2004-7-28
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education
Report.
More than twenty years ago, a successful American businessman
made a promise to a group of twelve-year-old students in New York
City. Eugene Lang said he would pay the college costs for each
student who stayed in high school and graduated. He urged the
students to dream about their futures. And he promised to do all he
could to help them reach their goals.
The sixty-one students all came from families who were extremely
poor. And Eugene Lang quickly realized that they needed more help
than he alone could provide. So he hired a social worker and others
to provide the students with services and support they would need.
He called the effort the "I Have A Dream" program.
Since then, the "I Have A Dream Foundation" has expanded to
include more than thirteen-thousand students in twenty-seven states.
Eugene Lang received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work
helping young Americans who could not pay for a college education.
Eugene Lang also wanted other successful Americans to provide
similar help to poor students. One of these is George Weiss. In
nineteeen-eighty-seven, he made the same promise to
one-hundred-twelve young students in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Only twenty students from that group graduated from college. But
Mister Weiss did not stop. He has started four similar programs in
the past seventeen years. He calls his program "Say Yes To
Education."
Now, Mister Weiss is beginning another such program for
four-hundred students in five schools in New York City. The students
are only five years old. Mister Weiss is providing twenty-million
dollars for the effort. He is trying to get businesses to provide
thirty-million dollars more. The twenty-million dollars will pay for
the students' college costs. The other money is needed to pay for
help that will increase the chances that these children will finish
high school. This help includes a reading teacher and social worker
for each school, and extra summer and after-school programs.
Mister Weiss says he has learned that poor families have many
problems that block their children from higher education. And he
says all his programs have been successful because they are helping
young people become productive citizens.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Steve Ember.