When Durham Magazine leads off its issue on the best and brightest high schools seniors in town with a student from your program, you know you’ve made the grade! So, the Emily K Center gives a huge ‘atta girl’ to our own Vianey Martinez, whose beautiful smile and list of academic and extra-curricular accomplishments a mile long graces the pages of the February/March issue. Editor, Matt Dees, refers to Vianey and her six senior peers as, “smart, talented and worldly beyond their years.” After participating in the Scholars to College program at EKC throughout high school, Vianey will head to college next fall armed with a strong academic base and tools for time management, budgeting and developing healthy college habits. Vianey credits the Emily K program with guiding her through the confusing straits of college admissions and financial aid, as well as other key aspects of being a successful high school student. “My parents have no idea about the process, so it would have been difficult without Emily K,” she said. Great job, Vianey. You have outdone yourself!

Winning an award that takes two people to carry is one pretty special award. That’s why the announcement of the winner of the Healthy Habit Award at the Emily K Center is much anticipated. Given to a student who consistently plays fair, makes good choices, stays active, and acts as a leader at all times, the honor was recently presented to San, a second grader in the Pioneer Scholars Program. San received a bushel basket of fresh fruits and vegetables piled high and spilling over the top.

The theme of providing fresh produce began with Emily K donor, Steve Serck of JAB Produce, who provides a gift to the students of daily fresh fruit. The students make it a habit of integrating the fruit snack into their activities and uniformly have developed a truly heightened fondness for the healthy fare.  According to Coordinator of Educational Programming, Heather Hindin, award winner San quickly became a wonderful example within the program, always trying his best, making sound choices, and showing a good sense of fairness.

Congratulations San and thank you for setting such a fine example!

Congratulations to Emily K Scholars to College Junior Joseph Celestin for advancing to the second round in the JROTC Academic Challenge! Joseph was part of a four person team from Hillside High who competed in a 75 question Junior ROTC competition. More than 1300 JROTC programs from across the country took part in the challenge. He finished in the top 50%, which qualified him to advance to round two to be held this coming February. Joseph has been at Emily K for the past three years and shows character and determination through this effort. If the team he competes with finishes as one of the top 40 in the next round, they will go to Washington, DC in June to attend a leadership symposium and compete face-to-face. We are proud of you Joe. Good Luck!

Emily K seniors gathered at the Center during their vacation for a waffle breakfast get-together. Staffers Ashlea Hitchcock and Girija Mahajan served up the waffles with high octane maple syrup from donor, Ralph Smitten.  College acceptances and scholarships were the major topics of discussion, followed closely by after-Christmas sales at the mall. The group agreed to ‘Just Say No’ to senioritis in the upcoming second semester. Hard work and focus will take them to graduation and on their way to college!

It was a fond farewell to 2011. Emily K Pioneer Scholars finished their last day at the Center for this year with a program fit for a king.  Or, maybe a President. John Brown and his 11 piece Jazz Orchestra conducted an educational performance for the Scholars and shared that one of their most recent gigs had been for President Obama in Hawaii.

“We are excited to be here, too,” John said, “Sometimes when we do educational performances it will be the first time the kids have ever heard jazz instruments. Who knows, the next Dizzy Gillespie might be out in that audience.”

John is the Director of the Jazz program at Duke University and the leader of the band. He and his orchestra are committed to bringing the big band sound to student groups all over North Carolina. It is a mission they believe in so strongly that they manage to fit it in around their non-volunteer professional performances.
“We introduce each of the instruments individually to the kids, and then we get them involved in the music.”

And the students did get involved. They had an opportunity to ask questions, which included asking how much some of the instruments weighed, and how long it takes before a musician is good enough to play in concerts. The students also learned that even the familiar strains of Sesame Street and the Flintstones intro music can be jazzed up by the big band sound.

Executive Director, Adam Eigenrauch commented that it’s easy to tell that you’re reaching kids with music when the air guitar, air drums, and, in this case, air horns, come out. The program ended with John promising that he and his fellow musicians would return next year and students left with toes tapping on their way to learning even more at Emily K come 2012.

Firsts are always exciting and this week Emily K celebrated another first.

A few of our students in high school are serving as translators for parent meetings, which take place at the Center after students receive their first report card every fall.  Spanish speaking scholars have generously offered to donate their time to facilitate conferences with some of our families.  They volunteered to take part in an orientation and then began offering their help for the meetings of younger students.

It’s a win/win. They are glad to be of service at their own Emily K Center. And we are proud of their abilities and their generosity.

While Emily K seniors are completing their college applications, junior Kleyser is making an application of his own. Kleyser, a student at Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College High School, was nominated by his school to take a rigorous exam as a qualifier for North Carolina Governor’s School. Kleyser passed the exam at Early College, which then moved him to the next phase of the application - writing the required essays.

As of last week Kleyser’s application is complete and has been submitted. Emily K wishes Kleyser good luck in his quest for a spot, knowing that even to be considered is an honor!

S2C Seniors

Emily K seniors continued on their path toward college admission by participating in a Mock Interview Evening held at the Emily K Center. Armed with up-to-date resumes, each of the seniors went through four rounds of practice interviews with local professionals taking the part of admissions counselors.

After each interview the students received feedback and recommendations. “The most beneficial part of this process was giving our students permission to brag about themselves a little,” said Ashlea Hitchcock, Programming and Partnerships Coordinator,  “For years they have been taught to be humble, but for this occasion they need to communicate why they are special and why they will be an asset once they arrive on a college campus. It takes a bit of practice to do that well.”

Each of the seniors had prepared sample questions and answers for themselves beforehand and paid particular attention to dress and timeliness. “We’ve been working toward this time for years,” said Emily K senior, Brianna Azar, “We want to make sure that we’re really well prepared so that we will have the opportunities we’ve dreamed about.”  While the students took part in the interview exercise their parents were able to attend a financial aid program put on by the Center.

Brittany Lambright, an EKC senior, has been appointed by North Carolina Governor, Bev Purdue, to the competitive Governor’s Page program. She will serve as a page during the upcoming session in late fall in the state’s capitol. Brittany learned about the page program from a friend this summer when she attended a residential summer program at Bennett College. “We learned much more than math and science at the program this summer,” said Brittany. “I met people who have goals and high expectations like I do and we shared ideas.  Some of them have become good friends of mine,” Brittany added.  Students earned college credit for taking a biology class and a pre calculus course, but Brittany insists that her stay taught her a great deal about self reliance and independence too. “We even had etiquette classes and I think about what I learned there and actually use the information every day.”

And while Brittany has received an appointment by the Governor, Emily K junior, Jackie Ceron, is collecting honors from Durham Mayor, Bill Bell. Jackie is being honored this month with the Mayor’s Award at a recognition ceremony celebrating her 108 hours of community service she completed over the summer. Jackie volunteered at the Duke Children’s Hospital where she worked with young children waiting to be seen by their physicians. “I really enjoyed working with the three and four years olds, playing games and entertaining them. It confirmed that I am on the right path thinking about a health career,” Jackie said.

Both students have been seeking out leadership and character building experiences as part of their Scholars to College personal development goals.  Jackie, who has been part of the program for two years, attributes much of her willingness to take on new challenges to encouragement she receives at Emily K.  “Being part of the program makes me feel like I have so many people on my side. They want to make sure that we do our best and that we are prepared to succeed,” Jackie shared.

The Emily K Center kicked off the college search season with a visit from admissions counselor Patrick Boswell from Vanderbilt University. Scholars to Colege students from 9th through 12th grade packed the house to hear about what schools look for in the admissions process, and what his university in particular has to offer that might make it a good fit for some EKC students. In keeping with the fast-paced and exciting spirit of the search season, additional counselor visits are scheduled for the coming months.