The Need to Succeed

As a young student I was asked, “what do you want to be when you grow-up?” Countless ideas filled my head – an astronaut, teacher, athlete, artist – all with the idea that I could go anywhere and do anything. With unemployment and homelessness hitting highs not seen since the Great Depression, children today have been asked to grow up quicker. Many have few, if any, positive role models. Many are being forced to start making adult decisions earlier than preceding generations. Our political leaders have spent an inordinate amount of time arguing how our public school dollars are best used with only marginal results. This turmoil has trickled down to our kids. It has made high school expendable in some students’ eyes because the need to make money and help provide for the family has taken over. This sad reality is why we work hard every day at the Simon Youth Foundation.  

Alarming statistics further depict an urgent need for alternatives.

• In America’s high schools, 7,000 students drop out every day totaling 1.2 Million annually – equal to the same number of jobs lost in the U.S. during 2008.
  
• Over the course of a lifetime, each high school dropout costs the nation approximately $350,000 in lost earnings, taxes and productivity.
  
• Taking the above statistics, today the United States lost $2.5 Million because these high school students decided to quit.

Igniting hope is paramount to navigating through these tough times. At Simon Youth Academies throughout the United States we are turning around the lives of at-risk youth. We partner with school districts and public school educators to help end the cycle of self-destruction. The resiliency and fire I see from our graduates is nothing short of remarkable when taking into account their individual stories of struggle.

One such example is a student named Abby. She currently attends the Simon Youth Clark Pleasant Academy in Whiteland, Indiana. In the traditional high school setting, she was hanging out with the wrong crowd making poor decisions. She quickly fell behind her classmates in all areas of studies and her ability to graduate was fading. A school counselor suggested to her that she go to the Simon Youth Academy.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do and school wasn’t clicking until I got to the Academy. I haven’t missed a day of school because of how engaging the teachers are and the pace of studies. I can go faster in subjects I’m strong in and slow down to get help in the others. Without this academy, graduation wasn’t a thought in my head. Even when I started people didn’t think I could do it and I’m proving everyone wrong.”

It’s at-risk youth like Abby who simply needed a chance to succeed. She’s not only going to graduate, she’s moving on to higher education where she plans to become a nurse. Boasting a 90% graduation rate, the Simon Youth Foundation offers this alternative to help high schools change the course of students whose challenges require extra attention.

This coming year, SYF will celebrate our 15th year and our 10,000th graduate. That is 10,000 lives changed through earning a high school diploma. At Simon Youth Foundation, we are proving these types of partnerships work, and we are serving as a national model. As a public charity, along with local school district partners and private entities, especially Simon Property Group and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, we established a successful nationwide network of alternative schools for at-risk high school students that since 1998 has helped students earn a high school diploma.

SYF’s mission is for youth to start here and go anywhere. As I travel to each of our 23 academies in 13 states, I see this first hand. Our students no longer check off what they can’t do - they write down goals they want and can achieve.  It’s a new day filled with hopes and dreams for the future – all sparked by believing in the movement. What a fitting way to celebrate National Education Week.

In the words of William Butler Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” We at Simon Youth Foundation work to be the ignition of the inferno within. Students start here and go anywhere.