Class Takes First Steps on Road to College : Learning: An after-school program in Boyle Heights tries to guide inner-city elementary students toward higher education.

Sixth-grader Javier Quinones is in a quandary over his future.

For a time he wanted to be a doctor, but then life as an actor caught his eye. Theater of a different sort, however, later stole his aspirations when he began considering a career in politics. But that dream, like the others, faded like an ousted incumbent.

“Right now I’m just a blank,” the 12-year-old said, his shoulders hunched close around his neck in a shrug.

Whatever road he ultimately chooses, however, Javier is unequivocal that the starting-off point for his future will be a college education.

That decision is welcome news for organizers of an after-school Boyle Heights academic enrichment program from which Javier and 30 other Eastside elementary school students graduated Saturday.

Dressed in caps and gowns, the fifth- and sixth-graders marched with pride across a stage at UCLA’s Moore Hall to receive diplomas as the first graduating class of a three-year program that seeks to put inner-city youngsters on the fast track to college.

“I’m glad I did this program because it helped me a lot in my math,” 10-year-old Miguel Soto said. “I wasn’t very good in math before, but I’m better now.”

Fellow student Griselda Garcia, 11, was so inspired by the program that she plans to pursue a degree in education “so I can show other kids the things I learned.”

The institute was the brainchild of Los Angeles native Kenneth Rogers, who devised the program as part of his master’s thesis at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In July, 1992, he decided to put theory into practice when he assembled a group of community leaders, parents and educators to launch the nonprofit program at Sheridan Street and Bridge Street elementary schools in Boyle Heights.

For the last three years, a steadily growing number of youngsters (now about 72) have stayed after school two days a week to receive additional instruction in such areas as math, social studies, science and language skills.

In classes of six or less, students are given more one-on-one attention than they get in regular school, organizers said.

In addition, the UCLA undergraduate students who conduct the classes take a more hands-on approach to teaching.

For example, a science class on gravity and aerospace engineering turns into a makeshift art project as youngsters assemble and decorate functional homemade rockets from beverage bottles.

Even math loses some of its dryness as the concept of percentages is taught by touring the neighborhood around the school and counting the number of houses marred with graffiti.

“A lot of the classes have a social aspect to them because we talk about what’s going on in the kids’ lives,” said UCLA junior Erica Molina, who has taught in the program for 2 1/2 years.

Parents rave about the results.

“She’s so much better in math now,” Maria Gomez said, referring to her 11-year-old daughter, Corina. The girl has also lost much of the shyness that used to keep her all but mute outside the comfortable familiarity of her home.

Teachers also give the program high marks.

“I feel it’s something that needs to be re-created in many other areas of our city, state and nation,” said teacher Joellyn Siraganian, who this year had four students who participated in the program--all of whom showed a marked improvement in math and reading. “I feel it’s been a very positive force in these children’s lives.”