrow’s achievements.

Finally, teachers need on-going support and training as they implement the curriculum. Schools should get help from an organization that will be with them for years, not just for one or two in-services sessions. Teachers deserve sustained training, on-going assistance, and a partner that has the external resources to quickly respond to unexpected needs. Because no matter how good the curriculum, it’s the relationships made in the classroom, between students and teachers that will carry a student through.

A new strategic campaign called Invest In Opportunity is setting WAVE’s course for serving more students at risk of dropping out of school.

The Honorable John E. “Buck” Chapoton chairs the initiative with a committee of business, education, and government leaders. Corporate partners AIG, Capital One, Schering-Plough, General Dynamics, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Entertainment Software Association have already made lead investments.

Through Invest In Opportunity, WAVE will:

• Train educators and youth development workers in 50 new communities to implement research-proven dropout prevention and recovery strategies

• Make WAVE curricula and training more affordable and accessible to needy schools and youth organizations

• Distribute a new WAVE after school curriculum focused on youth development, career awareness, and internships for older adolescents

• Build a nationwide youth membership organization focused on leadership, citizenship, and on-the-job success

See WAVE’s web site to learn more.

WAVE is honored to partner with Midtown Community Court in New York City, which is part of The Center for Court Innovation.

The Court works with local residents, businesses, social service providers and other government agencies to forge creative, collaborative solutions to neighborhood problems. It houses an array of non-traditional programs, including community mediation and homeless outreach.  It also offers GED classes and job training for school dropouts youth through a program called Times Square Youth (TSY).

TSY uses the WAVE In Communities model and WAVE Job Readiness Curriculum with its out-of-school youth participants to help them reconnect with education, get a good job, and set their life back on an upward trajectory.  WAVE has also helped the program implement a youth leadership association that keeps youth engaged and contributing to program and community success.

The ESA Foundation provides special support that allows WAVE to train TSY staff and provide on-going technical assistance to build the program’s capacity to serve youth more effectively.  We are proud to be a part of the work the Court is doing in New York City.

The Court was featured in this great Fox News story — watch the video here!

Jose Rivera, an elementary school Principal, spoke to the Positive Deviants Network at an event in Los Angeles, California.  Mr. Rivera was asked to talk about his experience as an educator and how schools should change to be more effective at educating students at risk of failing to graduate.  His story and ideas should be required reading for anyone looking for answers to the nationwide education crisis, or for ideas about how to save just one young person from the harsh results of dropping out.

My Name is Jose Rivera and I’m the principal at Clarence McClure Elementary School in Grandview, Washington.  McClure is a PreK-5th grade school with 600 students and 60 staff members. Our students are 88% Hispanic, 12% Caucasian, and most are from families living in poverty.

This is my eleventh year as an educator. I started as a teacher’s assistant, taught third grade for six years, was an assistant principal, and now I’m in my second year as principal.

We all want to make a genuine difference in children’s lives. We want to make their futures bright by teaching them what they need to know to be successful learners and accomplished adults.  Today, I would like to share my view of the challenges youth face in school, especially minority students.

Before I begin, however, I want all of you to think about a young person you know that didn’t have the support or resources they needed to be successful and may have ended up in trouble.  Please write that student’s name on a page in front of you.  Picture who he or she is.  As I talk and as you work this weekend, keep this student in your hearts and minds. Know with certainty that there are thousands others like them that need you and me more than ever.

Let me begin by telling you a story about Temo, a student who I know well.

His parents left a small rural mountain village in Mexico. They gave the coyote, the human trafficker, their life’s savings of $4,000; then gathered all of their personal belongings, stuffed them in a backpack, and said farewell to their families, never knowing if the would see them again.  With limited water and food, Temo, who was just an infant, and his parents and siblings crossed the Sonoran dessert to the United States, hiding in bushes, canals, and caves for eight days trying to avoid detection. Finally, they crossed the border and found their way to the Prosser, Washington where relatives took them in. Temo’s parents took such immense risks in search of a better way of life for their children.

Enduring racial and language barriers, Temo attended elementary school.  He desperately struggled to learn English, but the academic content sailed right by him.  His teachers made no effort to close the academic gap that developed. Urgently wanting to understand, he used his native Spanish to communicate with bi-lingual students, but teachers would snap, “this is America, we speak English here!”  Hope slowly slipped away.

By the time he entered fifth grade, Temo had finally mastered everyday English and had cracked the reading code, but was reading far below grade level and still had a very hard time understanding it all.

Then he entered Middle School, where sports, girls, clubs, puberty, grades, more than one teacher, peer pressure, being popular, and having trendy clothing, all bombarded Temo.  The academic gap widened further and he felt even more disconnected from school and the adults there.  Still, he wanted to learn, even though his grades were very low, but teachers just weren’t connecting with him.  No one seemed to care and he did not feel as though he belonged.

But by the middle of his eighth grade year, someone did seem to care.  Someone did want make a connection with him.  Temo wasn’t the only Mexican boy going through these experiences. There was a group of other boys who had formed a gang to ensure some of their basic needs were met.  They wanted to belong to something, to be honored for who they were, to be respected, to feel connected, to be part of something, and to have people notice them, but above all, they wanted to be successful at something.  Finally, as a member of the gang, Temo felt he was cared about and connected. He was happy to join them. Suddenly teachers, administrators, and other students noticed Temo. It was in a negative way, but at least they noticed. He stayed with the gang through his sophomore year in high school.

Then Temo was introduced to WAVE. By now he and his friends had been in trouble with the school many times, he was failing his classes, and on his way to dropping out.  As a last chance, Temo was placed in a newly formed WAVE class where he learned pre-employment skills, study and social skills, and most importantly, a positive self-concept. The WAVE teacher really cared about these students and she made every effort to connect with Temo. This teacher fostered meaningful relationships between the young people and others adults in the school, and the lessons were exciting.  She accepted students for who they were and what they had to contribute.  She acknowledged the fact that every young person has the desire, the ability, and the inherent right to learn and to experience the fulfillment of learning.  These are some of WAVE’s core beliefs about working with youth, and Temo soon realized that he didn’t need the gang to feel worthy. He developed a new thirst for learning.

He felt capable, connected, and that at last he had something to contribute to the learning process and to himself.  He began to progress as a leader, as a thinker, and a problem solver. Most important, he began to see himself as a leader.  Temo was selected be his fellow students to attend the WAVE National Leadership conference in Columbus, Ohio and while their, ran and was elected by his peers from across the country as one of four members of the National Leadership Team.  That included a seat on WAVE’s Board of Directors.  This greatly reinforced his sense of his skills as a leader and his confidence in his abilities.  He was expected to do a great deal of public speaking to large groups and share his ideas with the business people on WAVE’s board of directors—something he was not used to.

Temo cane back from Ohio energized and ready to begin a new life as a true learner.  But first he had to appease the members of his gang. They were not happy, but under serious threats of violence and continual harassment, he walked away.

His grades began to skyrocket with the support the WAVE class provided for him. This former gang member ran for student council and was elected vice-president and with hard work, was able to make up his many lost credits.  I am happy to report to you that he graduated from high school and in his very last quarter was even made the honor roll.

A school counselor recommended Temo apply to a trade school to become an auto mechanic, but, thankfully, one last time he decided not to listen to an educator.  Instead, he applied to college and was accepted at Heritage University.  Later he received his Masters Degree.

By now, most of you have figured out what radio broadcaster Paul Harvey calls, “the rest of the story”.

I am Temo.  It’s a nickname my grandmother gave me as an infant.

Now, I have the opportunity and the social responsibility, as an educator and a leader, to ensure that the 600 students under my responsibility and the thousands that follow have the same opportunity that I had—to learn, to achieve, and to give back to their community.  And to feel they have a place in the world.

Every one of you here today has the same opportunity—to help organizations like WAVE discover how to get their message out, how to finance and sustain their work, and how to ensure that the nearly one million youth that drop out each year can become contributors, rather than users, of public resources.  We will all likely agree it’s an economic necessity, but more important, a social and moral imperative.

Don’t let anyone tell you that a young person — brown, black, yellow, white, or red — cannot succeed, because I am proof that they can.  And WAVE is proof that it can happen anywhere in America.

Our job as educators is to prepare young people for success.  Only part of that responsibility has anything to do with academics.  As I told my teachers during orientation before the school year began, “Many times students will not remember what you taught them, but they will always remember how you made them feel.  Treating students with dignity, respect, and a profound belief that they can and will succeed may be one of the most important things we can do.”

It is truly because of WAVE that I stand before you as an elementary school principal and not as a gang member, inmate, or someone dependent on public support.

Here is what I now understand about my experience in WAVE:

• First, the WAVE teachers were trained to focus on who I was as a person to help me learn I was a part of something larger than myself.  It made me feel as if I belonged.

• Second, WAVE lessons were exciting and engaging, and I had the opportunity to be a teacher, as well as a learner.

• Third, through the community service built into the WAVE Leadership Association, I experienced learned that the more I gave away of my time and talent, the more I got in return in the way of fulfillment and opportunity.

• Finally, and I know this especially well as a school principal, WAVE knew that keeping kids in school was much more about “how” they were taught, than “what” they were taught.

I have heard from you that “different is not always better, but better will always be different.”  WAVE helps schools be better by being different. The difference is not very complicated, but getting schools to accept it is.  Part of the problem is that, as educators, we continue to do things the way we have always done things.  So I guess it is no surprise that we are still getting what we have always gotten.  Now we need new methods and innovative organizations like WAVE to help us understand how to create new approaches while we manage the old ones.

Let me end by telling you a story.  When I left the gang, a few other members tried to leave as well.  Some were successful and some not.  I know the road I took has had many, many benefits, but one I least expected became clear to me at he start of the school year when one of my former gang members came to enroll his two young children as students at my school.  Without WAVE, where might I have ended up and who would be educating those two young girls?

Thank you for listening and caring.