College Now More Than a Dream for 83 Children

They sat cross-legged on the floor, 83 children from a poor part of northwest Pasadena, and heard words that could change their lives forever.

“Boys and girls, someone is going to pay for you to go to college,” announced Pamela Powell, the principal of Cleveland Elementary School.

On Wednesday, the students learned they had been selected as “Dreamers” and won scholarships from the nonprofit I Have A Dream Foundation in Los Angeles. For the next 12 years, their lives will be guided by mentors, counselors and teachers who want to help them stay in school.

If they graduate from high school, the students will receive full, four-year scholarships to a state college or vocational school of their choice. Funding comes through the I Have a Dream Foundation with money donated by the Berger Foundation, a private nonprofit group based in Arcadia that has earmarked $2 million to educate the 83 students.

The idea is simple: intercede early in childhood to help disadvantaged students succeed in school and life.

“I’m excited, this is so great,” said new “Dreamer” Meyan Lewis, 8, after the school assembly Wednesday morning. “I think I’m going to like this. I want to be a teacher.”

Sitting in the audience, Meyan’s mother, Theresa Lewis, said her son’s scholarship was “so fantastic it gives me goose bumps.” She said she received a letter explaining that Meyan had won an award but had no idea until Wednesday that his education would be paid for through college.

“This is a happy surprise, and it’s going to blossom like a flower,” Lewis said. “It will make a tremendous difference in Meyan’s life.”

Lewis, who has 13 children, said the program is an opportunity to improve education and instill self-esteem in young students. “It’s a real dream come true for most of these kids,” she said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t get a college education.”

The program dates to 1981, when New York millionaire industrialist Eugene Lang was invited to address a sixth-grade class at the school he had attended 55 years earlier in east Harlem. As Lang prepared to speak, he said, he looked out at the sea of faces and realized the children needed direct motivation, not empty words. He thought about the “I Have a Dream” speech by slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Spontaneously, Lang tossed aside the prepared speech and spoke from the heart, promising the children he would pay for them to go to college if they were willing to work hard.

The idea has caught on, and today about 40 cities throughout the United States have foundations that rely on private donations to educate poor and minority students through college. The Los Angeles foundation was launched in 1987 with 200 “Dreamers” and, with Wednesday’s new students, the number has climbed to 557.

Meanwhile, Lang’s program has experienced enormous success. Last year, the New York Times reported that 33 of the 61 original sixth-graders have entered college and five more were about to start. Forty-five had earned high school diplomas and four were close to finishing. Those numbers are a sharp contrast to an overall dropout rate of 75% in east Harlem schools.

In the low-income, gang-plagued area around Cleveland Elementary, Berger Foundation and school officials hope the scholarships will motivate children to stay in school.

This has clearly been the case with some of the Dreamers chosen in previous years throughout Los Angeles County. Consider Ixechelle Brackett, a South-Central Los Angeles 11th-grader who was in the original 1987 Dreamer class.

The foundation “provided me not only with financial help but with the moral support and love I need to get there,” said Brackett, who wants to be a surgeon.

Myrtle V. Middleton, executive director of the Los Angeles I Have a Dream Foundation, said she worked with the Berger Foundation, which wanted to select a school in the San Gabriel Valley. Cleveland was chosen because of the high percentage of students from poor families.

The 83 pupils are in classes representing second through fifth grades. Middleton said the foundation doesn’t choose individual students but awards scholarships to entire classes to encourage community spirit.

On Wednesday, Middleton advised parents in the audience that they too, would have to participate in ensuring their children’s success. Berger Foundation representatives told the children, ages 7 to 11, that ultimately, the choice was up to them.

“What we hope we’re doing today is helping you young people help yourselves,” Berger spokesman Chris McGuire said. “You’re really the star of the show.”

Some of the children appeared overwhelmed by the exhortations of so many adults and unsure of the significance of college. But they knew that something good had happened.

“I’m excited,” sang out Maria E. Fernandez, 8, who wants to be an artist when she grows up. “I’m going to college and I think I might like it.”