Omega saving the Black Male Project in Fla.

[PerroLoco]

Program aimed at keeping black youths in school


TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Leaders of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity said Wednesday they've turned to the state's four historically black colleges to boost a program designed to encourage more black males to stay in school.

They're selling a summer program for at-risk high school students, to help them develop lifetime skills and build their self esteem and remain in school.

"The link went back to education," said Randy Nelson, 38, a criminology doctorate who has spent several years trying to break the cycle.

"We'll give them the opportunity now or it'll be in the Department of Corrections (prison)," he said. "Who cares more about our community than us? No one."

Of the more than 270,000 Florida university students, only 5 percent are black males, while 48 percent of the inmates in Florida prisons are black.

"This is a fight we cannot lose," said state Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville. "Can we duplicate success stories and bring the numbers up?"

Hill claimed fewer than two of five black males graduate from high school or earn an equivalency degree in Florida's public schools.

"The end game here is to connect the dots and then to follow up and find out who's responsible and who's manning the store as it relates to African-American males matriculating through our public school system and going onto college," Hill said.

Hill said only 38 percent of black males graduate from high school or get an equivalent degree (GED).

However, the state Department of Education disagreed with that figure, saying their records from the 2003-04 school years showed 52 percent of black high school students either graduate or earn a GED.

"We track every student," DOE spokeswoman Melanie Etters said.

Etters, however, confirmed that black males have the lowest graduation rate of any ethnic group in Florida's public schools.

"We all want more students to graduate from high school," she said.

The four meetings are scheduled July 25 at Florida Memorial University, July 27 at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, July 28 at Edward Waters College and July 29 and 30 at Florida A&M.

[Lady of Pearl]

Wouldn't this be wonderful if this went National and more greek organizations would implement this as well!

[Chef5]

I know at the last campus I was at the Alphas had a program called Go to High school Go to college I think that was the name of the program, but they had high school kids come to the college and just show them the oppurtunities available to them if they attended college. good program but I still want Omega Psi Phi "Friendship Is Essential for the Soul"