Black Scholars Take a Happy Step Toward College Campus Goals

As far as 15-year-old L’Orlette Davis is concerned, when she walks through the door of her new high school this month she will be beginning a one-way trip to “make something of myself.”

“I’m not sure yet, but I think I’m going to be a vascular surgeon,” said Davis, a junior high school honors student who is about to enter Crenshaw High School.

Ambitious plans like Davis’ were echoed throughout the grounds of UCLA Saturday as 1,600 of Los Angeles County’s brightest black 10th-graders gathered for a day of spirit-raising encouragement that organizers hope will lead them in three years to acceptance in a college or university.

The students, all with a B or better grade average, are some of the first participants in a program called the Young Black Scholars, which was started a year ago by a community organization called 100 Black Men.

Few Were Prepared

The organization was moved into action after a 1985 state education report showed that less than 4% of California’s black public high school graduates--838 out of 23,300--were eligible for regular admission into the state’s four-year universities.

Organizers hope the scholar program, which offers tutors, mentors and specialized enrichment classes, will dramatically improve this statistic in 1990, when these 1,600 students graduate from high school.

“What we want to do is provide a great big safety net for these children,” said Linda Ferguson, director of the program. “We think we can turn around these statistics.”

“This is the best time of their lives to encourage and support them,” said A. Palmer Reed, president of 100 Black Men. “We can’t afford to lose any of them.”

Every Young Black Scholar participant who maintains a 3.2 grade-point average throughout high school and is accepted to a four-year college or university is guaranteed a $1,000 college scholarship. The group’s $200,000 budget is funded by 30 private and corporate sponsors.

The enticement of a scholarship had Ryan Ballard smiling Saturday.

“Well, I’m really looking forward to that money,” the Los Angeles High School 10th-grader said. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but I know I’m going to college.”

Ballard and a friend, Todd Lane, held bags plump with brochures and leaflets from colleges that had set up booths for the students to visit.

“You know, black kids keep hearing that they are dropouts. Well, if you think that way, that’s the way you are going to turn out,” said Lane, who hopes to study aeronautical engineering. “Today I’m feeling pretty good about myself and I know I’m going to keep up the grades.”

Rewarded for Grades

Throughout their high school years, students will send in report cards to the scholar program. Ferguson said students will be rewarded with certificates and other awards for their good grades. If they slip, academic counseling and tutoring will be available.

Fern Stamps, the mother of twin boys who are young scholars, said she was pleased that the program “rewards students for being themselves.”

“I’ve always pushed my boys in school, telling them to be good to please me, and in time they will be pleasing themselves,” Stamps said. “I think this is going to help them on their way by themselves.”

During the highlight event to hype students up for the beginning of the school year, the group assembled in UCLA’s Royce Hall for an hour-long entertainment show and pep rally.

Time for ‘Maintenance’

At one point, each of the student’s names was rolled across a screen, prompting cheers and applause. Two students were awarded $100 saving bonds for an essay contest on an inspirational black leader. Another student won a computer for receiving the highest marks on a vocabulary test.

And, walking on stage in a black T-shirt and casual slacks, Bill Cosby introduced himself as “their reward” for the day and stressed that students must now enter a “maintenance” program to keep up their grades in high school.

“Your love for learning that started in elementary school and junior high school now has to spread into high school and then on to college,” Cosby said. “And you’ve got to start keeping up the maintenance on your education now.”