|
|
Columns::March 25, 2002
India Initiative leads to cooperative biotechnology research agreement
Han Park is named University Professor
Noted writer appointed first Hamilton Holmes Professor
Governor recognizes emeritus VP’s ‘humanitarian’ effort
Institutional Diversity office officially opens
Campus memorial proposal gets University Council approval
Campus Closeup
Grady College names King its new department head for PR, advertising
Kudos
Back to school
Something to talk about
Campus News
 |
| Deryl Bailey (second from left) takes part in a conversation between the students he mentors and the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” |
Moving forward
Education professor’s program builds excellence in young men
By Michael Childs
mchilds@coe.uga.edu
Education professor Deryl Bailey is a man on the move. “Can’t talk now--gotta meet my guys at the Classic Center,” he says. “We’re helping the Georgia School Counselor Association get ready for their annual conference.”
Bailey’s “guys” are 15 young African-American high school students whom he tutors, mentors, challenges and cajoles
 |
| As part of “Gentlemen on the Move,” Ben Stevens (left) meets in Aderhold Hall each week for two hours of academic work and two hours of discussion. |
into striving for excellence in school, work, play and appearance.
The students, mostly from Cedar Shoals High School, where his wife teaches, are members of an academic/fraternal program that Bailey, now an assistant professor of counseling in UGA’s College of Education, first developed as a high school counselor in North Carolina. The program is called “Gentlemen on the Move.”
Having survived his own harsh youth in a rough housing project in Durham, N.C., Bailey knows all about the academic challenges facing young African-American males. But he also believes that with nurturing and strict discipline, these students can rise to the highest ranks of academe, serve their communities and exemplify positive behavior.
Each week, the young men gather at Aderhold Hall for two hours of academic work and another two hours of discussion. Attendance is mandatory; commitment is demanded.
Bailey’s program focuses on providing developmental and comprehensive support for these students, along with individual and group counseling. Parents of the young men are also involved, making the program a family affair.
“My mom likes it,” 11th-grader Fabian Goings says. “I’m on the borderline--she wants me to do it.” He pauses. “I sure want to do it, too.”
“Do it” means to succeed. Goings was nearly kicked out of Cedar Shoals at the end of last year after a stretch of skipping school, fighting and not performing well in his classes.
“He had very low self-esteem,” says his mother, Joanne Goings. “He walked around with a nonchalant attitude. Like he was just so tough.”
Bailey’s dedication is unceasing. He is relentless in his commitment to these young men. One student says: “Once you go on his list, you know you are always within his reach. His interest makes you strive harder. He won’t let you give up because he believes in you. He believed in me before I believed in myself.”
Always eager to expand the students’ knowledge and experience in life, Bailey set up two meetings this past fall between “his guys” and a dozen “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a group of young male refugees whose plight was featured last year on the CBS News production 60 Minutes II.
“I’m not sure if anyone understands how much we gained from those encounters,” says Bailey. “I know that I left those meetings humbled and somewhat ashamed about the people and things we tend to take for granted.”
Bailey and his guys spent a day in January helping clean up one of Clarke County’s oldest graveyards. He is quietly trying to teach these young men that it is right to give to your community. Shattering stereotypes once associated with young African-American males is one of his main goals.
Bailey is doing everything he can to change that image. Besides meeting weekly to do two hours of academic work, Bailey holds a weekend-long student lock-in for his guys twice a year before final exams. The students gather at the school from Friday at 5 p.m. until Sunday afternoon. They study independently, in buddy groups and with tutors. They have a break time for basketball to relax, but they are up at 6:30 each morning, ready to study. The young men also bring dress clothes and the whole group attends church on Sunday morning.
As their grades rise, the young men gain a sense of self. “I want them to define success in their own terms,” says Bailey. “But they have to move forward. They don’t have to succeed right away, but they all have to make progress.”
|
|
|
|
|
