If you knew that spending 27 hours with a high-school student would put $500,000 in the student's pocket, would you do it?
Sheryll Strode, who works with students in danger of dropping out, hopes that the answer is "yes."
"We have the opportunity to make a huge difference," Strode said. "These young people, they need encouragement. To have another adult believing in them … it really is powerful."
The $500,000 figure comes from national studies that show that over the course of a lifetime, a high-school graduate makes about $500,000 more than a high-school dropout and a college graduate makes about $1 million more.
Strode is part of an all-volunteer program called "Graduate. It Pays." The program is a collaboration among local organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity, and the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. As a volunteer, Strode coordinates those groups.
At the program's core is a simple idea -- having an adult spend an hour a week with a student can mean the difference between dropping out and staying in school and graduating. "Graduate. It Pays." isn't a tutoring program, Strode said. "This is caring about this young person -- listening to them."
The volunteer meets with the student at the school, and what they do during those meetings is left up to the student and volunteer. Sometimes they just talk. Other times, the volunteer will help the student come up with a plan.
A student Strode was working with was doing fine in his automotive-mechanics classes but struggling with subjects needed to graduate. When he said that he didn't think that he needed a high-school degree to work as a mechanic, Strode called around and asked potential employers whether they would hire a dropout.
"The vast majority of them said, ‘No,'" she said.
The student decided to focus and to do the work necessary to graduate, and he now works full-time as a mechanic.
Overall, only about 70 percent of local high-school students graduate. Many of them make it all the way to their senior year before dropping out. Since volunteers with "Graduate. It Pays." started working with seniors at North Forsyth High School two years ago, nine out of 10 students in the program have graduated.
During the last school year, the volunteers expanded their efforts to include seniors at Atkins High School.
This year, they would like to expand the program to seniors at Carver and Reynolds high schools, and to add a program for ninth-graders. To do that, they need a total of 300 volunteers. At the moment, the program has 190 volunteers, so they need another 110.
The volunteers will begin working with students in early November and meet with them once a week for the final three quarters of the school year. That works out to about 27 hours.
kunderwood@wsjournal.com
727-7389
People interested in volunteering should go to www.graduateitpays.org.
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