The Boys & Girls Club Story

Nurturing and Supporting Our Children

Graduation season is in full swing. This season I’ve shared in graduations of family, friends and their children from pre-k, high school, college, graduate school and boot camp. I even celebrated my own reunion from college. This season of pride and accomplishment marked by graduation is a major milestone.

In the traditions of my alma mater Spelman College, there is one that I feel so poignantly captures the common thread of graduation: the support of others that help each of us get to this point of achievement and celebration. At our reunion, it is a tradition for alumnae to lead the current year's graduates through the Alumnae Arch. As the Class of 2012 walked through the arch and hundreds of alumnae, family and friends cheered them on and greeted them with tears and hugs, I was reminded of the seed that was planted in me so long ago and of those who nurtured my aspirations.

Not one of us achieves this milestone alone. Someone nurtured, supported, nagged us along the way to push us forward to this accomplishment. My mother was my role model and set high expectations; my grandparents cheered me on and made me believe that I could be anything I wanted to be; my family and friends always welcomed me home with open arms and sent me back to school reenergized; and my fifth grade teacher motivated me and continued to offer her support long after I left her class.

My realization was that the same is true for my own children, but it is also true for the children in our lives. I began planting the seed in my children early with their own college t-shirts, pennants for their rooms and taking them on college campuses. The Club environment is ripe for being a safe haven for children to dream big and prepare for their future. 

Erica S. Stevens is BGCA's senior director of Education and the Arts.

If we want Club youth to graduate from high school -- or any level for that matter -- we must pay attention to and value each child's interests and believe in their potential. We must set high expectations and provide opportunities that help them learn more about their interests and expose them to others who can also support those interests. This is confirmed by the 2007 Harris Survey in which 62% of Club alumni said “the Club helped them become committed to their education” and 64% said “the Club had a positive effect on their goals and aspirations.”

So as we participate in graduation ceremonies and celebrations, I hope that we are all reminded that it is with the support of those we know and, often times, those we don't, that help us get to the celebration that the graduation season brings. We all can play a powerful role in preparing youth for a great future.

Wish I Knew Back Then What I Know Now.

As is the case for many, I received a quality education that prepared me for the academic rigors of high school and college. I was armed with organizational skills, effective study skills and a plan for my life’s professional direction. While those skills were critical to my success, there remained topics such as personal money management that I had to figure out on my own or learn the hard way. April is Financial Literacy Month and provides an opportunity to reflect on our experiences in personal finances, some of which we may want to forget.  

I will always remember how easily I was introduced to the world of credit cards in college. “Sign here and get a free mug, sweatshirt, T-shirt or umbrella.”  It was too difficult to resist and by October of my freshman year, I had already received three credit cards in the mail, even though I had only submitted two applications. (I wondered whether the local pizza and Chinese restaurants were in on the conspiracy, since they seemed to reap most of the benefits of my ignorance.)  

Sure we had covered compound interest in high school, but I don’t recall learning enough about long-term financial goals, distinguishing between needs and wants and sticking to a personal budget. I had even overheard conversations about credit reports and credit histories, but I had no idea that an electronic database was keeping a log of each time I casually paid my minimum balance late.

Possessing credit cards gave me a false sense of power and invincibility, which diminished regularly each month when the bill came.  Eventually I learned that the dining hall, ham sandwiches and canned goods may not have been as tasty, but filled me up all the same.  

But in all fairness, my credit cards also served as a financial safety net when I needed repairs or a last minute flight home. Back then, I did not have the benefit of a Boys & Girls Club or the Money Matters: Make It Count^.SM program. Yet today’s Club members can learn about how to save money, put together a realistic budget, make smart financial decisions, and stay out of debt.

Fortunately, I was able to learn from my mistakes and recover financially. It took me a while to get things back on track, but it is a great feeling when others can benefit from your experiences. 

Johnny DiBartolo is BGCA's assistant director, Program and Youth Development Services

Be Careful What You Post!

“Those 11 words changed my life!” said Jake G., a high school senior and a member of the National Honor Society, about the results what was supposed to be a joke posted on Facebook. 

Some 1,600 teens recently attended BGCA's Keystone Conference -- an event created by teens for teens -- in Fort Worth, Texas.

Jake was part of the Internet safety supersession that was sponsored by Sprint at the recent BGCA National Keystone Conference, a gathering of 1,600 teens and their advisors from Boys & Girls Clubs all over the U.S. and on military installations overseas. He shared the story of this past year in his life, which was dramatically changed by a simple posting he put up on Facebook. 

Jake was a high school junior when a mix-up over “Junior Take Over Day” at his high school had him vent his frustration at the turn of events on Facebook with the words “So, do we have permission to brutally murder [the principal's name] now?” Those 11 words meant felony charges that were later dropped, misdemeanor charges that resulted in probation and community service, school-mandated counseling, out-of-school suspension (and almost expulsion) and a host of other consequences that aren’t part of a normal high school senior year. 

Jake has taken full responsibility for his post online and deeply regrets what he said. But as so much in this Internet age, once it’s out there, it’s out there and can’t be taken back. And with more and colleges and employers checking online profiles, teens need guidance in what is appropriate online and what might not be a good idea. 

Boys & Girls Clubs take Internet safety very seriously. Clubs know the importance of adult monitors actively assisting members is using the Internet at the Club and that filters, while not sufficient in themselves to assure a safer Internet experience, are an important tool in a safer Internet experience. But Clubs also know that the only thing the members take with them when they leave the Club is the Internet safety education that they learn in the tech center and other Club programs. 

To help our Clubs provide better Internet safety education, BGCA has partnered with Sprint and works with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to provide the NetSmartz Workshop of Internet safety programs for our Clubs. And, in June, Clubs are looking forward to celebrating Internet Safety Month with their members, to help reinforce the important safety lessons given throughout the year. 

Every adult in the community can help young people use the Internet more safely. If you’re a parent, talk with your children and teens about their online life. Model good Internet safety behaviors in your family and regularly check online profiles and postings for appropriateness. All caring adults can make sure your children your life feel comfortable talking with you if they have a problem online. By working together, a community can help ensure our young people have a more positive online experience. 

Dan Rauzi is BGCA's senior director of Technology Programs.

By helping our members, especially our teens, learn how to use the Internet more safely, Boys & Girls Clubs are also helping to prepare them to be digital citizens who can use the Internet to enhance their lives and as a tool for being better informed citizens of our nation and the world. A single post can change a life and Boys & Girls Clubs are there to help make sure that post changes lives for the better. 

Jake G. is committed to telling his story to teens so they can avoid the mistake he made. Will you make the same commitment to the young people in your life?

Imagine

Imagine all the people, sharing all the world.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.

(Imagine, John Lennon)

As we’ve heard many times before, imagination is a powerful thing. Because of the imagination of inventors, engineers, scientists and countless thinkers and dreamers, we live in a world that rockets to the stars, wipes out diseases, feeds billions of people, and communicates instantaneously to allow cultures from all over planet Earth to learn from each other. There are countless forms of music, art, drama, literature, architecture and entertainment that come from the imaginations of people devoted to making the world a more beautiful place. And imagination drives us in small ways too as we look around our communities, imagine them even better and take up the mantle of civic engagement and responsibility.

Boys & Girls Clubs believe in imagination. We make real opportunities for our members so they can use their imaginations to become caring and productive citizens of our nation and of the world. We spark imagination throughout the Club with fun, high yield activities and targeted programs that help young people see the potential of their future and to begin that future now. Boys & Girls Clubs provide young people with fun activities in science, technology, arts, engineering and math so that they become engaged with these subjects now and can imagine these opportunities for their futures in these fields.

Sparking imagination doesn’t just happen. It takes dedicated staff to provide opportunities to Club members to use their imaginations. It takes creative activities and programs that are fun and engaging. And it takes partners to bring their expertise and resources to Clubs so that Clubs can bring them to members. To help spark imagination, Boys & Girls Clubs has partnered with Time Warner Cable through an innovative contest to engage members to make the world a better place through using their imaginations. .

Dan Rauzi is BGCA's senior director of Technology Programs.

The “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If. . .” (www.wouldntitbecoolif.com) contest allows Club members to imagine how the world could be a better place and then determine what science and technology is needed to make this new invention work.

Maybe our members come up with a car that flies or an anti-gravity skateboard! It’s really up to their imagination. By sparking that imagination, our Club members will be ready to be the scientists, engineers and artists that will help the world to live as one.

Teens Working With Technology, Not Just Using It

A few years ago I was at a family reunion and asked my nephew to borrow his laptop to check email. He said sure but warned me the internet was running really slow. Clicking on the browser, I waited. . . and waited. . . and waited, about 5 minutes total. Finally, his home page came up. What was really strange though was that every other page loaded at a normal speed. I asked him about it and he said they’d taken it in and had to have a lot of viruses removed but that really didn’t help the problem. Doing a little investigation on my own, I found his home page was a very strange site that was bombarding his system with viruses and his anti-virus was holding everything up as it combated his homepage. I changed his homepage and it worked perfectly.

What struck me was his nonchalance at a piece of technology not working right. He LOVED using his computer (at the time he was at that teenage stage where talking to adults is too much trouble) and spent a good deal of time on it at our reunion. But he had no interest or compunction to figure out why it didn’t work the way he knew it should. “That’s just the way it works,” was his reply.

I just returned from the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC), looking at all the great technology that can help our young people attain academic success. And certainly, technology is important to their education. As more school districts go to electronic textbooks, as more of their teachers use social media and school learning systems to assign homework and assessments, as we as a society become more wired with at-our-fingertips information, it’s a cliché today to say that technology will play an ever increasing role in young people’s lives.

But I reflect back on my experience with my nephew, and I wonder if we are doing a service to our youth if we only use technology to teach them and don’t teach them about technology. If they’re not able to troubleshoot, to bring together different media to create content and to WORK WITH and not just use technology, then they will be no better than those of us who lived with encyclopedias and slide rules. Because they will not have taken charge of their technology environment but will merely react to it.

At Boys & Girls Clubs of America, we believe that youth must not only be in their environment, but must also have influence over it. To that end, BGCA with partners Microsoft and Comcast provides the Club Tech programs, a suite of programs and resources that teach Club youth and teens to not just use technology but work with technology. I was at FETC to be part of a panel on using game design to engage youth in STEM, particularly the “T” in STEM.

Dan Rauzi is BGCA's senior director of Technology Programs.

BGCA, in conjunction with the AMD Changing the Game Foundation, gives Club youth a way to learn about game design with the Game Tech program. In a fun, engaging way, Game Tech teaches youth to program computers. Youth making their own video games are youth who are engaged in technology in a whole new way. But not just that, they learn logical thinking, organization and collaboration skills that are essential to today’s global-focused economy.  With our corporate partners, BGCA is committed to the success of America’s young people. And that means something as simple as teaching them to change their homepage to something as complex as programming a video game.

What a Difference a Year Makes

It isn't every day that a cliché so accurately depicts the landscape of my life. In the cliché “what a difference a year makes”, we gauge the growth of a person, not by unexplained phenomena or statistical irregularity, but by the simplest constant in human existence: time. In a matter of 365 days, the most basic element can drastically transform every aspect of our life.

Exactly 365 days ago, I was caught in the whirl-wind that is Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Youth of the Year.  My life was a mess of speeches, rehearsals, photos, pressure, pressure, pressure: this, all while trying to be a senior in high school. This was my life and at the time, it seemed to be too much for me to handle. Every week was a competition between Darrius Shaw “Texas Youth of the Year,” and normal, socially awkward Darrius. With every day, my limitations were pushed and I was left feeling defeated.

Then, the speeches came further in between, the cameras stopped flashing; when I was introduced, there were no stereos resonating in an auditorium filled with wide-eyed strangers and unfamiliar faces. I embraced it. However, what remained was the pressure: college student, BGC alum, NYU-student ambassador, role-model, poster boy. The difference?  A year of pressure, unnatural forces, the blistering inferno of expectation – it  all formed my skin to feel as hard as diamonds.  With that year, “what did not kill me, made me stronger”. Cliché as it might seem, the trials that tested me in this last year have made me more capacble of  conquering each new role bestowed upon me.

Growth is only a small aspect of exactly how much difference a year makes.  This summer I will be interning at Advanced Micro Devices in Austin, Texas. I will be working as an engineer tackling practical problems. I will be living my dream. 365 days ago, that was as close as I could ever fathom: dreaming. In a year, we have a capacity to completely change our circumstances, totally reconstruct the idea of fantastical, and absolutely redefine reality. The things that we endure, no matter how cliché they might be, mold us into the people we are to become. I am still growing; we are all still growing. But every day will bring us more wisdom, more strength and more opportunity. So make today the beginning of shaping your new life, so that in 365 days you may look back and say to yourself “what a difference a year makes.”

Studying is My Best Friend!

Already a second-semester freshman at Marquette University, I have learned that studying is a precious skill. It helps you understand the material better, it helps you focus on future grades and finally, it helps you determine your final score on exams.

In high school, studying never existed in my world. Everything came suprisingly easy. However at Marquette, the knowledge you learn has to be applied to assignments. I noticed that the curriculum established at Marquette forces you to retain information that is learned. Through studying,  I now know what is expected of me and what it takes to become an A student. Studying rescued me from my trial-and-error attempts on tests. It has become my best friend -- especially during finals week.

I never valued the idea of studying until I came to Marquette. Yes, it takes up a plethora of time I that could otherwise be spent on fun, but I understand that it is all worth it in the end. I will continue to reach my goals and follow the pathway to success.

A Beacon of Hope

For seven years, I was the director of a Boys & Girls Club in Philadelphia. This was 1980 and the Club served as a full-service community center – we served newborns to seniors. This Boys & Girls Club was a community hub in one of the worst parts of Philadelphia; a part of town so bad, so down-trodden that it was referred to as "the bottom." The people who lived in this part of town even referred to it as the bottom – this is how bleak things were for this community.

In the center of all of this was our Boys & Girls Club. It consisted of three incredibly old buildings, one dating back to 1876. You can imagine how dilapidated the buildings were. But, this Boys & Girls Club had been an institution in the community since 1932. It served children and their parents and their grandparents. Despite everything else in the bottom, our Boys & Girls Club was immaculate. There was not a trace of graffiti on any of the buildings. No trash on the floors. It was held in the highest esteem of everyone in the community because it made such a daily impact in everyone's lives. Every generation had been affected by this place.

As the director of the Club, I knew the importance of this beacon in the community. I think the impact of the Boys & Girls Club had a lot to do with what I call our "secret ingredients" – the five key program elements that we still use today. I saw these secret ingredients come to life every single day in that Club in Philadelphia. They were:

1. The Club was a safe haven; a positive place for our kids. Everyone in this community knew that at the Boys & Girls Club, there were no gangs. No colors. No drugs or bullying. This was a safe place where youth could escape the realities of the streets.

2. We had fun. Kids were allowed to be kids at the Club.

3. We offered supportive relationships. Our staff operated as family members to the youth, some of whom had otherwise never been able to develop this kind of relationship with an adult.

4. We gave them opportunities and expectations. We held them in the highest regard and expected – not hoped – that they would achieve. Outside of the Club, no one had ever done this for them before. No one had ever told these youth they would succeed. No one had ever said to them, "It is NOT ok for you to fail."

5. The youth received recognition. Sometimes it was just a pat on the back, or a "good job." It doesn't take much to make someone feel good about themselves. We understood just how important it was to help these kids see how great they really are.

I reflect on those seven years in Philadelphia and it reminds me every day why I do this. The community center in Philadelphia is just one example, but it is proof of what Boys & Girls Clubs do every day, in the worst of circumstances, in the worst places in the United States. Clubs operate as a beacon despite a prevailing sense of community hopelessness. We offer more than just programs and training and fundraising. We change lives.