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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1997)
\f Monday‘July 21, 1997 The Battalion er Lending a helping hand ■ H s•. v ana enci aiB « f :: I lf - 'JL l* *- - ^ m S^Mycn: P 1 5 'WS' - . . : . : ' I: f •> *%M§m ;i I .iC ;•••:• .. j£ : - I- »• • .rlfcMP, i ' • : Campers participating in the Na tional Youth Sports Program work on their golf swings on the A&M campus Thursday afternoon. Photograph: Tim Moog Program that helps disadvantaged youths wraps up at A&M By Matt Mitchell The Battalion D r. Frank Ashley remembers the day it really hit him. An associate dean for the Department of Edu cation, Ashley had recently become involved in the Na- Upei tionalYouth Sports Program (NYSP), a federally funded, [ hil NCAA supervised summer sports camp designed to fori teachout to economically underprivileged youths, with aiwbranch in the Bryan-College Station area. Unfortunately, one of his new charges had misbe- hayedand faced the probability of being taken home, ataf that fell to Ashley. “He’d broken the rules, and I was all set to drive him florae,” Ashley recounts. “But then he said to me, 'Please don’t take me home, because if I go home, then myfriends will make me sell drugs, and I don’t want to liang out with them.’ “When you don’t see those tilings, you think that sort of tiling doesn’t go on. But when you see it actually happen, itmakes you realize we’re doing a pretty good thing here.” Ashley, presently the project administrator of the award-winning Texas A&M branch of the National ibuth Sports Program, has spent the last nine years working on the project and has seen some inspiring re sults both in the national and state programs. This summer’s NYSP ended last Friday, culminating with a basketball game on the floor of G. Rollie White Coliseum and an awards ceremony that left more than afew of the staff and campers choked up. The NYSP attracts some 67,000 participants in 152 cities across the country, most with universities or col leges to help support the program. The goal of the NYSP is to mold well-rounded youngsters by combining sports with education. The A&M program services the communities of Hearne, Caldwell, Calvert and Somerville, and serves over 300 campers each year. Thanks to its link to the NCAA, the NYSP has access to apparel and equipment of the highest quality. “We call it the National Youth Sports Program, but it’s also an education program,” Ashley said, pointing to the seven and a half hours per week of required education al instruction. “We teach drug education, substance and alcohol abuse, career opportunities, even computer skills. The good thing about it is we can teach a lot of the classes that they can’t teach in the public school system.” The camp runs in the afternoons five days a week for five weeks, with youth between the ages of 10 and 16 el igible to attend. At least 90 percent of the campers must be categorized as living below the poverty line.The kids are bussed from the surrounding communities, attend camp all afternoon, and are given a snack and dinner before being bussed home. All of this is provided free of charge to the campers. Ashley estimates that A&M kicks in over $100,000 per year on the camps, but emphasizes that the com munities lend their help as well. AE Beutel Health Cen ter and the Brazos Valley Family Health Clinic donated their time and resources to contribute free necessary physicals to the kids. Local merchants helped with prizes, and local school districts bus the campers. Along with such popular mainstream sports as vol leyball and basketball, the NYSP participants are also taught non-traditional sports like gymnastics, tennis and racquetball. An aquatics program ensures every one learns to swim, and there’s even a golf program, one of only five such programs in the nation. Along with Dr. Ashley, activities director Dottiedee Agnor is quick to credit her staff with making the pro gram such a resounding success. “I think they (the staff) all feel like it’s a good, worth while program to be involved with,” Agnor said. “It’s not the easiest job in the world because it’s summer and it’s camp and the kids come in sky-high all the time. I pull my hair out every day, but I’ll probably miss every one of them tomorrow.” The staff has, in turn, had an equally positive im pression on the kids. One might think that the campers would balk at the notion of attending what amounts to school for at least an hour every day. Not so, say 13- year-olds Tiffany Harris and Erika Williams. “I liked it when they talked to us about drugs and suicide and stuff,” Harris said. “They taught us how those things hurt us, so I thought the enrichment was helpful. It was my favorite part.” “The staff made it fun for us,” Williiams added. “They had rules, but they gave us choices, which let us act more like adults.” In addition to the obvious benefits of keeping the campers off the street, the NYSP gives them the oppor tunity to actually experience a college campus, some thing that is perhaps rare for many of them. “If you give kids an opportunity to come on a uni versity campus, it could make a big difference,” Ashley said. “They realize there’s nothing foreign about A&M and they think, ‘maybe I could go to Texas A&M some day.’ It gives them hope.” Hope is in short supply with these kids, as are many of the opportunities afforded and taken for granted by their suburban counterparts, who have the luxury of sports leagues and an abundance of instruction, as well as positive influences. “A lot of these kids just have not had the opportuni ties that suburban kids have had,” Agnor said. “These are not bad kids, they just haven’t had the opportunity of maybe the background at home, to know how to be have appropriately.” Day by day, the National Youth Sports Program is changing that. mmm Photograph: Tim Moog Keisha Henry, a psychology graduate student, hugs one of her campers. Get Away for A Taste of Summer! ART IN THE “REAL WORLD” A Road Trip to Houston Thursday, July 24. Leave campus at 1pm. Return to campus by midnight. FREE transportation and museum admission for A&M students. $20 for non-students. Please make checks payable to “MSC Visual Arts Committee.” On exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts: JEWELS OF THE ROMANOVS Treasures of the Russian Imperial Court We’ll have dinner at one of Houston’s many fine restaurants. Bring money for dinner! (We’ll keep it around $10 ea.) Sign up IN PERSON by 5pm Monday, July 21 at the MSC Forsyth Center Galleries (across from the Aggieland Post Office). Space is limited to 36 people. For more information please call 845-9251. Memorial Student Center Visual Arts Committee hltp://w wwmsc.tamu.edu http://vac.tamu.edu r If you have special needs please call in advance at (409) 845-9251. PART-TIME POSITIONS Universal Computer Systems, Inc. is looking for candidates for the following positions at our College Station office. Operating hours of the facility are 6 a.m.-IO p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m.-IO p.m. Saturday. Candidates must be able to work at least 15 hours Monday-Friday & every other Saturday and have completed at least one semester of college. Data Entry - We handle computer repair for all our clients nation-wide, with over 60,000 pieces of equipment per year. Our data entry positions are responsible for maintaining info on more than 2,000 parts shipped to & from the facility. Cleaning and Reclamation - This group must maintain upkeep of all equipment received and shipped from the facility. Involves disassembly of equipment, cleaning and reassembly Technician Trainee - Technicians will learn to use an oscilloscope and multi-meter to trouble-shoot and repair malfunctioning hardware. Each individual will be trained thoroughly in the repair of one particular piece of equipment including CRT’s, terminals, keyboards, PC’s, mainframes, controllers, modems, and others. Parts Inventory - Responsible for maintaining inventory of more than 2,000 parts that the facility may handle at any one time. Support Staff - Deal with clients and techs via telephone to provide problem solving and clerical support. Full time positions also available. To apply, please call our Recruiting Department. E.O.E. Universal Computer Systems, Inc. (409) 846-1213 http://www.ucs-systems.com UCS hires non-tobacco users only. Ttie Bat-tail ion’s now off ori ng access to Tfi e WIRE multim&dfa n&ws s&r\rtczG for ffto In for not: from Tfio XKssodnforf f=*ross The WIRE provides continuously updated news coverage from one of the world's oldest, largest news services via The Battalion's wed page. • A comprehensive, up-to-the-minute news report combining the latest AP stories with photos, graphics, sound and video. - Headlines and bulletins delivered as soon as news breaks. 'fc»a-fc-wefc»--fcam«j .edu Irtt p»: