Currently homeless, Simon Youth Foundation student chases education goals, earns internship

As the saying goes, Simon Youth Foundation administrators and teachers know that it takes a village to really make a difference in a student’s life.

This is why the teaching team at the Simon Youth Metrocenter Academy at Metrocenter, a mall located in Phoenix, Ariz., is always on the look out for great partner organizations that can help extend unique educational and professional-development opportunities to students.

SYF students Deneal Yazzie, Christina Torres
and Audi Arthur with their AAA awards

Three students from the academy, including one who is currently homeless, recently completed one such program sponsored by the AAA motor club, earning awards and new laptop computers along the way. The AAA Cares Program matches local volunteer mentors with students so that the students can learn basic business skills and practices.

SYF students Audi Arthur, Christina Torres and Deneal Yazzie and 20 other Phoenix-area students from the Glendale Union High School District, SYF's local partner in education, and another area school system worked with AAA Cares for 20 weeks and participated in a graduation ceremony on May 10, 2011.

In addition to his graduation award and new laptop computer, Yazzie, who teachers say excelled in the program, also was awarded one of only four paid summer internships with AAA.

“I am so proud of our students’ success in the AAA Cares Program,” says Janet Johns, the academy’s administrator and a teacher at the school. “I also am so excited for Deneal and his opportunity, and all of his classmates and teachers know that he will do great things with the internship.”

Yazzie says the internship award was a big but very pleasant surprise. He will work with AAA offices in the Phoenix area from June to September. The experience, he says, is the most important part of the opportunity, but the pay will help, too.

Deneal Yazzie earned a paid
summer internship with AAA



Yazzie is currently living in a group home, and the steady income through the summer could help him afford an apartment of his own. Whatever the future holds, Johns says Yazzie’s story should inspire other students who are considering dropping out of school because they face difficult circumstances.

“Deneal is homeless and facing more challenges as a teenager than some people will face in their entire life, but his commitment to education has never waivered,” Johns says.

“You have to chase your dreams, if you want it, you have to go and get it,” Yazzie says. “I want to earn my high school diploma, and I am going to get there.”

Johns believes Yazzie will be able to go anywhere his dreams lead him, and he’ll have the village that is Simon Youth Foundation and its education partners to help get him there.