Pathways to Success: An Introductory Story

As Jacyntha put Isaiah onto his bus to Chase Middle School, she couldn't help worrying about how well he would do at his new school. "This is Topeka," she thought, "the famous home of Brown vs. Board of Education, but there sure seems to be a long way to go before my kids will be able to have high hopes for the future." Jacyntha thought about the things she'd seen around her, so many parents unemployed or absent, most kids dropping out way before the end of high school, drugs, crime, unhappiness. For Jacyntha it seemed there were so many problems with so little hope. She shook her head, desperate that Isaiah's future might be brighter than the future of all the dropouts she saw around her.

Given her thoughts, Jacyntha felt a lot of relief when Isaiah came home to talk about school. He told her he felt this year would be different, that this year actually looked interesting and fun, and that Chase was part of a new program called Pathways to Success."Look at all the cool stuff they're doing here, Mom." Isaiah was excited that he'd be getting a chance to connect with a mentor through the Internet. Jacyntha looked over the newsletter from the school and started to feel there might be some hope. Pathways to Success would help Isaiah become a good reader and teach him how to learn, to set goals, and to follow through. "Maybe Isaiah will be everything he should be," she thought.

In sixth grade, Isaiah really started to blossom at Chase. Early in the school year, Isaiah worked almost one-on-one with a strategy teacher who taught him a strategy that helped him read big words, and Jacyntha was seeing Isaiah reading more and more around the house. Isaiah was also excited about the goals he'd set and the time he spent working with his telementor, a computer programmer who worked in Kansas City. Jacyntha couldn't believe that as early as grade six Isaiah was really making plans for his future, real plans that offered hope.

Jacyntha and Isaiah's hope slowly became a reality as he moved forward through Pathways to Success. Isaiah was finding the Course and Unit Organizers many of his teachers used were helping him understand courses that he had previously thought would have been too tough for him, and the learning strategies he was learning from the after-school tutor were helping him in all his classes. School wasn't so hard, and if he was going to become a computer programmer, he knew he'd have to do well in school; Isaiah's mentor had helped him see what all he needed to do.

Jacyntha, too, was benefiting from Pathways to Success. In the workshops at school, she learned about how to help Isaiah do his homework and how to make time and a place for him to work. She met other parents who wanted to help their kids in the coffee meetings held around the neighborhood. The free baby-sitting helped her get to those school workshops, and she learned that Isaiah had a lot of financial options to help him get to college. After Isaiah was awarded his 21st Century Scholarship, she looked at him with pride. "Boy," she said, "You are definitely college material, and I'm going to make sure you get there."

Isaiah kept doing better in high school. His telementor helped him contact some of the leaders in the field of web-based Java scripting, the kind of programming Isaiah was really excited about, and Isaiah was doing great in school. He really was interested in the speakers who he had heard at Chase Middle School and Highland Park High, and the chance to visit so many colleges and other post-secondary institutions had really made him feel at home on campus. All the events he'd experienced had helped him make his personal mission statement something that was alive, real, and meaningful, so Isaiah almost ran to work with the strategic tutors that were available after school to help him with his homework. Isaiah had become an A student, but he still wanted to learn as many strategies as possible.

The day Isaiah graduated from Highland Park High was the happiest day of Jacyntha's life. Not only had Isaiah graduated, but his telementor had prepared him so well, Isaiah actually had a small scholarship. She knew he was on his way, and she was just grateful Topeka Public Schools had put him on the Pathway to Success.