‘Crazy’ Counselor Sows Seeds for College, Reaps 100%

Tammye Schmidt was headed for a career styling hair. She already worked part time as a hairdresser, and come June 26, she figured, school would be over for good, and none too soon.

But now, Schmidt plans to go to community college, maybe even pursue a four-year degree. What changed her mind?

“Dr. J followed me around for weeks, telling me to get my college applications in. For weeks!” the auburn-haired 17-year-old said with a smile. “I told him I’m doing hair, I don’t need college. But he kept pushing until I realized I should do it. Not for him. For me.”

“Dr. J” is Paul Jankiewicz, bearded poet, ego-booster, guidance counselor and guiding star. Thanks to the prodding and encouragement of this self-proclaimed “crazy person,” all 160 members of Poughkeepsie High’s Class of 1994 applied to college.

And every one of them got in.

No small feat for an inner-city school with an enrollment that is 70% minority and mostly poor and where few families have a college tradition.

“A lot of these kids still suffer the vestiges of racism,” Jankiewicz said. “And for some of them the home environment is horrifying. It’s a wonder they survive. It’s our job to help them build strength from within. It’s like the fire that strengthens the steel.”

On average, 75% of high school students in New York state apply to college, said Bill Hirschen of the state Education Department. To have 100% apply is a remarkable achievement, he added.

Each incoming freshman class at Poughkeepsie is routinely assigned a guidance counselor who remains with the students until graduation.

Seven years ago, when Jankiewicz set out to sow college dreams in the minds of his new and disinclined freshman class, he hoped merely to raise the percentage of college applications from 50% to at least 70%.

In 1990, every one of his seniors applied to college and every one was accepted. It was the first time in the school’s 133 years that had happened. This year is the second time.

“This class drove me crazy for three years,” Jankiewicz said. “They’re the ones who gave me this white hair. Some of them were so smug. But they finally got the message last year, and this year they just took off.”

“We have a reputation as a rough school, with lots of violence and drugs,” said Natalia Sanders, 18, an honors student headed for New York University. “It’s not true, but that’s what people think because we’re an inner-city school.”

Poughkeepsie has seen better days. There are weedy sidewalks and boarded-up, graffiti-sprayed storefronts downtown. Unemployment is high among Poughkeepsie’s 35,000 residents, with layoffs at one of the region’s largest employers, IBM.

“My father was forced out of IBM, and now he’s struggling with his own business,” said Bobbett Plummer, 18, who will be a pre-med student at Howard University.

Seeing their parents falter in seemingly solid jobs has made the students all the more receptive to Jankiewicz’s message: To succeed in life, one must never stop learning, growing and adapting to change.

“Dr. J makes us take courses in everything so we can get exposed to things we might not have considered,” Sanders said.

Jankiewicz had taught counseling to graduate students, run a video production business and conducted poetry workshops at community centers and jails before coming here 10 years ago to help care for his elderly father.

Looking for a teaching job at Poughkeepsie High, he was offered the guidance job instead. He had found his calling.

“Certified crazy person,” is the legend on his key chain and coffee mug.

Jankiewicz is dogged in his insistence that his students set high goals for themselves.

“He’ll follow you in his car on the street, beeping his horn, telling you to get that college work sheet in,” said Tim Dedrick, 19, who arm-wrestled Jankiewicz for help in getting his grades changed and lost, thus having to mow the counselor’s lawn.

“It’s a matter of keeping them on track, knowing someone’s watching out for them,” Jankiewicz said, “not just at school but in the community.”