Garry Harris, HTS Enterprise, Spearheads Smart Academy for Georgia Students
It could be said that the kids at Toney Elementary School, dont have lot of things. Predominately African-American, the neighborhood surrounding Toney Elementary is considered poor and neglected; yet luckily the school is rich in the spirit of learning and exposure to science and technology. This school, you see, is blessed with driven administration and teachers, as well as the Smart Academy, an innovative, Saturday program to created to enrich the young minds of students with additional instruction and exposure to scientific, artistic and other academic endeavors.
(PRWEB) July 12, 2004 -- It could be said that the kids at Toney Elementary School, dont have lot of things. Predominately African-American, the neighborhood surrounding Toney Elementary is considered poor and neglected; yet luckily the school is rich in the spirit of learning and exposure to science and technology. This school, you see, is blessed with driven administration and teachers, as well as the Smart Academy, an innovative, Saturday program to created to enrich the young minds of students with additional instruction and exposure to scientific, artistic and other academic endeavors.
Toney Elementary sits directly behind a Piggly Wiggly in Decatur, GA. The school, nestled in a struggling area 10 miles from Atlanta, quietly educates neighborhood children without the amenities that are routinely found in richer school districts. The school, 100 percent African-American, has experienced segregation first driven by economics, then by race. Most of the students are from families featuring one parent, and 40 percent are being raised by a relative or guardian who is not their parent. The surrounding neighborhood is a place where children grow up entirely too fast, plagued with the survival concerns not experienced by other more economically-advantaged kids whose only worries are the 3Rs, the latest video game, and the sweet reckless dreams of youth. Here, it is common for very young children, to have responsibilities for taking care of themselves, including getting ready for school. Generally, it is an environment in which the future is at best cloudy and where learning takes a backseat to existing.
Enter the Smart Academy, a Saturday program designed originally to give these kids a leg up, but, thanks to a unique collaborative, became a new momentum in learning to challenge students to learn and dream their way to an enriching academic future. The Smart Academy, sponsored by Omega Psi Phi Fraternitys Kappa Alpha Alpha chapter, is co-directed by Garry A. Harris, and Jackie Richardson, Assistant Principal of Toney Elementary. Harris, CEO/President of HTS Enterprise LLC and the Omega fraternitys chair for the Assault on Literacy committee, has made community service one of the tenets of his life and that of his company. Their efforts were not the first time a tutoring program was enacted. The roots of the Smart Academy sprouted from a multi-year tutoring program, created and sponsored by the Omega fraternity brotherhood. However as Garry and Jackie began to review the program, a new challenge loomed for the children. The school and its students needed a means to improve performance on the state standardized test. So as the Smart Academy team and program were retooled in December 2003, significant changes were made to improve both the learning experience and motivate attendance with fun yet insightful exploits.
The first session started with 12 children. In addition to two hours of basic tutoring in math and science, the students were treated to breakfast and an hour of activities featuring the arts, drama, theatre, sports and science & technology. To round out these learning encounters, special events and trips were added to incite interest and meet some of the challenges. Children attend Smart Academy sessions twice a month and participated in special events such as a Small Business Day to acquaint them with entrepreneurship, and a Black College Day to visit the campuses of local Historically Black Colleges (HBC). The principles of Omega Psi Phi, Fraternity, Inc., -- Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and to Uplift --were consistently incorporated in the program to inspire responsibility and growth. To meet the distinct needs of young women, the Smart Academy provided a Womans Day, complete with a forum and speakers who addressed the special challenges of being female.
Those facets of the academy were wonderful. Where the Smart Academy delivered a definitively unique experiences for its students, however, was through an emphasis on science. With presentations from local engineering, environmental, and manufacturing firms -- entities usually foreign to inner city minorities -- a technology day was envisioned, then crafted in order to provide rare opportunities for the bright-eyed students to learn about real-life scientific applications and to explore hands-on science experiments. The children at Toney Elementary also got a rare chance to meet Dr. Larry Foulke, President of the American Nuclear Society. Known as the traveling president" in nuclear industry circles and world-renown for his technical prowess, Dr. Foulke spoke to 70 to 80 fifth graders about the benefits of nuclear science and technology. Afterwards, he said, The young audience was delightful. I began by asking how many wanted to grow up to be engineers and scientists (about 20 percent) and how many wanted to be lawyers (about 50 percent). I then spoke about the benefits of nuclear science and technology and the difference it makes in our lives. After my remarks, the students asked a number of questions, such a show much money does a nuclear engineer make, who are some famous engineers, do nuclear engineers make bombs, do we use animals for testing, do I like my job, and how much do I travel."
At the end of his visit, two-thirds of the student audience raised their hands when asked who wanted to grow up to be a nuclear engineer. Since Dr. Foulkes visit, interest and enrollment in the Smart Academy dramatically increased. Harris, who is also the Chairman of the Atlanta Chapter of American Nuclear Society is considering additional outreach projects to children in hopes of creating more future engineers and technologists.
Numerous accolades have been received by the Smart Academy and its supporters since its inception. Garry Harris and brothers of Kappa Alpha Alpha chapter, were honored by their Omega Psi Phi brotherhood by being nominated for the Chapter of the Year Award. The Smart Academy team has received congressional recognition from US Representative Denise Majette and locally government entities. The press has featured Toney Elementary in USA Today. The most telling success is that the program has grown to 250 children, eager to learn and experience that which regular school cannot afford to grant them and the children passed the Georgia state standardized test with over a 98% success rate.
More than the assistance given to the children of Toney Elementary, the good works done by Omega Psi Phi, HTS Enterprise and American Nuclear Society through the Smart Academy, have definitively created a new paradigm of social organizations, business and professional scientific societies working together to create the next generation of engineers, scientists and technical leaders. Perhaps planted in these small academic and scientific seeds, the next George Washington Carver, Ben Carson, or Granville Woods of this nuclear age will arise to take his or her place in the annuals of science.
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