News: Summa Cum Hard Knocks

A certain amount of pressure comes with attending high school: arriving on time, completing homework, yearning to be popular, choosing the perfect tuxedo or gown for prom.

But when the last bell of the day rings, some students go home to face enormous personal challenges. Seniors from Aiken, Anderson, Harmony Community, Western Hills Traditional, Winton Woods and Woodward high schools will be honored April 3 at the Cintas Center for their tenacity and willingness to succeed in the midst of extreme adversity.

The students’ stories include being abandoned on a park bench in South Korea due to a physical disability, taking a parent to court, being tossed around 23 different foster homes, undesirable living conditions, rape, depression and bipolar disorder. The six students will each receive a $1,000 scholarship from the Children’s Defense Fund’s Beat the Odds program.

‘Kids live like this’
“It is good to celebrate kids like these,” says Susan Bolich, program associate for Beat the Odds. “This is what we fight for.”

Among the 50 people who have received Beat the Odds scholarships in the past eight years is a blind student studying psychology at Miami University.

Sharae McCollum, one of this year’s scholarship winners, cares for her handicapped brother DJ while attending Harmony Community School.

“I bathe him, feed him, give him his medication and help him with his schooling,” McCollum says.

Family is very important to her, McCollum says; she’s has been placed in 23 different foster care environments.

“I was unsure about my new family,” she says.

But her new family has provided a sense of stability and restored her self-esteem, she says. McCollum plans to study child development at the University of Cincinnati.

“This award means a lot to me,” she says. “Keep God in your life and never give up.”

“The volunteers find it hard to select the kids for this award.” Bolich says. “Many are surprised to see kids still live like this.”

Last summer Michael Payne Jr., another Beat the Odds winner, testified in a court case about the lack of support from his family.

“A child should never have to take their guardian to court,” he says. “I was made out to be the bad guy, a horrible delinquent.”

He says he finds strength and support in his friends, athletics and other activities at Anderson High School. Payne is president of the Anderson Renaissance Committee, peer counselors’ group and Students Wanting Excellence at Anderson and Turpin.

“School and sports were my family members,” he says. “Just being appreciated for helping someone or for being around — that was my reason for being put on this earth, to help someone out and to put a smile on someone’s face.”

‘Who will you inspire?’
The Children’s Defense Fund celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Marion Wright Edelman, the first African American admitted to the bar in Mississippi, founded the Washington Research Project, which later became the Children’s Defense Fund. The organization lobbies Congress on behalf of children and families.

“Our motto is to ensure every child a healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start and a moral start,” says Eileen Cooper Reed, state director of the Children’s Defense Fund. “Children do not come in pieces.”

The Beat the Odds scholars are seniors in high school, but the Children’s Defense Fund works to help young children as well.

“The first five years of life is important in a child’s development,” Cooper Reed says. “We work to ensure that there are places where children can be sent where they will be nurtured, as well as making these places affordable. We also need to work on low-infant birth weights, which are less than the national average here. We want mothers to receive adequate prenatal care.”

The Children’s Defense Fund accepts no government funding.

“The first question that comes if we accepted government assistance is, ‘What are we getting out of it?’ ” Cooper Reed says. “We want to come to the table clean while abdicating on behalf of our children.”

Everyone can lobby on behalf of children, according to Cooper Reed.

“Every adult can make a difference in what happens to children,” she says. “Call your city council and call your legislators. Children are important.”

That’s a message that kids like Michael Payne Jr. already know.

“Just because someone is ruining your life doesn’t give you a prerequisite to ruin your own,” he says. “You can make a difference.”

Payne plans to attend Miami University. He wants to return to Anderson High School as a teacher and perhaps someday become principal.

When a kid beats the odds, Bolich says, people should know about it.

“Do not be afraid to share your story,” she says. “You will never know who you will inspire next.”

This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2003.