Rockford high school students pave
own road to NIU, higher education

by Mark McGowan

Nine sophomores and two adults gather around four shoved-together tables in Room 245 of Rockford Jefferson High School, consuming three boxes of assorted Wal-Mart doughnuts at an impressive pace.

They, and usually 15 to 20 more of their sophomore club mates, come here two mornings a week at 8:30, nearly an hour before classes begin, to talk primarily about raising money.

Pompons are sold at sporting events, and some girls are knitting scarves to sell during the winter. A hip-hop dance concert is planned for Saturday, Dec. 3, with advance tickets for $5 and at-the-door admission for $7. A punk-rock concert, an idea dear to Casey Moore, the club's president, is in the works.

Club adviser Judy Cox-Henderson, who shares with the students how costly the hip-hop concert is to her time and pocketbook, reinforces her support of fundraising focused on solicitation of donations from Rockford businesses. One check for $250 already has arrived.

All this – the semi-weekly meetings, the nightly rehearsals for the concert, the writing of letters – is in pursuit of one goal for these second-year high school students: simply, another five days on the NIU campus next summer.

“The camp this summer was an extremely wonderful experience for them,” Cox Henderson says. “They asked immediately how they could do this again next year. I said, 'Why don't we do fundraising?' ”

And so the NIU Club was born.

“It gives me the experience, the feeling, the taste of college,” says Jose Salazar, one of the Jefferson students who hopes to study business and open his own nightclub. “It's helping me to be prepared, to warm up for the real thing.”

NIU Club is one of the latest ventures of Project REAL, the five-year U.S. Department of Education grant of $4.875 million for teacher quality enhancement shared with the Rockford Public Schools and Rock Valley College.

Funded in 2003, the project concentrates on Jefferson, the Rockford Environmental Science Academy, Nelson Elementary School and, with a focus on special education populations, Rolling Green Elementary School.

Faculty and students from five NIU colleges, including Education, Engineering and Engineering Technology, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences and Visual and Performing Arts, are extensively engaged in the four schools through mentoring and professional development of teachers and future school leaders.

At Jefferson , much of the work involves high-need teens “who miss a lot of school and need a lot of support.” The presence of NIU students who help teach in the classrooms and tutor after school demonstrates there is life beyond high school and, as one teacher says, “college is a reality. It's obtainable for them.”

That demonstration took on grand scope in June, when 32 students recommended by their teachers came to campus.

They spent their days immersed in math and science with faculty from the colleges of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Health and Human Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Nights were spent enjoying the fun of campus life, from bowling, shooting pool and playing arcade games at the Huskie Den to listening to a local rock band to competing in volleyball and basketball at the Student Recreation Center. The students lived in Grant Towers North.

By week's end, they understood the changes necessary to turn from indifference toward focus. That enthusiasm carried with them into the fall.

“Being part of NIU Club is something special. I've had teachers pull me aside, and they can't believe how these young people have changed. Now they're working on trying to go to college,” Cox-Henderson says. “We use NIU Club as a vehicle to give kids some tools they need to go to college. We really want to expose them to things on campus.”

A recent field trip involved team-building activities, a writer's workshop and chances to sit in courses on art, media writing, world history and world music. The high-schoolers were paired with NIU students who answered questions about college life and helped in a “scavenger hunt” to find places on campus.

Cox-Henderson is trying to schedule another field trip for the spring that would introduce the club members to NIU's cultural side.

“You actually feel like you are in college,” says Moore, who hopes to study interior design.

“We felt older in a way,” adds friend Katie Lehmann, who also plans on a career in architecture and interior design.

Cox-Henderson also has started a book club that meets after school every Tuesday to encourage out-of-school reading for pleasure. “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” by Anne Moody, is the current topic of discussion.

She also is helping to lead a club for future teachers, made up mostly of juniors and seniors, that was launched by Portia Downey of the NIU College of Education's Office of School-University Partnerships and a Jefferson teacher. African-Americans make up 27 percent of the student body at Jefferson but only 6 percent of the faculty; balancing the disparity is one of the grant's goals.

In the meantime, word is spreading across Jefferson about NIU Club.

While many want to join – Cox-Henderson has received plenty of letters from students seeking admission – the doors will open next spring only to allow freshmen who share the backgrounds and qualifications of this year's members, who will help to review the applications and interview the nominees.

“They all want to join,” Lehmann says. “We're doing cool stuff, like going to NIU.”

Such support is also coming from home.

“My mom's proud,” Moore says.

“Mine, too,” Lehmann agrees. “She says, 'Whatever will get you to college …' ”

11-21-05