School District seeks volunteers to mentor at-risk seniors

By Paul Takahashi, Las Vegas Sun and Philippine Times of Southern Nevada

Last month, when Evaleen Diaz found out she was pregnant, it became one more obstacle of many toward her goal of graduating in June with the rest of her Western High School class.

The 17-year-old senior is short on class credits and needs to pass three more proficiency exams before she can walk across the stage to receive her high school diploma. Now, Diaz is three months pregnant, complicating her plans to make up credits and cram for the state-mandated exit exams.

The normally celebratory news of an expectant mother came as a surprise and a source of major disappointment for Diaz’s parents. Her father refused to look at her for days, Diaz said.

“They think I’m not going to graduate because I’m going to be a mom,” Diaz said, tears welling in her eyes. “It made me really sad. It hurts me, but I feel like I can prove them wrong.”

Diaz is one of more than 6,500 seniors still at risk of not getting a high school diploma this year, according to new graduation projections released Tuesday by the Clark County School District. Although that figure is still extraordinarily high, it’s an improvement from the more than 10,000 at-risk students identified at the start of the year, said Clark County Schools Superintendent Dwight Jones.

“Getting 3,500 seniors back on track to graduate, that’s tremendous,” Jones said during a news conference Tuesday at Western. “But we still have a significant number of students at risk. We still have plenty of work to do.”

To reach out to the remaining at-risk students, Jones is seeking volunteers from the Las Vegas community to mentor about 2,000 students at 10 of the School District’s worst performing schools. It’s all part of Jones’ plan to improve the School District’s graduation rate, among the lowest in the nation at 48 percent, according to Education Week.

While principals at all 49 valley high schools have prepared individualized plans to guide students toward graduation, the inaugural “Reclaim Your Future” graduation initiative focuses specifically on 10 high schools: Canyon Springs, Chaparral, Cimarron-Memorial, Desert Pines, Las Vegas, Legacy, Liberty, Mojave, Rancho and Western.

Each of these high schools recently was assigned a professional counselor who would check in with struggling seniors every two weeks to make sure they are on track to graduate. The $200,000 program is paid through a public-private partnership between the state-funded Workforce Connections and the nonprofit United Way of Southern Nevada, according to Cass Palmer, president of the local United Way chapter.

Daniel Topete is Western’s graduate advocate coordinator who has been working for the past month with students like Diaz. He and other coordinators provide counseling and advice on student resources, such as alternative high schools, credit retrieval, online courses and test-prep boot camps. While these specialized counselors are a boon to cash-strapped schools, mentors from the community can help fill in the gap between visits, officials said.

“We know that having a caring, responsible adult involved in the education of a student makes a big difference,” Jones said from a prepared statement. “Research and the success of similar programs across the nation show that it works.”

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is stepping up to the challenge by seeking volunteer mentors from among its 6,000 businesses and 240,000 members, said Kristin McMillan, president and CEO. The Chamber is specifically targeting 1,000 alumni from its Leadership Las Vegas program, a 10-month leadership-training course for local business executives, she said.

“Improving the graduation rate is not only going to critically help our kids but is essential for securing the growth of our business community and economy,” McMillan said.

Close to 300 people have requested applications so far, according to the School District. About 60 — including about 50 Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce members — are in the process of being interviewed and undergoing background checks.

Diaz, who dreams of going to college and becoming a physical therapist, said she feels having a mentor would help her juggle her schoolwork and the added challenges of motherhood.

“I feel like I am going to graduate,” she said, with a determined look.

“They’re going to help me graduate. They’re going to help me get somewhere.”