The New York Times-20080124-Providing Income While Promoting Education- Both College and Elementary- -Series-

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080124

Providing Income While Promoting Education, Both College and Elementary; [Series]

Full Text (817  words)

At an after-school program in Chinatown, fourth graders are reading My Side of the Mountain. Vocabulary words -- downpour, snarl, cloudburst, reap -- are written on the board.

Daan Chen, 17, sinks to the floor and opens a dictionary. Children gather around him. Words, he explains, always have more than one definition, and I'm trying to find out which is being used.

When Daan was 11, his dictionary was a survival tool. He had immigrated from China to the United States with his family and started fifth grade, speaking no English but attending English-language classes.

It was really hard to communicate, he said. I remember, I think that first day, my English teacher gave me a dictionary. I would just bring it home and check all the words.

Now a high school senior with a job in the after-school program, Daan teaches younger students to navigate the dictionary. He works three days a week, earning $7.50 an hour, helping with homework and assisting the classroom teacher. His presence helps the children, and the job is also a help to him.

Daan is employed through the City Connection Program, which is financed by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund endowment and extends summer employment into year-round work for 100 at-risk teenagers. This is the second year of the pilot project, which is financed with earnings from the Neediest Cases endowment fund and administered by the After-School Corporation.

Daan's after-school program is run by the Chinese-American Planning Council, a member organization of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the groups through which the teenagers are employed.

Daan lives with his mother and older brother in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. My mom is a factory worker, basically in a clothes factory, Daan said. She works for pretty long hours.

Having an income of his own, however modest, helps the family finances.

I want to work because I don't want to keep on asking my mom for money, Daan said. She's got her stress herself. I just want her to stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself. I just want her to feel that way.

When Daan's mother, who does not speak English, could not guide her son through his college application process, he found help at the planning council. I have any question, I can just e-mail them and get my answers, he said. It made it a lot easier to do all my college applications, financial applications.

Daan has been accepted at St. John's University, and is waiting for details of his aid package to see if he can afford to attend. He also finds peer support in regular meetings with the City Connection Fellows at the council.

Last summer, Fernando Jennings graduated from high school and the City Connection program. He has simple advice for participants like Daan.

Get with a group of people that can help build you up instead of break you down, said Mr. Jennings, 18.

He found his group at the Children's Aid Society, another agency involved with City Connection. He was referred there at 15, after his mother took him to Family Court seeking help to control his gang involvement and absenteeism. At Children's Aid, Mr. Jennings was matched with a mentor and got an after-school job. Slowly, his life changed direction.

This fall, he started classes at Kingsborough Community College. Four seniors completed the City Connection program last year, and all started college classes this year.

It's pretty fun, he said with a grin. He still turns to Children's Aid for support. In May, $65 from The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund was used for his application fee.

It's a lot of money because I don't have it, Mr. Jennings said. His mother works as a substitute teacher. The income is inconsistent, and Mr. Jennings must pay his own way through school. If it wasn't for that $65, I would not be anywhere near a college right now.

He also received two scholarships through the agency, totaling $2,500, that paid his tuition this year. With their help, he has completed a financial aid application to cover next year's tuition. This month, he was hired back into his position at the Children's Aid Society, working as an assistant to his mentor, Angelo Jusino.

The job, paying $7.15 an hour, will be flexible enough to work around classes. The agency is eager to have him back in the office, Mr. Jusino said. Together, they will keep talking about his next steps: budgeting and preparing to move out on his own.

That's one of the things that the agency was teaching me, Mr. Jennings said. Slowly but surely, how to be my own person.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: Daan Chen, left, is paid to work with young students. Fernando Jennings, above, has been able to enter college.(PHOTOGRAPH BY CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES); (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHELLE V. AGINS/THE NEW YORK TIMES)