ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140007
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: HAMPTON
SOURCE: NANCY FEIGENBAUM KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The loneliness of being black, accomplished and adolescent is at the heart of a Hampton University event today.
At 15, Shivon Kershaw is precocious and poised, an honor-roll student who likes to give public speeches.
But there are times, she says, when she feels ``out of place, almost like an outcast.'' The awkwardness comes from being one of the few black students in her advanced classes. On a recent day, for example, students were signing up for the spring musical when one girl took up the theme to ``Grease.'' Everyone else jumped in to form a chorus - everyone but Shivon.
``I was just standing there and thinking, `I don't know those songs by heart.' They knew every character's name,'' said Shivon, a sophomore at C.D. Hylton High School in Dale City. ``It's just one of those situations I've just learned to laugh at.''
The loneliness of being black, accomplished and adolescent is at the heart of a Hampton University event today that Shivon plans to attend. HU students who remember what it was like to grow up feeling like outsiders have created the Smart Black Kids Network, where some 300 teens from grades eight to 12 will get to know each other and the university.
Parents and teachers also have been invited to sessions at the day's events, part of the university's first W.E.B. Du Bois Honors Conference. Organizers publicized the event this year only by word of mouth; it is still open to any interested families.
In morning sessions, teens will meet in moderated ``conversations'' to talk about tensions that are seldom discussed during the school day. ``Dealing with pressure: Peer and self,'' is one topic. Another is ``Carrying the race on your shoulders.'' A third session is called, bluntly: ``Smart and socially acceptable: Is it possible?''
Bright black teens are especially at risk because of their smaller numbers, said Harrison Dixon, a parent of an HU student and volunteer with the conference. Teens who have no black friends in advanced classes may feel they have to choose between the society of their friends and their schoolwork. An agriscience teacher at Gloucester High School, Dixon said the fate of minority children in public schools is ``somewhat shocking.''
Later in the day, the teens will go to a college class with HU students and see a performance by actress Tonea Stuart, who had parts in the movie ``A Time to Kill'' and the police drama ``In the Heat of the Night.
Education professor Freddye Davy, director of HU's Honors College, asked her students to come up with the event after seeing how much encouragement teens got from attending conferences for black professionals. Isolation and peer pressure are powerful forces for adolescents, who need to be bolstered by meeting people who reinforce their best efforts, she said.
``They do not like being different, so rather than be different many of them will choose to `dumb down,''' she said.
Likewise, Davy said, some teachers don't know how to get through to black students, especially teen-age boys. For that reason, she included sessions for educators. Berlena Taylor, an HU graduate student, signed up her oldest daughter, even though the eighth-grader has plenty of camaraderie at Eaton Middle School in Hampton. ``At our school, there's a lot of smart kids. All of the popular kids are smart,'' Audrey said.
Audrey likes the idea of being part of a conference on the college campus. She has faced nothing like the discrimination her mother saw in the early years of integration, though Audrey got a taste of peer pressure when she was younger and earned the nickname ``Bookworm.''
But Audrey is only 13, her mother noted, and things may be rougher in high school. ``She has a long road to go,'' she said.
Organizers hope the Smart Black Kids Network will catch on nationally and become a larger event, perhaps with participation from other universities. This year, most of the students are from Virginia.
``Some of them are afraid to show their talent,'' said Chenoa Cohen, 20, an HU junior and student in the Honors College. At HU, she said, they will meet students who felt the same way but didn't give up.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB