Black Male Students Win Recognition for Successes : Achievement: Crowd of 1,275 turns out to see Link awards presented to young men for scholastic performance and demonstrated ability.

The spotlight was on the triumphs, not the troubles, of young black males Sunday when an African-American women’s organization handed out awards to 33 young men whose voices are often not heard amid the clamor over gangs and drugs.

“The mass media has showcased the negative views of young black males,” said Cosetta Moore, president of the Angel City chapter of Links Inc., at a ceremony at the Century Plaza Hotel. “But today we have a valedictorian, a poet, orators, church leaders. Individually and collectively, they are truly exceptional.”

For 11 years, the organization has honored students with Achiever awards, ranging from $200 to $5,000. A crowd of 1,275 turned out to recognize the achievements of young people such as Tarlin Ray, a student body president who is to attend Harvard University in the fall, and Dion Turner, who is looking toward a career in sports medicine.

“You come out of this program feeling you can take on anything,” Turner said in an interview.

The Achievers come from all social and economic strata. Ray, whose father is a lawyer, attends a private school in the San Fernando Valley. Other recipients come from poverty-stricken backgrounds.

Participants are college-bound students nominated by their schools on the basis of scholastic performance or demonstrated ability. Not satisfied with simply recognizing outstanding students, the Links pledges to try to improve them even more. Workshops for the students are held every other week for six months, sometimes starting at 5 a.m.

John Alston, a psychologist and author who teaches the workshops, emphasizes sexual responsibility, discipline, self-control and ethical and moral development.

His commitment is not to make his charges--successful as they are as students--financial successes.

“What our nation wants, more than successful people, is decent human beings,” he said. “My real emphasis is on character.”

Students who are late for meetings or violate other rules must do pushups as a penalty. “I still owe 35 pushups,” laughed Turner, 18, in an interview before the ceremony.

Turner said that when he joined the Achiever Program he did not think it would influence him much. Instead, it has dramatically altered his way of looking at the world, he said.

“I’m not too quick to judge anymore. Not every white person is a racist, as I once thought,” he said, adding that his earlier view was based on memories of being called names as a child.

Turner said he came to see his own limitations. He said some black men think America “owes them everything.” He found in the workshops how to break through such illusions to reach a better understanding of the world around him and to meet it on its own terms.

The program, said Ray, “is like prepping a boxer for the battle. Now I’m ready.”

Turner said that in the popular culture one does not hear much about black men of character. “They’re either described as having charisma or being cool,” he said. He intends to help change that impression.

Since the program began in 1982, 330 young men have been recognized and received $465,000 in scholarships. Over the years, 90% of the Achievers have completed college, said organization officials. The winner of the O. J. Simpson $5,000 scholarship was Jabari Magnus of Westchester High School. The Achiever of the Year winner, who also received a $5,000 scholarship, was Terrence Barnum, an honor student at Bishop Alemany in Mission Hills.