YOUNGSTOWN Editor speaks to Youth Force Club

More than two-thirds of the students who participate in the program graduate, a coordinator says.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Success comes from within, regardless of a person's circumstances, a local editor told the young members of the Youngstown City Schools Youth Force Club.
Mike McNair, executive editor of the Buckeye Review, a local newspaper aimed at the black community, was the motivational speaker at the club's second annual winter conference Monday afternoon at the Saxon Club.
The program honored Youth Force Club members who have accomplished academic, career exploration or community service goals. The club consists of juniors and seniors from the city's four high schools -- Rayen, Choffin, Wilson and Chaney -- who had failing grades or failed their proficiency tests before being recruited into the program.
LaTonya Hawkins, youth services coordinator, said 15 new students from each school enter the year-round program each year. It provides work readiness training, summer employment and job shadowing opportunities, mentoring and tutoring programs, assistance with summer school and community service projects for 120 students experiencing difficulty in meeting requirements for graduation.
Self-defeating attitude
Everyone can be successful, McNair told them, if they avoid what he called "the victim syndrome," the habit of blaming circumstances and other people -- things over which one has no control -- for one's own failures and shortcomings.
"That's self-limiting," McNair said. "You have to be proactive about your own destiny."
By maintaining a positive attitude, "we ensure our success," he said.
Eight of the students at the conference were honored for achieving academic goals, 15 for completing 10 hours of job shadowing, and two for completing a minimum of six community service projects.
Winners of the academic and community service awards each received $200; winners of the career exploration/job shadowing awards each received $100.
The Youth Force Club was established in July 2000 as part of the Work Force Investment Act.
Its mission is to promote friendship and unity among Youngstown's schools and neighborhoods as well as to help increase the number of students who graduate.
More than two-thirds of students who participate in the program graduate, according to Charlene Lambert, in-school coordinator; three-fourths of all Youngstown city school students graduate.
kubik@vindy.com