THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603130152
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 201 lines
Every Sunday, four entertainment and media professionals cited scriptures and preached brotherly love at the Campostella Square public housing neighborhood to students who didn't seem to care.
But when two little girls started slapping each other in the face, the volunteers made a decision - in desperation - that altered the course of their lives and may help improve those of students across the country.
``It was one thing when it wasn't working because they weren't listening,'' recalled Harry Young. ``It's another when it isn't working and it turns violent.
``Necessity became the mother of invention.''
Young was a producer at the Family Channel in Virginia Beach and he turned to something familiar, something that might interest these kids who hadn't been reached by the traditional methods of teaching.
He challenged the Campostella kids in 1990 to produce a rap song with a positive message.
And he and his three colleagues promised they'd videotape it.
The class spent the next six months working on that song, ``Steppin' Into the Light.''
And the four volunteers were better than their word. They not only taped it, they found a way to get it seen by millions. In 1992, the video produced by those once-unruly children aired on Black Entertainment Television.
The experience made the four professionals take inventory of their lives and the power of the entertainment industry.
They left their jobs about a year later and set about founding a nonprofit organization that would give other inner-city kids an opportunity to express themselves and, perhaps, prepare for their own careers in the media.
The result is something called YES, Youth Entertainment Studios. The group now is trying to establish a home base in Suffolk.
``I loved what I did at the Family Channel,'' Young said. ``But I am fulfilled by what I am doing now. I'm combining my vocation with my avocation. Doing what I feel I was put on this earth to do.''
Today, they work out of cardboard boxes in Virginia Beach office space donated by Regent University. YES has programs for children in California, Chicago and outside Pittsburgh - as well as in Chesapeake at Oscar F. Smith High School.
The founders, Young, Sandrie Serrano, Mark Reeves and Danene Washington, have also made their mark in Suffolk, where they forced city officials to reconsider a plan for the former Navy Radio Transmitting Facility in Driver. The plan called for using the nearly 600-acre site for a park, a Little League field, an educational space for Old Dominion University and a preserve for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
YES founders asked to be given 50 acres for a permanent headquarters and for space to run regular summer camps that would draw at-risk youth from across America to their studios. Council has made no decision yet.
The philosophy of YES is the same one learned at Campostella Square: to capture the attention of at-risk high school students and perhaps get them to choose positive career paths by teaching them about the entertainment industry.
Even the name, chosen by a Campostella Square student, shows their focus.
``Everything is about the kids, for the kids, and by the kids,'' Serrano said. ``Everything is for the kids.''
So in after-school programs across the country, YES workers teach kids how to produce videos or television shows. They show how the students can market those projects. And they provide instruction on running a record company, with work that includes everything from finding singers to selling compact discs.
In Chesapeake, the kids say they love it.
Amid what seemed like chaos recently, Kenna Zemedkun, a volunteer who helped kids at Oscar F. Smith form a record company, Bizzy Records, gave tips to two students on how to create a slogan for their label.
``It has to be something that rolls off your tongue and is familiar,'' explained Kenna, who doesn't use his last name. ``The key is to just use a few words and get the point across.''
``Like Burger King,'' 15-year-old Shauntel Foster said. ``Your way, right away.''
During the lesson, Zimmerman Jones, another student and aspiring sportscaster, roamed the classroom, zooming a video camera on his classmates. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, Jones shouted his plans for the day to a friend across the room.
``I'm shooting inside today some footage for our record company,'' the 18-year-old said proudly.
Kenna's lesson continued, moving now from slogan to selecting talent.
``You want an artist that will last,'' Kenna advised the two girls, ``. . . not like some rap artist where they dance, romp, shake and it's over. That's what we're not doing. We want a long-term artist.''
After the class, 16-year-old David Ghi said he'd learned a lot in just two months with YES.
``I joined because I like working with video and production,'' Ghi said. ``The program is a lot of fun. I've learned a lot of different shots (shooting footage with the video camera), how a record is produced and even how to make a commercial.''
The four founders said that by giving up secure jobs in the media industry they found personal fulfillment.
Young had been a vice president of production and programming for the Family Channel. Serrano was a public relations manager for a health maintenance company. Mark Reeves and Danene Washington said their backgrounds were in the entertainment industry.
``When I look at a kid and see the light bulb turn on, I get excited,'' Young explained. ``I get excited when they feel something that they never knew they had. It's wonderful to see all that energy, especially when it comes together. They get a sense of hope that they didn't have before.''
The excitement has extended into the industry as well.
The YES board of directors includes such well-known names as Malcolm Jamal-Warner, a former ``Cosby Show'' kid; Dawnn Lewis, formerly from ``A Different World''; Monty Ross, a Hollywood producer who made several Spike Lee movies, including ``Malcolm X''; Blair Underwood, an actor formerly featured on ``L.A. Law''; and Tom Lynch, president of Lynch Entertainment.
YES has programs operating at Carlmont High School in Belmont, Calif., Wilkinsburg High School near Pittsburgh, and Roberto Clemente High School in Chicago.
Last summer, YES held its first summer camp at Hampton University. Those who participated produced ``Nu School,'' a pilot for a television series that focuses on urban relationships. Ross took time from his Hollywood career to work with the kids, and YES is now marketing the pilot.
Selling what the kids do is but one of the ways YES keeps going. The students get the experience and the revenue is put back into operating the program and purchasing equipment, Young said.
``We get money from fund-raising,'' Young said. ``We are a nonprofit organization, so we write a lot of grants and solicit financial support. That's our primary funding.
``We are also trying to market what the kids design.''
When the organization was searching for places to launch their program, they looked for cities where teachers and volunteers were willing to help lead after-school programs. They also wanted places where television stations would help with equipment and provide student tours of the stations and internship opportunities. And they looked for churches committed to offering mentors.
They found all in Chesapeake and the three other cities.
``Faculty and community support are essential,'' said Serrano. ``We weren't just looking for financial support. We needed community involvement and churches, because we want these kids to become leaders of character, vision and action. Churches have a direct hand in that.''
While educators say the program is still too new to examine how it has affected students' grades and overall behavior, principals and teachers have given it rave reviews.
At California's Carlmont High, Principal Michael Johnson said he's noticed the YES program boost students' self-esteem.
``I was very impressed with the program when I was introduced to it,'' Johnson said. ``They are using mediums that students can relate to. . . . They've found a niche on campus that allows them to shine, that, in itself, is a very positive experience for the students, and that encourages them to come to school.''
Johnson was so impressed with the program, he's asked organizers to develop a new school curriculum that would use entertainment to get students interested in math and English classes.
The curriculum will be introduced to ninth-graders this fall, he said. Teachers will incorporate multimedia technology in their classes. English teachers will ask students to write scripts.
``This way, the writing process does not become an isolated exercise, but is related to a particular project of meaning to the students,'' Johnson said.
Bill Kane, faculty adviser for the program at Oscar F. Smith, said YES not only provides media information, it also helps students understand the importance of education.
``YES gives them a reason to read and write and organize their thoughts,'' said Kane, who is also the school's graphics teacher. ``When they make calls or write business letters, they need proper speech and English. They are also dependent on one another now.
``If one doesn't do the work for the program, then it affects the rest of the group,'' Kane said. ``In homework, it only affects them individually. (YES) teaches them to be responsible. It also elevates them in the eyes of their peers.''
Students at Oscar F. Smith say they enjoy the program, but it's also taught them that media professions aren't all fun.
``It's a lot of hard work,'' said Sonya Massey, whose job is to find a local singer for Bizzy Records. ``I am interested in acting, and before, I thought they gave us a script and all we had to do was remember it and put make-up on.
``But when I participated in the summer camp last year, I learned that it's not just a script at all. You have to hold your own weight.''
Maybe so.
But the students around the room didn't seem to mind last Tuesday afternoon.
They were focusing on their new entertainment jobs. Ghi was outside, shooting video of the school.
And Jones. He kept smiling while circling the room, concentrating on capturing yet another of his classmates at work. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
SHOWING OFF
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Instructor Mark Reeves works with Oscar Smith student Zommerman
Jones on the video camera while Kenna Zemedkun huddles with other
students.
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
A group of Oscar Smith High students discuss a taping project.
Instructor Mark Reeves, left, talks with David Ghi, Jason Emory,
Zimmerman Jones and Phil Mitchell.
Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
Oscar Smith High student Zimmerman Jones takes a turn at the video
camera.
Mark Reeves, one of the founders of the YES program, dicusses gospel
music with the students.
by CNB