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.

 

Simon Youth Foundation 2011 graduation ceremonies are underway

Graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2011 have already been held at two of our 25 nationwide Simon Youth Academies as of this post on May 13. The Simon Youth Academy at Independence Center in Independence, Mo., awarded diplomas to its graduates on May 12. The Simon Youth Pacers Academy at Washington Square followed with a graduation event on May 13. The photo slideshow above is from the ceremony at Washington Square. We'll update the blog in the coming days and weeks with more photos from our network of schools. Congratulations Simon Youth Foundation 2011 graduates!!!

UPDATE: Simon Youth Foundation students earn top 10 finish at international business conference

Caleb Carlisle and Blake Bolin at the DECA international event
with their Simon Youth Academy teacher Carol Bolin

Many of the students learning in our 25 nationwide Simon Youth Academies overcome difficult circumstances to earn their high school degree. We are so proud of each and every one of them and are even more excited when their hard work leads to recognition beyond the classroom.

Congratulations to the senior-student team of Caleb Carlisle and Blake Bolin from the Simon Youth Academy at Independence Center in Independence, Mo., for being named one of the 10 best projects at the DECA International Career Development Conference, April 30-May 3, 2011. For their winning project, the two presented a written and oral business review and case study. We first blogged about Carlisle and Bolin and two of their Simon Youth Foundation classmates after they were named top finishers in the Missouri statewide DECA contest.

Carlisle and Bolin's top 10 finish is even more impressive when you consider that the international DECA competition hosted 125 teams, and 15,000 people attended the event. In succeeding on the biggest of stages, the two are living the Simon Youth Foundation vision - Start Here. Go Anywhere.

Simon Youth Foundation races to fundraising goals with mini-marathon runners' support

One group of the 35,000 runners who participated in the May 7, 2011, One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon and 5K in Indianapolis, Ind., ran with more than a goal of reaching the finish line. Team SYF, eight Simon Property Group employees, ran their events in support of Simon Youth Foundation, raising money to benefit our initiatives that help keep at-risk students in class and on target to earn their high school diploma.



SYF President and CEO J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D.,
presents Team SYF member Aricia Harrison
with her mini-marathon racing shirt

The Friday before the race, Simon Youth Foundation presented Team SYF with racing shirts that sported our SYF logo as well as our tag line - Start Here. Go Anywhere. While it also happens to be a fitting slogan for long-distance runners, the SYF tag line conveys our vision that students who start in our academies can go anywhere their dreams lead them, fueled by the the hope education creates.

Thanks to David Wright, Julie Leer, Mass Djitte, Melissa Thomas, Tammy West, Pamela Lohman, Aricia Harrison and Miles Sutcliffe for igniting hope in students through their participation with Team SYF!

Simon Youth Foundation thinks every week should be Teacher Appreciation Week

National Teacher Appreciation Week comes to a close today, May 6, 2011, and Simon Youth Foundation can't let the day pass without telling teachers everywhere, including those working so hard at its 25 nationwide Simon Youth Academies, how deeply we appreciate them. The SYF staff put together the video below to say thank you.

Amid cuts, Simon Youth Academy students put on fundraiser

Beth Brunton, a coordinator and educator at the Simon Youth Academy at Northgate Mall in Seattle, Wash., is like a lot of nationwide teachers, facing reduced budgets and program cuts.

What’s different is that Brunton and her students are taking action to offset the cuts.

“Our students took all the initiative and came up with the idea for what turned out to be a delightful event that raised funds and the profile of our school,” Brunton says.

The event, hosted in March at Northgate Mall, a Simon Property Group development, was dubbed the Spring Fling Silent Auction. Brunton says mall vendors and other supporters donated dozens of desirable items, ranging from a gold-and-diamond pendant valued at $400 to $50 gift cards to event tickets and group dinners.

Attendees also heard from the academy’s at-risk students, who are on their way to earning their high school diplomas thanks to the school’s unique and flexible learning environment. Academy tours also were part of the event.

Photos courtesy of Simon Youth Academy
at Northgate Mall

“Our auction items raised $2,000 and individuals in attendance and our event sponsors contributed another $8,000 to benefit our programs” Brunton says.

The money will pay for a life coach to come to the academy weekly to work with students on personal and professional development. It also will fill the gaps created by budget cuts to purchase supplies and meet other daily needs.

Brunton says there is a long list of supporters deserving of recognition for the auction’s success, including the Northgate Mall management team. In an article reported by the local blog site Maple Leaf Life in the days before the auction, mall manager Matt Bourassa explained his support, saying that the mall, as a cornerstone of the community, was the best place to host an event supporting local school programs.

In addition to fundraising support, Northgate Mall, in partnership with Simon Youth Foundation, provides the academy’s classroom space in the mall at no cost.

“We deeply value our partnerships with Simon Youth Foundation and Northgate Mall,” Brunton says. “While our Seattle School District and other districts nationwide are facing difficult budget choices, education partners like SYF and Northgate Mall help keep costs down and alternative schools open.”

Simon Youth Foundation shopping for higher profile

The following story was published in the Indianapolis Business Journal for the week of May 2-8, 2011, and is reproduced here with permission.

By Kathleen McLaughlin

Washington Square Mall is not convenient for many of the students who attend the Pacers Academy High School that’s tucked at the end of one corridor.

The students drive or take city buses from all parts of town to the mall on the far-east side of Indianapolis. Yet the students give Pacers Academy high marks because it’s their ticket to graduation.

“It’s a cool little program,” said Dyahzon Owens, a 19-year-old who was in danger of not graduating from Arlington High School when he transferred to the academy, an alternative school operated by Indianapolis Public Schools, in February. “They do more for me than just get credits.”

Simon Property Group Inc., which provides the rent-free space to IPS, and Simon Youth Foundation play background roles in the lives of students like Owens. But on the national stage, the Indianapolis foundation is looking to become a leading advocate of alternative education.

With a new president, J. Michael Durnil, the foundation hopes to raise more money, find more partners in the business community, and help the public better understand its mission.

When so many people are talking about what’s wrong with education, Durnil said, “I’m happy to talk about students who just need that second chance, a second swing at that diploma.”

Despite a 13-year presence in local communities, Durnil said, most people don’t understand what the foundation is about.

In a step toward better marketing, the foundation will refer to the schools as Simon Youth Academies, rather than “education resource centers.”

Most corporate foundations have narrowed their focus to a specific topic or cause, but Simon Youth Foundation seems to have taken that a step further, said Kris Kindelsperger of Johnson Grossnickle Associates, a fundraising consultant based in Greenwood.

While corporate foundations, like other philanthropists, want to have a bigger impact in a more narrow area, the trade-off is sometimes less recognition from the public, Kindelsperger said. That’s especially true when the foundation supports a program, rather than putting its name on a building, he said.

“It’s a strategic issue that every corporate foundation has to decide,” Kindelsperger said.

Simon Youth Foundation formed in 1998 at the urging of mall managers, who noticed a lot of teenagers were working in retail during school hours. Their idea was to provide space in the malls where teens could do the work necessary to graduate.

School districts took to the idea, and Simon Youth Foundation now supports 25 alternative schools at malls in 13 states. A 26th school will open next fall at Gurnee Mills in Gurnee, Ill.

The school districts are responsible for operating costs, and each one sets up its own program. IPS has a second Pacers Academy in Lafayette Square, where admissions criteria is slightly different than at Washington Square, Principal Teresa Knox said.

Online coursework

The Washington Square school runs two three-hour shifts a day with 45 to 55 students in each. The students, who must be at least sophomores, do most of their coursework online with teachers in English, math and social studies there to guide them.

They work at their own pace under individual plans toward graduation.

Knox believes IPS has seen success with the mall setting because it’s a family-like environment. Students say that at typical high schools, they don’t fit in and don’t feel comfortable.

Two of her current students refused to show up to their assigned schools, but at Washington Square, they have near-perfect attendance, she said.

The students also participate in community service, and the school helps the students find jobs and internships. One of its major partners is CVS Caremark, which has a distribution center nearby off I-465.

Most of the students who were in class on a recent day left for jobs in the afternoon at restaurants, nursing homes and hospitals. One student has a job at Burlington Coat Factory in Castleton, though that chain is an anchor at Washington Square.

Ties to the host malls vary. The school in Independence, Mo., runs a successful gift-wrapping business, and Macy’s recently asked it to open a second location inside its store, Durnil said.

The situation at Washington Square reflects the local economy. Many of the mall stores are family-owned, and they aren’t hiring, Knox said.

The foundation continually battles the impression that its schools serve students with behavior problems, Durnil said. In reality, the students have to be mature enough to manage the more flexible schedule at the alternative school.

The students tend to be highly motivated. Keka Dunn, 19, heard about the Pacers Academy from a friend at Arlington High School and requested a transfer.

“Ever since then, I’ve just been moving on ahead,” she said.

Dunn, the mother of an infant, would like to become a paralegal.

Most of the students at mall-based schools do graduate—the foundation reports a national average of 90 percent. And 60 percent of them continue their educations.

Despite local government fiscal crises across the country, Durnil said, “I’ve had a conversation at least once a week with a location that’s looking to open a school.”

The foundation supports the schools by hosting an annual conference for teachers and administrators, helping line up internships for students, and providing college scholarships.

Durnil hopes students’ success stories will inspire other corporate partners to get involved. He thinks the foundation will attract a different type of education supporter than charter schools do, which have become a cause celeb for the reform-minded.

“People like the fact that we’re trying to bring solutions to the public school system, rather than competing with them,” Durnil said.

David Harris, who led former mayor Bart Peterson’s foray into charter schools and later started The Mind Trust, an education-reform not-for-profit, said most charters strive for a rigorous, four-year academic environment. With the exception of Goodwill’s Indy Met High School, he said, most aren’t trying to serve at-risk populations, like the mall-based schools do.

“We need lots of different options,” he said.

Boosting revenue

Durnil, 49, spent most of his career in higher education before joining the foundation in December. He succeeds longtime Executive Vice President Richard Markoff, who retired.

The foundation also has hired Laura Foshee, who previously worked at Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, as chief development officer. One of the new executive team’s goals is to boost the foundation’s annual revenue by $4 million to $5 million over the next two years.

Most of the $6.3 million the foundation brought in last year was in-kind rents by Simon Property Group and support from malls not owned by Simon. (Simon has sold a handful of malls that housed schools—including Lafayette Square—but struck agreements so schools could continue their presence.)

Much of the cash, about $1.8 million, came from fundraisers at malls around the country, while Simon employees provided another $288,000.

Another of Durnil’s goals is to grow the endowment that provides the scholarships. It now stands at about $5.8 million.

Despite the obvious tie to the nation’s largest mall owner, Durnil emphasized that the foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organization.

“We’re not the corporate, philanthropic arm of the Simon Property Group or the Simon family,” he said.

Two of the mall managers who helped start the foundation still serve on the board. The chairwoman is Deborah Simon, who doesn’t work at the company but is the sister of CEO David Simon.

“The ‘Simon’ is really the Simon employees,“ Durnil said.