teenager
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati Honor Youth Of The Year
Congratulations to Javele Jackson, a senior at Western Hills University High School who also spends after school time at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati’s (BGCGC) US Bank Club.
Javele found out at the BGCGC’s annual Achievement Luncheon that he was selected as Youth of the Year for his contributions to his family, school, the community and the organization. And what an extra thrill it was for him to have received his award from Nick Lachey!
The youngest of five children, Javele is someone to whom his cousins look up. He speaks to them about having a positive self-image, the negatives of drug use, and taking care of oneself by eating right and exercising. Javele is not just a kind person in the Club, but also at Lee Chapel A.M.E Church where he serves as a Junior Usher and fundraiser. He played basketball at the Club and school until he hurt his knee, but uses his leadership ability to help the younger kids with their basketball fundamentals. Javele said that the BCGCG is “a place where the staff cares about your well being and where there are resources and opportunities that you can’t get off the streets.” He plans on attending Mt. St. Joseph College to pursue a career as an athletic trainer and nutritionist.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati provide FREE daily meal and afterschool and summer programming for 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 at ten locations in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The organization provides a safe, positive environment focused on enrichment activities that support high school graduation, fitness-for-life and community service.
Meet Greater Cincinnati’s Role Models Who Are All Under 18
I’d like to introduce you to some of Greater Cincinnati’s most outstanding humanitarians. They’re mentors, volunteers, fundraisers, athletes, and scholars. And they are YMCA of Greater Cincinnati’s Character Award honorees. I’ve got to say…one of my pleasures in doing public relations for the Y and working on the bios for this program is getting to know such outstanding role models. Each with their own unique story and gift to this world, they give so much and they truly understand what it means to be a good person.
Take for example…
Raquel Brown (pictured on the left), a student at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts, who has been described as a young woman with a smile that lights up a room and a maturity far beyond her years. Such a deep appreciation for living comes from her own inner strength as her determination overpowered juvenile diabetes that, at the age of 9, almost took her life and required multiple surgeries.
or
Wyoming High School’s Brandon Weiss (pictured on the right), an incredible teen who sees the need of those around him and strives for meaningful ways to make an impact. He has a passion for interfaith relations and spent last summer in Israel and Poland learning about the effects of the Holocaust.
or
Natalie Bryans (pictured below), a student at St. Ursula Academy, who has said some of her greatest inspirations, her heroes, are her friends because ‘they are all so kind and welcoming.’
With youth development being one of the YMCA’s core focus areas, the YMCA Character Awards are an opportunity to celebrate young people who exemplify the Y’s core values of caring, respect, honesty and responsibility. The YMCA Character Awards Event will begin at 6 p.m. on April 11 at the School for Creative & Performing Arts. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for youth.
To register, please call the Community Services YMCA at 513-961-3200.
All 40 YMCA of Greater Cincinnati Character Award honoree bios are on the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati website. You may just know one of them.
Life Lessons
From the words of a dying man, Kyle Nienaber learned about never giving up. From the undaunting spirit of a people crowded into one room shanties – makeshift homes without running water, sanitation or electricity – the 18 year old learned about hope and appreciation.
These are the lessons that can’t be taught in any textbook or school classroom. They are the life affirming consequences that occur when people reach out to one another with their hearts, their hands and their souls.
It’s a beautiful thing to see such education at an early age. Kids and teenagers are not just performing acts of kindness, but really understanding the bigger meaning. They’re learning about caring and respect and responsibility. They’re becoming a generation of people with compassion and deep rooted interest in making their world a better place.
Hospice of Cincinnati strikes me as a difficult place for a young person to choose to volunteer. But it’s become a sort of family tradition for the Nienaber’s, first with Kyle’s mom and sister and then Kyle filling his sister’s role after she graduated.
“It’s something that you can look back on and say you helped someone in their last moments on earth and it puts perspective on life,” he told me.
Especially when that perspective comes from someone with a finite time to experience life’s pleasures.
A huge sports fan, John was given six month to live when he moved into Hospice. It was Kyle’s job to bring him breakfast on weekends, which usually meant having to save the food and bring it back later – when John would finally wake up. The reason? Well, if the game happened to go long John would stay up until the last out was made or the last second ticked from the clock.
“He was always very happy and thankful to have had another night to enjoy his life and the sports he loved to watch,” Kyle said. “He very much enjoyed talking with someone about the games and I was lucky enough to be that someone on many mornings.”
But John shared so much more. His thoughts taught Kyle not just about sports but about living.
From his friend, Kyle wrote in an essay, “I learned that a person’s attitude about life can help extend it. John believed that staying with something until the very end was the best way to appreciate it. Sometimes things don’t end the way you expect. ‘That’s why they play the game,’ he used to say. Most important he used to tell me to never give up.”
Another lesson
In 2008, through Hospice Kyle traveled to South Africa where he helped its sister organization, built shanties and delivered supplies to AIDS patients. “I was one of those unappreciative Americans until I stood in that shanty town village and realized how lucky I am,” Kyle wrote about that journey.
And there, in the impoverished town in Mamelodi where hundreds of children and adults live on each acre, Kyle observed an incredible kindness and thankfulness. “The unbelievable spirit of these people makes me believe that hope is in their future and they can make progress on the very difficult issues they face as a nation.
“They taught me that compassion and caring for others knows no bounds in terms of nations, cultures and socioeconomic status.”
At home Kyle takes what he’s learned to heart, volunteering around Cincinnati. He was secretary of Beechwood High School’s Honor Society where he maintained a 4.27 GPA. And he was honored three times – with the Hospice of Cincinnati Terrific Teen Service Award, as a finalist for the Simon Lazarus Jr. Human Relations Award by American Jewish Committee, and as a YMCA Character Award recipient. He will be attending Notre Dame University this coming school year and chose it because of its focus on service.
And, as for those lessons?
“I’ve used John’s advice on many occasions since he died last year. I always try to keep a positive attitude about everything. Most recently I was inspired during a tennis match. After losing the first set, I remembered John’s words and stayed focused until the end and was able to win the match in three sets…I wish I could have told John all about it.”
Success Comes In Many Measurements
Lynn Collins and I met one cold December afternoon on the gymnasium floor at Cincinnati State. It was the iSPACE LEGO League Robotics Tournament. where the mood was nothing short of intense. Loud music ricocheted off the walls sending tremors across the floor, only the sheer concentration of what was happening almost drowned out any other noise than the sound of cheers rising from the stands. Seconds mattered as robots – less than 16 inches high – moved across tables, pulling or dumping objects, turning knobs and pushing levers. Two students just old enough to be called teens, programmers and builders as they were known in that competition, were standing just at the edge of each field making quick adjustments so their robot could change tasks and accomplish as many challenges as possible. Their teams stood just behind them on the floor. Some shouted in sheer emotion. Others stood erect in nervous tension. Referees in black and white striped shirts hovered. And then, in two and a half minutes, the horn blasted and it was over..at least that round. Teams had three tries that day to improve their scores.
Camera in hand, I was moving around television videographers trying to capture what I could. There was one group in p
articular that stood out to me. I remember watching as one of the students bent over his robot, fumbling to change its attachment. It seemed like a simple enough task inserting one piece into another, but it was a challenge for him. A woman sat in a folding chair several feet away. Her body was taught, leaning toward the table. Her bent elbows pressed into her thighs and her tense face was cradled in the stability of her cupped hands molded around her cheeks. Her eyes were fixed on that young man.
She and I were introduced later that day.
For 25 years, Lynn told me, she has been driving an hour each way to teach Cincinnati’s urban, inner city kids. This year with the closing of Burton Elementary, she’s been at Rockdale Academy teaching language arts to 7th and 8th graders. Many come to her classroom with deep emotional scars, baggage from travels to unthinkable places. Some have huge responsibilities caring for their siblings and others struggle just to survive. Some keep to themselves while their counterparts won’t let anyone push them around. 99% are living below poverty level. 98% receive free lunch.
These are the reasons why Lynn gets in her car day every day and why she stays late after the last bell in case anyone wants some extra help – or maybe just an attentive ear. She does all this because she sees in them the same potential she sees in her own children. They just need to be given the opportunity to succeed. Maybe that’s what makes Lynn so special in my eyes.
“My students don’t need sympathy,” she told me. “They need empathy and understanding. They’re not any different than any other kids their age.
“If you asked them, they would probably tell you I’m mean, but I’m fair,” she went on. “I don’t deviate from my expectations for any one of them. I hold each one to the highest of standards. I tell them ‘we’re all in this together. Your successes are my successes but if you fail, it’s my failure too.’ “
One day Lynn announced to all her students she was organizing a girls and a boys team to compete in iSPACE’s robotics tournament. Anyone could sign up, but if they did, Lynn required them to sign a contract committing to meet at least three nights a week, work together as a team, and of course show up for the actual event.
Eyes widened. There was a sense of eager anticipation. In the end, seven girls and three boys came to Cincinnati State that weekend. They had a long journey ahead so they didn’t waste time.
Two of the girls on the Rockdale Rockettes have cognitive delays. Math, one of the most important skills in programming robots, was about as difficult to understand for them as hieroglyphics are to me. They struggled, and I mean they really struggled to overcome their challenges. Lynn wasn’t willing to bend. One of their tasks was to program their robot to move forward on the table, stop, turn around and come back. The robot needed to make a 180 degree turn, a concept Tera wasn’t able to grasp despite years of trying in math class. Lynn drew pictures on a board to demonstrate it. The group drew their own pictures, brainstorming as they went. They focused as hard as it was possible to focus. Suddenly, a light bulb went off. “I got it! I understand!,” Tera screamed. The eighth grader could barely wait to tell her math teacher.
That moment was one Lynn will never forget. But then again, you get the feeling Lynn has many moments that will linger with her probably for the rest of her life.
The Rockdale Rockets included Samuel who is considered gifted, Tony who is visually impaired, and Charles who is autistic. They are three very differently abled and talented boys, bringing to the team their own strengths and perspectives. “We all have our own strengths and weaknesses,” said Lynn. “My job was just to help the kids identify their own strengths and guide them to know how to use them to benefit the whole.”
Simple enough. Tony has a great knack for programming. Computer skills are definitely his thing. Charles has such an incredibly mechanical mind. He could look at a mission, figure out what needed to be accomplished and build an attachment for the robot in a matter of minutes. And Samuel’s critical thinking, communication, and writing skills made him the natural leader of 
the group.
A second component to the tournament involved researching and developing a solution to a climate related problem, then sharing their ideas to people who could act upon them like community councils and legislators. Teams presented their projects and reports to judges the Saturday before the robotics challenge in the gym.
Lynn gathered the boys for a meeting. “You guys understand if Charles chooses to not participate, you need to take the lead,” she told them. Actually, she knew Charles wouldn’t participate because she had never heard his voice. A head nod and eye contact had been his form of communication for as long as she’d known him. She just wanted to acknowledge it was ‘ok’ for him to be his own way.
Then Lynn asked, “what is the last thing you say to the judges before you leave the room?” ‘Thank you’ was the boys’ answer.
But something completely out of the blue happened. Something no one, not even Lynn could have anticipated. She was sitting outside the doors that Saturday, nervously waiting while her teams explained their research to strangers. Suddenly the doors flew open and the boys sprinted toward her. “I couldn’t imagine what could have gone wrong,” Lynn said.
“Mrs. Collins, you won’t believe what happened,” Tony and Samuel blurted out in unison. “We turned around and said ‘thank you’ and then Charles turned around and said ‘thank you’ too.”
Charles stood before Lynn and grinned. There haven’t been many times in Lynn’s life where she’s been at a loss of words, but that was definitely one.
“We were never in this to win the highest score. There was no way I’d tell my students there was a total of 400 points. Our goal was to increase our points with each try, learning to improve compromising and communication skills along the way. The Teamwork Award was what I wanted for them,” Lynn said.
Did they accomplish what they set out to achieve? They sure did. The Rockdale Rockettes went from 9 points in their first round to 61 by the end of the day. The Rockdale Rockets started at 20 points and scored 51 points in the third round. And that Teamwork Award? The Rockettes won a 2nd place Teamwork Award while the Rockets won the Judge’s Award given to a group that demonstrates fortitude and diligence.
And by the way, Lynn was also recognized as one of iSPACE’s 2008 outstanding coaches.
PLEASE NOTE: Students names have been changed at Lynn’s request. Unfortunately, I didn’t know I’d be writing her story when we met and did not take her photo. Please continue reading the blog for a look at how Lynn encourages success in her classroom.
At 16, Chelsea Pitonyak has character
In Jeffrey Thomas Hayden’s short life, he was a gifted student, a competitor, and a good friend of Chelsea. He loved sports but he especially loved a challenge. That was to be his greatest strength and his greatest loss. It was September, 2004, one month shy of his 12th birthday, when he lost his valiant battle with an inoperable brain tumor. Chelsea was one of his biggest fans and prayerful supporters. His death left a chasm in her heart but she never wanted to forget her friend. Barely a teenager herself, she began the tireless journey alongside Jeffrey’s parents raising money and awareness to save the lives of other children sharing the same diagnosis. This fall marks the fifth year for Chelsea’s JTH Foundation Book Drive for Children’s Hospital held in her best friend’s memory. With more than 15 Lakota schools now involved, she’s collected more than $20,000 in books, dvd’s, and videos. Chelsea also volunteers for a therapeutic riding program at Winton Woods where she’s learned great respect for the children’s abilities to push themselves out of their comfort zones. Active in and out of school, she has earned the Bronze and Silver Awards in Girl Scouts and is a member of the National Honor Society, the Student Task Force Community Service Program, and has participated in mission trips to rural Liberty, Kentucky. “Community service is important to me because I should use my talents to help those in need. It is very fulfilling to be able to do good towards others and see it expand,” Chelsea said.
Chelsea is one of 40 teens who will be honored on November 6 by the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati for exemplifying the YMCA’s core character values – caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. In my communication work with the YMCA, I have had the greatest pleasure to learn about and get to know them all. They are true inspirations. Thank you to the YMCA for working to instill character values in young people, and for celebrating those who choose to live their lives with character!
To learn more about the YMCA Character Awards, you can visit www.myy.org.
