"You Make A Difference"—Pontiac Mentoring Program Brings Hope to Youth
by Martin Ackley, Public Information Officer, Michigan Department of Education
Eighteen-year-old Jarvis Pitts was a youth with no guidance who gave little value to his education. He lived in a world of chaos with self-possessed options limited to selling drugs and ending up dead. Today, this senior at Pontiac Central High School is a model student looking forward to enrolling in college after graduation next spring. The difference, he says, is the Positive Male Role-models (PMR) school-based mentoring program in the Pontiac School District. The program is a comprehensive mentoring program to help build self-esteem, self-awareness, and other skills leading to more opportunity in Pontiac middle school students. Pitts, in fact, has mentored 20 elementary school students himself.
“I always knew I had a greater purpose,” Pitts told the State Board of Education at its July monthly meeting, “but nobody was there to push me.
The program was created three years ago by two Pontiac school alumni, 31-year-old Ramson Seay and 30-year-old Derek Wynns. Their success in mentoring youth has become an integral ingredient in the Pontiac School District and has won the admiration and support of Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Fred Mester and the Pontiac Alumni Foundation. With the help of Judge Mester, the Pontiac Alumni Foundation has raised over $160,000 throughout the community for the mentoring program, which has been matched by a $100,000 donation from the Daimler Chrysler Corporate Fund.
In keeping with its focus on integrating schools and communities, the State Board presented its “You Make A Difference” award to the Pontiac Alumni Foundation and Positive Male Role-models program for their efforts.
“Every child needs a caring adult in their life,” said State Board President Kathleen N. Straus. “It’s really wonderful to see this. It’s great to see a whole community involved in this program. It’s very exciting.”
Judge Mester says he plans on seeing the program’s impact in his courtroom down the road. He looks forward to a day when fewer young men must come to court in trouble. “We feel the energy of the community coming together,” Mester said. “There are great resources throughout our community and we have to make sure the community believes in itself. (Seay and Wynns) are showing the way for the rest of us.”
Positive Male Role-models also is aligned perfectly with the mission of the Mentor Michigan program led by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and First Gentleman Dan Mulhern, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins. “The Governor, First Gentleman, and the State Board of Education all recognize the importance that programs like this not only have for the youth and adults directly involved, but for every community as a whole,” Watkins said. “We need to continue to recognize their good work and commitment and encourage others to get involved. Mentoring is an investment in lives and pays big dividends. Jarvis Pitts is living proof.”
For more information, contact; Derrick Coleman, Principal, Central High School, Pontiac Public Schools, 300 W. Huron St., Pontiac, MI 48341, (248) 451-7100.
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