WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show. Since the early 90s fewer and fewer young girls were getting pregnant. But in 2005 the numbers of girls becoming teenage moms and girls having abortions started to creep upward. And they've been on the ass end ever since though it's too soon to tell if this is a trend with some staying power. The forces behind this latest spike could point to some chronic societal woes such as poverty and an impoverished health education system. It's a hot button issue for debate especially when it comes to whether or not federal funding should focus on abstinence or birth control. We'll top off the hour with a look at teens who are getting a second chance pursuing college dreams thanks to College Bound curriculum in the heart of Dorchester. Up next on the callee Crossley Show this adolescent life from pregnancy to prep school. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Barbara Kline the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the next year and a half will be crucial for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and for

national security. Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate panel today recent gains by insurgents in Afghanistan must be reversed. Right now the Taliban believe they're winning. Eighteen months from now if we've executed our strategy Well no they aren't. And they all know that they can't. The country's top uniformed officer said forty five hundred additional U.S. troops have arrived in Afghanistan as part of the surge and another eighteen thousand are due by late spring. Meanwhile U.S. drones fired several missiles on Al Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan near the Afghan border today. Officials say at least six militants were killed. Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived today in Saudi Arabia hoping the King and other officials will lend their power in the Arab world to his efforts to convince the Taliban to switch sides and join the government. Kelly McEvers reports from Riyadh. Karzai is traveling with his new foreign minister and key Afghan religious leaders. He's scheduled to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca then meet Saudi King Abdullah.

The Afghan government has announced plans to offer jobs and other incentives to Taliban militants willing to pursue their political goals peacefully. But Saudi officials have said they won't get involved in negotiations until the Taliban expelled al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from its protection. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that recognize the Taliban until the regime was ousted in 2001. Analysts here say Karzai hopes Saudi Arabia's prestige in the Muslim world and past relationships with Taliban leader Mullah Omar could be used as leverage with other Taliban commanders. For NPR News I'm Kelly McEvers in Riyadh. An immigrant advocate group says the Obama administration isn't doing enough to ensure a full count in next month's census. NPR's Jennifer Ludden has the story. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund points to a dozen major cities where it says outreach was bungled. The problems range from specialists who don't speak the same language as the communities they serve to unresponsive staff to bad

translations. Some brochures in Vietnamese call the census a government investigation census officials have mounted a massive campaign to persuade immigrants to take part in the once a decade count. And they've repeatedly stressed the questionnaire is confidential but Asian officials say they want more. They've asked the attorney general to issue a legal ruling that the USA Patriot Act does not undermine this confidentiality. Census forms will be mailed out nationwide on March 15th. Jennifer Ludden NPR News Washington. On Wall Street at this hour the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 88 points the NASDAQ is up 12. The S&P is up 10. This is NPR News. Congressman John Murtha is in intensive care at a Virginia hospital after suffering complications related to gallbladder surgery last week. The 77 year old Pennsylvania Democrat heads the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Oscar nominations were announced this morning in Los

Angeles Not surprisingly the technology driven epic Avatar drew several nominations. But as NPR's Allison Bryce reports it's not alone. The Hurt Locker received nine nominations including Kathryn Bigelow for best director. She is the fourth woman to ever receive a best director nomination in competition against Bigelow is Lee Daniels the second African-American to ever be nominated in that category. He directed precious about an abused teenage mother. I like it. That problem of school something you do well. Know Precious is also up for Best Picture Best Actress Best Supporting Actress Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also notable Meryl Streep received her 16th Oscar nomination for her role in Julie and Julia Allison Bryce NPR News.

Cadbury shareholders have approved Kraft Foods offer to buy the British confectioner for more than 18 billion dollars creating the world's largest candy company. Toyota estimates its worldwide recall of more than 4 million vehicles because of sticky gas pedals will cost the company about 900 million dollars on top of that the automaker says it's losing about one hundred fifty five million dollars a week in lost sales. Barbara Cline NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from the George Lucas Educational Foundation creator of Edgewood topia. Your source for what works and public education. Learn more at Ed eutopia dot org. Thank you. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show to lend your voice to the conversation give us a call. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. After nearly 20 years pregnancy rates among girls

is on the rise so it's too soon to tell if this is an aberration or a trend with some traction it nonetheless shines a light on how public policy and society has failed these young girls. For a look at what some of the causes behind these rising rates pregnancy could be we turn to Dr. Joanne Cox and Patricia Quinn. Dr. Cox is director of the Children's Hospital primary care center and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She also directs the young parents Program at Children's Hospital. Patricia Quinn is the executive director of the Massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy. Are you a teenage mother. Did the system fail you or was having a kid at a young age a good thing. Please join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Dr. Joanne Cox Patricia Quinn welcome. Thank you. Thanks. Now the stats are that there was a 3 percent rise in the number of teenage pregnancies. And you know for most of us three percent sounds like a very small number and

maybe not enough to be all excited about but you guys are the experts. Tell us why this is really an important trend to know. Well I think that starting in 1991 there was a very consistent year by year decline in the rates such that by 2005 the rates had been down almost 40 percent from their peak in 1991. And since 2005 between in 2006 they've gone up about 5 percent and then they were up another 1 percent in 2007. So the concern is that the nadir was reached in 2005 and that now there's going to be a consistent swing I don't think we know yet. But that's what the concern is. And Dr. Cox why do you think there is a spike. Well I think that there are a lot of theories. There still isn't a lot of data research studies that have been done that can kind of. Add a lot of confirmation about it. But one thing is that kids are a

little bit more sexually active now than they were two years ago. According to the stats and they're using a little less contraception they're also. Maybe some declining concern about HIV because if you look in the 1990s there was a lot of public prevention efforts around safe sex using condoms preventing HIV and that had a very positive impact on pregnancy rates unplanned pregnancy rates as a whole. And that's kind of declined it hasn't been much effort in that for quite a while now. And so the teens are also getting older most of the. Focus on teen pregnancy prevention in the 2000s has been on young teens on pre and middle schoolers and there hasn't been a lot of effort in kind of the 17 18 year old age group. And that's the age group that over 18 sat where the rate rise in rates have been the highest British equivalent What are you saying.

You're with the Massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy and are the reasons that are the theories that Dr. Cox has advanced is that something you're seeing in your in the population you serve. Absolutely. If you look at what for example looking at public policy what the state used to spend on health education and health education included comprehensive sex education for schools in Massachusetts and what does that mean exactly so you go to school and somebody talks to you about it or what is it well it's interesting because we don't have a state law that requires health ed or requires comprehensive sex ed so the term is a little loose and what specific districts or schools do is really on a district by district basis to a great degree. But we do know in 2000 the state funded about twenty eight million dollars in health education and every school district in the Commonwealth applied for and got some of those funds to do comprehensive health which included sex ed.

That funding was lost in the last economic downturn and we've never recovered any of it. So. Is there evidence that without it there's definitely this is connected to the rise. Well it's tough to make that clear connection at this point but I can tell you that we looked at the Department of Ed put together some some charts that look at for young people who say they've had some AIDS education in school because some is still going on I don't want to imply that schools aren't doing anything. They're just not doing as much as they used to do. And for young people who said that they had had AIDS education versus young people who said they had not had that education in school a number of important sexual risk factors are higher for those who said they had no education things like intercourse before age 13 which is a real risk factor for early pregnancy. Higher number of lifetime partners another risk factor for sexual health. Any STDs diagnosis any pregnancy

significantly higher for the young people who said they had had no AIDS education kind of mirroring what Dr. Cox has said about when we had that real focus and everybody was behind a message about AIDS prevention in their early or late 90s early 2000s. As we've stepped back from that retreated from that message it's not too big a stretch to say that that house hasn't had an impact on adolescent behavior. I want to give our listeners some real numbers the users this does just the statistics for Massachusetts and the communities where there has been significant increase. So in Southbridge a 19 percent increase in teen pregnancies in Fall River 14 percent. Lynn 18 percent 23 percent in Revere. Twenty nine in Attleboro 34 and within one thirty two percent in Maldon Framingham 38 percent and Quincey 72 percent. And by the way by contrast Boston has only gone up 3 percent. Dr.

Cox how do you respond to those are startling numbers. They certainly are. I think that they may be partially attributed to some of the economic downturn set have happened in some of these communities. I think also that if you look at Boston there is really very good access to contraceptive services and confidential Adolescent Health Services in Boston and I cannot say that that's true in a lot of other communities. And there is broad based education in the schools and some school based health centers so I think that they have an effect also. Now what is the impact of what appears to be from those of us on the outside a culture shift in the acceptance of teens being pregnant. I mean it's all over the you know every part of pop culture Kate Plus 8. The do gooders Quiverfull they got 19 Kids and Counting. Now I understand these are people the diggers or the diggers are married couples so that's one thing and certainly Kate was

Mary. But octo mom is not. She's got eight kids and Jamie Lynn Spears I mean we on and on and on. You hear this and I do teens just think Patricia Quinn. You know what the heck. Being pregnant that's so bad. Well I appreciate that you brought up some examples in the adult culture that sometimes we look at adolescent sexual behavior and pregnancy as something that's so different and radically away from what weare doing as adults and that's rarely the case. So as we have seen an increase in teen childbearing the birth rate went up across all age groups actually for all women during that same time period that we're looking at and the birth rate among women who have never been married went up considerably over the years so I don't think that the popular culture is the sole factor in what goes into kind of the environment in which kids move. That's not the only thing that relates to sexual behavior early

childbearing. But it's crazy to think that it doesn't have some impact on young people. Well I also want to just play a little clip for people to remind them that the Lifetime movie called The Pregnancy Pact based on nothing but an incident last week already said that was a lie. But but be that as it may it is a piece of pop culture. I have a tiny baby and I. Don't know. I don't feel them girls. OH MY GOD THAT WOULD BE SO COOL. Having a little girl to hang out with and be my best friend. When you get little magic better than I do your finger down. Hell say are. You going to have a little baby. OK thank you very much. Dr. Cox what you're shaking your head what is the impact of that. I mean let's put aside the fact that this is based on a lie but the point is that it's presenting young women as being excited about you know being pregnant out of wedlock.

Well right I think. And it and it presents it as something that they can bond with their friends about. And that's often discussed around teen pregnancy that you know if peers are having babies and it becomes more acceptable to. But the reality is for teen mothers are that they're often very isolated and alone once they actually have the baby so it's kind of a dreamlike state. That this puts the man and but it does connect to this kind of hopelessness that some teen moms have for what they can do in the future. They may not be doing well in school. Economically the prospects may not look that good and so having a baby becomes a very creative positive thing at least in their dreams and so that that show is kind of connecting to that. Now just yesterday there was a new study that came out that said abstinence is working in every other report including the report that noted this increase in teen pregnancies that it was not working that the Obama

administration in fact eliminated more than one hundred fifty million dollars in federal funding which was targeted abstinence programs and launched one hundred fourteen million dollars toward pregnancy prevention programs which include in talking to kids about birth control. Your response to this new study does it make sense to you. It's very confusing now. Well I think it's important to note what was studied in this new study that said that this particular abstinence program worked that this particular program would not have been funded under the former administration's abstinence only until marriage program it would not have qualified it would not have met the definition. The program that was studied and had some good results was done with very young. Children 12 years old average age. The focus was on delaying sexual activity until a later date when you are more capable of dealing with the consequences of sex. Not until you're married not telling you that sex outside of marriage is going to be harmful to you

etc. etc. but very clearly. Wait until you're ready. And that's about empowering young people to make those decisions and to think about when are they actually ready to make sexual choices. Well I'm Kelli Crossley and this is the Calla Crossley Show we're discussing teen pregnancy with Dr. Gillian Cox and Patricia Quinn. Dr. Cox is director of the Children's Hospital primary care center and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Patricia Quinn is the executive director of the Massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy. Since 2005 the pregnancy rates among teens have been inching upward. Are you a teacher or a parent who has seen this rise firsthand. Are you a teen mother always had to raise a kid on your own. Has society supported you or let you down. Give us a call at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 18 970. We'll be back after this break stay with us. And. With that.

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I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Kelly Crossley Show. We're discussing teen pregnancy with Dr. Joanne Cox and Patricia Quinn. Dr. Cox is director of the Children's Hospital primary care center and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is also the director of the young parents Program at Children's Hospital. Patricia Quinn is the executive director of the Massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy. If you are a teen mother or a parent of a teen give us a call at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. That's 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. And on the line with us right now is Colleen white. Colleen was in the big sister little sister program. She's graduated from that program and is now in the military. Colleen I wanted to talk to you about your experiences. Hi how are you. Good how are you. You said that as a little sister that all of your friends were teen mothers talk to us about that.

Yes. Growing up I grew up in South Boston and every single one of my friends except for me. Kid and they're all under the age of three actually. What made the difference for you when I made a pact with my big sister growing up that I will not have a kid before her and she goes I have a kid and neither do I. So you have the non pregnancy pact if you will. Yes. What do you think will work for teens you know outside of being in the big sister little sister program which obviously had a big impact on you. What could have been said to your friends to make them think otherwise about becoming pregnant. I do they heard from other teen mothers about how difficult it is having a kid and everything. Yes I think they were both boys. Some of them. As where others weren't they say you think Barbie also had a kid. They were calling hang on a moment I want to want you to listen to some

something that Bristol pale and she who became pregnant as you know the daughter of Sarah Palin and is now saying something different about it. It's a 24 hour job and it's a huge responsibility. Life is different. Yeah I thought it was going to be. Yeah your priorities completely change once you have a baby. And you came into a difficult way because you're on the national stage. Your mother very important political figure at that time. Let me ask you. When you had to confront the decision that you knew you were pregnant and you had to tell your mom and dad what was that like. Harder than labor it was one of the hardest things you'll ever have to go through. And. I hope that me speaking out now will prevent girls from having to do that in the future. That kind of message will help some of the girls who were your age at the time. I think you were how long were they in years. I think that we should impact on then.

Now something else that you said which is maybe surprised Patricia Quinn here and then you said is sex sex education was a joke. It really did not do what people say it's supposed to do it didn't help you at all explain it was going I was long international. So the way they do think very. Same as above Boston Public School the Kamala school in their sex ed classes a half hour and the kids didn't take it serious at all they know some aboard and that was about it. We didn't have like other schools would be able to take babies home when we got to be there for one night. We don't want that one knows it would stop another night and that lasted a whole week. It was. It wasn't what I thought it would be if they had come in and speak to the classes. I think it would be different. They need to have more hands on more lectures about it and I think people would have thought differently. Well Colleen I guess that says it a lot. Thank you so much for telling us

your experience and good luck to you. Thank you I appreciate it. Dr Cox when you hear that that confirms what you know. Right. I think being a teen parent is really hard. And teens need to have some reality as they're thinking about it before they become pregnant. Now what about abstinence as a tool. We talked about a little bit about the new study that indicates in some way that abstinence might be working. However flawed the study may be is it something that kids could understand and respond to. Absolutely well what I hear from Colleen is that what young people really need from us is partnership in role modeling role modeling and real partnership and helping them navigate this path. Adolescence in our culture Dr. Cox and I were talking about it before the show. How challenging it really is and how little support we really provide across the board for young people in guiding them through that pathway. And in particular around

sexual health and sexual development we struggle with that as adults in our culture. And so therefore our lack of guidance is kind of making a void here for young people. And we try to stop gap it with a half hour session here are babies that you take home over there and all of that is not going to be enough until we really begin partnering with young people and help them walk this path through adolescence safely and in a healthy way. We have a call Dr. Brian or from Gloucester. Go ahead please. Hi hi how are you. All right. I was involved with the issue with closeting clinic I was the medical director of the std teen clinic at Gloucester High School. And what was interesting for us is that this whole thing blew out of proportion and blew like crazy in the media. And but on the ground here what we were really trying to do was face this issue of rapid

growth in teen pregnancy. My nurse practitioner and I came daily researched and looked at different teen programs from school based clinics and we wanted to institute one that was comprehensive in regards to sex education. But did also involve contraception. That was not supported. Well what was interesting is the resistance we got even from our hospitals saying that there is legal liability with prescribing birth control and that birth control was dangerous which is a position that nominate not many high school hospitals take across the country and certainly no adolescent practice takes that position. And then besides that we govern existence of course from the school principal who basically came up with an excuse saying well they can all got pregnant together. We really don't have to do anything different. Well put aside whether or not there was a pact or not. And your effort in trying to get contraceptive education in the schools what would have worked there what do you think you would have liked to have seen happen that would have could change some of those numbers.

Well I think it's clear just to say that there is no class impact I know these girls I know well right we're not dealing with that. But what do we know. Thank you. Yeah well what we thought was going to be effective was a program where we were my nurse practitioner and I were going to be going into classrooms. We were going to be much more involved in the tech to education trying to bring the reality of teen pregnancies to the classroom in regards to the life of poverty the amount of premature babies the risk of SIDS miscarriages the number of abortions that result and came from teen pregnancies and kind of what Colleen whites said would have helped as opposed to the half hour of nothingness that she got. That's right. That's right. And then we were also going to be open to have different options for them available at our clinic. But let me thank you very much for calling in Dr. or so. Patricia Quinn if you if you're prevented from doing that here is here's a guy who is trying to do it with his nurse practitioner. I mean what can we do on the outside here to make it clear to

policymakers that this is very important information for these teens. Yeah it's a little bit crazy that we have young people swimming in this sea of very sexualized media and culture all around them yet we refuse to really provide true adult guidance. You know when we have this situation we have an opportunity to really step in and provide guidance and we turn our backs. I think that Dr. Warren and Gloucester have really made some good progress in the year or two since what happened up there kind of blew up all over the place in Gloucester really as a model the community came together adults parents everybody and said we need to do better by our kids and I know from. Doctor or that he really feels like all of the pain and agony that that was for them actually did lead to a very positive change in Gloucester among the systems that serve young people like schools and clinics and among families that he's talking to a

lot more parents who want to know how can I support my young person through this process. I mean that's the best outcome we can hope for that for all that chaos and craziness we actually have a community that's having those conversations with young people and making it clear. We believe in you we support your ability to make good decisions and we're going to make sure you have the resources to do it. I'm Dr. Cox This one hundred fourteen million dollars that the Obama administration has allocated for pregnancy prevention programs. Is this what should be happening with Doctor or has described and what are the chances that that's going to happen because we've talked about how they've been cutting out these programs in schools. Well I think there's a lot of fear in schools about providing comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention and and sexual health counseling. And I think that that's going to be the big barrier. In 21 states teens can have access to contraceptives without parental consent but in the rest of the states they don't necessarily have that

access and I think there's a very very deeply rooted belief that if you provide contraceptive information or or worse provide contraceptives that that's going to increase kids sexual activity and there is not very much evidence that that's true but it's a very very deeply rooted belief. Now some of the stats that came out in this latest study that looking at the rise indicated that African-American teens it was still a little higher than than white teenagers in the same thing with Hispanic teenagers. But it was down from what it had been so i don't even know how to read that. Is that a good. I don't know where that is. Well if you look at the decrease in teen pregnancy since 1991 the largest decreases were in African-American teens by 50 percent white teens by 40 percent Hispanic Latino teens it was only twenty six percent. So there definitely are ethnic and racial differences

and probably cultural beliefs about when timing for having babies and acceptability of teen pregnancy. And what about socio economic situations what impact does that have. Absolutely a critical factor. I mean when we're looking at what teens need to prevent teen pregnancy access to comprehensive sexual health information access to condoms and contraceptives for sexually active youth. And then the third thing perception of opportunity was that me that means young people have an. Have a future that's risky early sexual activity and early parenting. If there's not evidence of access to that kind of future then having access to information and contraceptives that's a necessary part of teen pregnancy prevention but not sufficient unto itself. Lacking the motivation to use those things so you need Colleen White's big sister saying you don't know and I'm not getting pregnant you don't get pregnant and there's something better for you and here it is I can show you how to get there not just like hey

everybody can go to college that's not enough for a kid who has nobody around them who's following that path we need to really show young people how we're going to help them meet those goals in very specific ways that make sense for who they are. Now when we talk about teen pregnancy increasing we talk about socio economic factors is that enough to make people who might otherwise be engaged say well it's not my group. So I don't really have to think about this that it's you know it's happening for people. Without resources mostly And so you know I think one of the challenges in Massachusetts is we have really good teen birth data. We do not have really good up to date teen pregnancy data so we don't know much about who and how many young people get pregnant in a really up to date way. We know a lot more about who gives birth. So it's it's easier when you look at that who do you see who's becoming pregnant and becoming a parent. Not not me not my kids. The reality is about 60

percent of young people in Massachusetts high schools have become sexually active before they finish high school by 12th grade. So given that that 60 percent that's all our kids and we have a responsibility for all of those young people to have to help them develop a healthy sexuality. Now not to beat a dead horse but let's go back to this abstinence because we have people like Bristol pale and who now has a baby saying that's the way to go. Well I think I want to I just want to play a little clip for our listeners. Regardless of what I did personally I just I just think that abstinence is the only way that you can effectively 100 percent foolproof way to prevent pregnancy. It is but it's a difficult choice right and for you it would prove to not be the way. Yeah. So how do you bridge the two. For kids you say don't do it don't have the sex but you did. So how do you put those two together. I'm not quite sure just I just want to go out there and just promote abstinence and just say this

is the safest choice this is the choice that's going to prevent teen pregnancy and present prevent a lot of heartache. Dr. Cox can can you make the point around disease we've talked earlier about kids not believing AIDS is really a threat for them. Can can that be a point that strikes home. Absolutely there's no question that STDs particularly Chlamydia rates have gone up. And so that is an issue is still an issue. Does that help kids think of abstinence more favorably. Well I think that thinking about abstinence more favorably is related to what how old they are and what their future prospects are and what their kind of family has talked to them about. So I think it changes over time and when I counsel my patients we always talk about that abstinence says the only Hundred Percent way to be healthy and not become pregnant. But as kids get older and they develop romantic relationships the likelihood that they're going to stay abstinence is extremely slim. And they need to

know that they're going to that they have to make good decisions and take and get contraceptives and practice safe sex as they move along. Now we've not talked about young men the emphasis always is on young women. Is there anything that's proving to be effective by really targeting young men and their responsibility in this. Well I think it's important to remember young people young young women who become pregnant and become parents do so in the context of a relationship. With a partner and too often we're looking at young women and thinking What's the matter with them and how do we change them so they're not doing this and forget about the issue of healthy relationships. And most parents who I talk to they're actually far more concerned that the young people in their lives are in healthy partnerships that have integrity for themselves for the for their partners. Then they are about sexual activity per se they want to know that their child has a healthy relationship knows how to judge that for themselves knows

how to protect themselves emotionally. And you know in terms of physical health so that's bull. Whether you're a parent of a young man or a young woman that's important and I really appreciate that you brought up how often are we talking about young women and not talking about young men and teaching them that responsibility as well. Well this has been an enlightening conversation and it's going to be an ongoing one I fear. So don't be afraid it is a good thing. Conversation we want it. All right. We've been discussing the rise in teenage pregnancy with Dr. Joanne Cox and Patricia Quinn. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up a look at a program dedicated to giving kids a second shot at higher education. We'll be back after this break stay tuned to eighty nine point seven. With. With.

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radio. Yesterday an outfit called Federated direct Chester neighborhood houses changed its name to college bound Dorchester. The community centers have been around for over 40 years. In addition to education they provided health care and food to the community. But now they're focused solely on building a college bound culture in Dorchester. Joining us to talk about the push for higher education is Mark Colton the CEO of college bound Dorchester. We're also joined by one of the educators. IZRAEL I had a Duress Sheed and two of the college bound students Qatari and Andrews and Shauna Jones thank you all for joining us. Thank you thanks for having us. Well this is pretty exciting news. Mark Mr. CEO why don't we start with you. What does it mean to move from the mission you had before to this new one which is really. Getting more kids in Dorchester going to college. Well that's exactly it. I mean I think over the course of the last three years we've really focused the

mission and vision on this idea of the highest expectations as a means to drive community change and really to have college as an expectation not only for our students but throughout the community. So this is sort of a culmination of an organizational focus on creating a college bound culture. And what I say to the staff and educators is so we've done the easy part in terms of changing the name. Now we have to just make true to our promise that we provide these exceptional students with the tools they need to succeed in getting into college and succeeding at college. I want to be clear to our listeners that you've been awfully successful prior to this point. You've been invited to the White House not long ago to receive a special award. So you're accomplishing your mission already really some way. Well thank you. I think we've we've had some success and certainly with instructors like we've been able to accomplish some things with students that others wouldn't have thought were college bound. But there's a lot

more work to do and we could certainly do a better job. Israel what does it mean to increase the number of college educated folks in a community. What is that impact. Well you know the impact. I would say for the most part research has shown that one being in possession of a college degree Beate Associates Degree or a bachelor's degree has a profound impact in terms of income potential. Potential running power which only benefits the individual his or her family his her community and personally I mean emotionally. I mean that's what statistics say but emotionally you're watching these kids get ready for college was I mean. Well. The work that we do at college bound daughter said you know what I think federally we do have college bound watches that we have vested interest in the population which we saw. And for the most part their story is our story which is an American story which for the most part is never told.

So I personally would like to thank you for this opportunity to be able to come on the radio and be able to tell the story. No problem. OK students. Those of you who are definitely college bound because we've said it so we've claimed it for you right. Qatar you tell me what does it mean for you. Q repeat the question what is I'd like to know what I would say. What does being in the program mean for you in terms of your goal toward going to college. Well the program means a lot to me in the sense that prior to this I was just working on a doll and I was job's $9 an hour jobs and I feel like without a college education I can get into a field where I'm going to make 75 to 100 grand a year and last one of my go goes basically excuse me would you be the first in your family to go to college. Yes. Oh absolutely. OK. Shawn about you it means a lot to me because I'm a mother of two so I'm breaking the cycle that my parents set for me and my brothers and sisters who are going to college now and I'm letting my kids know I'm paving a path for

them. That they can do whatever they want no matter what obstacles face them in to stop settling for jobs jobs what you need when you're 16 just having a little extra cash to get shoes. But to have a career to spoil it. Hopefully my grandkids one day and have a brighter future. Now how do college bound Dorchester what is now college bound Dorchester How do they connect with you to make you understand what you just said. They tell you when you go in for your intake that this is what we want from you this is what we expect and this is what we're going to do for you when you go to college we're going to be there to support you. If you have a stranded call one of us this contact will help you get what you need to get in. They work around your schedule me. I just had my son two months ago. I'm going to classes already again and they allow me to take my son in class so I'll be able to finish and get where I need to get and stop delaying the process. Now are you the first one in your family you said there were other people in your family were going to college.

Yes. OK everyone besides my oldest brother which is sad but there's five of us so four of us. The next one to go to college. Well let me just talk in terms of a context about the impact of going we talked a little bit from what researchers have shown. But I bet you guys didn't know that Bill Gates the you know the billionaire father has said that without the G.I. bill he would have been able to go to college that's what made it possible. And so for him that led to Bill Gates being able to go to Harvard even though he dropped out. But he became a billionaire by having a chance to meet some people there and expand his opportunities his intellectual opportunities. Such was the case also for my dad who was able to go to college because of the G.I. Bill. So college as Israel has said really does impact families and generations and their neighborhoods. Right Mark. That's exactly it. And I think that. What what what we're trying to prove here.

So before I came to college bound Dorchester I was starting charter schools and was successful in sort of impacting the lives of students and even families. Well we're trying to set about proving is that through this kind of work and this focus particularly on Dorchester that we can have an impact throughout the community and really to change the culture of expectations and we feel like the students that you see before you if they had grown up in Lexington or Newton or whatever they would be at college already because that would have just been the expectation they're certainly smart enough capable enough have enough drive to be successful and so what we are trying to do is to say our impact can be with students families but ultimately with the community tipping to be one where that's just the expectation. And Taryn do you agree with that. Yes I definitely agree with that because. I agree because. In the sense that basically when you walk through when you walk to do it

and you see somebody like myself you think you know he's not in school he probably didn't even finish school but like he was saying and a place like Lexington a place like Wellesley that expectation is already there when you see those kids you look and you say Oh he's out of school he's home from college a song like that but how do I say the perception is that the people have of us is very very very different. How important is it to you that the expectation is that you will go to college. It's very important in the sense that I want to be able to help my daughters with their homework and understand like my parents was unable to help me with my homework. You know I had looked outside of my family for help with my homework I never was able to really go to my dad with math problems and say Oh help me with this. Because he didn't understand self. So I think that's basically you know if you know what is the power of just claiming college bound Dorchester What is the power of that claim. That's what the old people say

now you gotta claim me right. You know very much so. And not only to claim it but to allow it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Something that like Mark was saying something that becomes a given and expectation for each and every young adult in Dorchester and the surrounding boroughs of Boston. Now I have some statistics here that one hundred fifty people go through each year and 38 people have left with their GED and 23 have gone on to college where they are in college some of these people. So the vast majority of our students right now are going to Bunker Hill as a. It's one of our partners we also have students that are UMass Boston student Benjamin Franklin but for right now the model that we're using is to transition them to Bunker Hill support them there and then transition on to a bachelor's degree. And so that's really the path that we are so forging with our partners. And I will just say to your earlier

question I think. Both John and Terry would tell you that when they first came the most of our students come and they say I want to be. And then it's a Dell Juma Crawford. They have to go through that process of saying why why why. And get them to realize within themselves that they actually want much more than that. We're not giving them a vision we're helping them to unearth the vision that's inside them already. And that's quite powerful in itself. That must feel contagious then among your group. I would imagine John. Yes. And if you have big dreams for us and they let us know that we have dreams self-belief holdback of everything that's been before us and how we grew up. So we don't think we can go to college and we come to this place where they don't know us but they have similar backgrounds and they've done it. So we look at them and expect a young man in our class because it's basically all men in the organization who was strong and

been to college in there letting us know that you can do it and it's possible. What do they say to you that is particularly. Just moving toward for you my teacher. Often there are lessons in clashes. A lot of life lessons that he himself went through and so doesn't come all. So it's powerful in a way that. We may not have been through the same exact thing. But we come from similar backgrounds so we can relate in a very strong way. OK Ishmael What are you sharing. That's so powerful. Again this story is my story. Well tell me what your story well. How much time do we have. Yeah well that I'd like a shorter version of it OK. I was born and raised in a third world country called the state of Mississippi. I'm from Memphis that's known as the capital of MS. Yeah yeah yeah. Yes. OK. I was raised in a single parent household my father was murdered when I was four.

Praise is due you know to The Creator that my mother you know. She too was a teacher so I was raised with a sense of value of education and an ideal and expectation that not only have an older sister. She graduated from Notre Dame. So it was an expectation that both she and I you know that when we were in school that we would do well that we will overcome any degree of obstacles and then basically my mother also instilled in us a knowledge that those who know and those who don't. And it is incumbent upon those of us who are enlightened that that we impart that degree of knowledge and understanding to those who are less fortunate. And when you hear heard his story you knew her story could Tarion would you think. You see because Me myself I come from a similar background where I'm just a product of my environment and I'm trying to break the cycle of being a part of the environment. He he tells you he's a powerful brother he tells us a lot of things that you

know inspire us to want more. Now the thing about his story I saw him inspiring is basically if I can go from his past to becoming a teacher. That's that's very powerful he's actually taking classes at Harvard if a lot of stake and so that touch me a lot knowing that somebody who went through the struggle of the street the street life and basically is you know a teacher that is I think that's the ultimate 360. I wonder about the pressures on you students from friends who are not college bound do it yesterday say to you oh Dad why are you doing that. Wasting a lot of time a lot of energy and how do you combat that. Well I actually don't I don't have friends of my stay in this at a homeless shelter. So you know I don't have nobody basically telling me all that's that's whacko That's for you know geeks and nerds a song like that. I am only inspiration I'm only for an only person. Basically talks to me as Mota brother so at the end of the day I don't have nobody behind me really tell me that school is unimportant. Before probably when I was 18 or

19 people here my friends used to say that when I when I had a house to live in but now I'm a bunch around a bunch of older folks who've been there done and already tell me is keep it up because you're aspiring us and there's a man out of 40 plus. What about you Sean. Anybody saying that to you. I don't surround myself with those kind of people before because when I did it led me not to be in school. Me acting up thinking it was cue to cuss at the teacher throw it fit so I stepped back in my main focus is just to provide a better future for me my kids. What would you say to somebody like you who was talking back to the teacher who was you know drawing little fits in class. You remember back where you were what would you say to somebody to make them understand why that's not cool now i know i did it because I thought it was cute because the boys if you look at it look at her involved and I would just tell them the same boys that said it would was q don't want you know me and

want a foul mouth female. Nobody wants to deal with that. It may just downgrade in the self by talking like that in thinking it's cute to talk like a sailor and it's not productive and it's going to get you nowhere because it got me kicked out of school and now almost 20 with two kids and taken GED when I should be in college with the rest of my peers that graduated so the ones that were laughin at me in school this third second Yeah and I'm just fighting to stay in school and get where they are. But you're college bound now Sharon. Mark what do you how do you feel when you hear this. Well it's inspiring. I mean I constantly think about the challenges of the work that we face and raising money to support the organization I think it's not nothing compared to what. What these guys do every day and I think the question you asked is a really insightful one

about the peer pressure not to do it. And that's that's real for a lot of our students and it's a real selling game for Kamani Dell to get them in. We have a lot of students that come in drop out come back in before we can catch them and gauge them effectively to share that dream that we have. So it's just really inspiring that these guys do it every day day in and day out and it makes me just I'm just consider myself so lucky to have this opportunity to work for these students. It's really powerful here in their store for me. Well you're turning some numbers around because only a quarter of all of the adults in Dorchester have a college degree. So your first your program can change those statistics hugely. That's right. That's right and what we want to know is what's the tipping point. How many students how many students that aren't college bound now that we can connect with. Do we

need to impact in order to really create a neighborhood where that's just the expectation and we feel like in particular working in college prep with students that have chosen different paths that we can make a difference. And I believe you will. So good luck to all of you. Mark Colton Ishmael Abdul Rashid Qatar Ian Andrews and Shauna Jones. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. And special thanks today to Maya Roberts and Deborah from the big sister Association of Greater Boston. To learn more about Big Sisters go to big sister dot org. This is the Calla Crossley Show. Today's program was engineer by Jane pic and produced by Chelsea murders. Our production assistant is Anna white knuckle be where production of WGBH radio Bostons in PR news and culture station.