ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110066
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on December 13, 1996.
The Future Works program, which helps dropouts earn their GED, is
held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Christiansburg. A story in
Wednesday's Current incorrectly reported the church name.
Also, Ann Winters is the assistant instructor. Her name was
incorrectly reported.
They come for three hours a day, if they come at all. They ask to take practice tests often, or they lose interest quickly.
They are responsible for their own learning - their own futures - and most of them are just 17.
These are the "irretrievable" dropouts: the boys with attitudes too large for high school; the girls with a baby on the way; the students who are bored, frustrated or lost in regular public schools.
Last year, 125 students dropped out of Montgomery County schools. But for the handful in a program called Future Works, their prospects are potentially brighter.
According to a flier developed last year, Future Works "is not a school [or] a structured curriculum." It is "your personalized learning plan."
It's a combination of learning how to pass the General Educational Development test and how to survive life. The group discusses everything, from tolerance of others to writing an essay.
"We treat them like adults here," said instructor Elizabeth Cochran. "It's not so much teaching fractions but encouraging them to say, 'Yes, I can do that.'"
The Future Works classroom sits at the back of Christ Episcopal Church in Christiansburg - a set of small rooms that originally were temporary housing for the project.
Cochran must carry her teaching materials in and out every day because the church doesn't have room. Sometimes, she'll pull one student aside to work individually, and they'll sit at miniature tables designed for the church's youngest members.
Cochran and her assistant, Ann Hess, are part-time employees of Montgomery County schools; the rest of the budget is funded through private or corporate donations.
Some educators in Montgomery County point to Future Works as a good example of what can happen when community groups join together to help. The idea developed out of several community discussions held three years ago. Now, among its board of directors is a judge, two lawyers, several teachers and a representative from New River Community College, to name a few.
The students are recommended by school or juvenile court system employees and must be interviewed first. Cochran said she tries to dissuade them from coming.
"My first thought is how can we get them back to school because that's where they belong," she said.
But the students who attend the makeshift classroom often don't feel like they belong in regular school; the reasons are as different as the kids themselves.
Nick Hardesty said he didn't bother even coming to school when he moved here from North Carolina in the ninth grade.
"I didn't fit the mold. They [teachers and administrators] have a model of who good students are supposed to be. When I moved here, I just decided I wasn't going to go," he said.
So, why Future Works?
"I got an opportunity," the 17-year-old said. "Here, I can work at my own pace."
Lindsey Watkins, who dropped out as a freshman at Blacksburg High School, said unless you were highly successful in school, you weren't accepted.
"A bunch of my friends dropped out. We got hung up in the ninth grade. I would have been 17 in the ninth grade."
Christy Toney loved school, but a pregnancy kept her from beginning high school at Auburn. She tried to go back, but didn't see enough of her daughter, Tiffany.
"My mom and dad told me to do something with my life," she said. "There's nobody in my family who've really gotten a college education ... I wasn't ashamed of that but I always wanted more for myself."
Someone from the school system turned her on to Future Works when she was 16. Within a year, she had passed her GED and had enrolled at New River Community College.
In her freshman English class at New River, she said proudly, she was the only one to pass all six of her essay tests. She credits the individual attention and encouragement given to her by Cochran.
"I look up to Elizabeth because she's done something with her her life," she said. "She didn't look at me like a welfare kid or something - like I didn't care about myself."
Not every teen who enters Future Works can tell Christy's success story; Cochran said she interviews all year because so many drop out.
Still, "If we weren't there, some of these kids wouldn't have done any of this," said Paul Little, one of the founding members of Future Works' board. "We've been able to do something in a small way, but do to more we really need more money."
Little describes the program's budget as a "shoestring" and would like to gain funding from grants as well as local organizations. He envisions a space devoted just to Future Works, more community involvement and even a program coordinator to handle additional students.
Back at the church, though, Watkins said she doesn't want anything to change at Future Works. She likes having Cochran's attention split between only four or five students.
"Leave it just like it is," she said.
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON Staff. 1. At Christ Episcopal Church inby CNBChristiansburg, Future Works student Erica Linkous is lost in
thought during a free writing period. 2. Elizabeth Cochran, an
instructor for Future Works, gives her feedback on a student's
question. 3. Future Works students Bobby Bond (left), Nick Hardesty
and Willy Phoenix (right) go over their study material. color.