New Haven Independent

Teron joined about 25 honor roll students from Connecticut Scholars, a satellite program of the Wilbur Cross High School, for lunch Tuesday. The Ella T. Grasso Boulevard school has 188 freshmen and sophomores. The program, in its second year, takes eighth-graders who would be headed for “middle-of-the-road” tracking at Cross and, with intensive academic study for two years, aims at returning them to Cross as honor students their junior year. Students who made honor roll this year were rewarded with the chance to sit down with businessmen and community leaders for lunch at the exclusive Elm Street club, arranged by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

Teron, a sophomore, already knew a few adults in the room from participating in drama programs with different community groups. Like his friends at the table, he’s been involved in a ton of activities, including Yale’s Open End Theater group and Yale’s Saturday Seminars.

So has sophomore Miya Brooks: an aspiring pediatrician, she’s in a group called the HA Sisters (for HIV and AIDS) — a group of teens who educate others about STDs. She also takes criminal justice classes at the Saturday Seminars.

These are kids who seize opportunities and study hard to boot. Still, when you ask a table of them if there are enough activities for teens, the answer comes echoing back as a resounding “No!” Especially in the summer. What would they like to see?

“A public swimming pool,” said Brooks, “a community pool where you can walk to.” And sit out in the sun. She’d even take the bus if she had to. Someone pointed out a couple school pools. And LEAP has a pool, too.

“LEAP — I think that’s the best program New Haven has,” said Laura Rivera (pictured). She lamented the program’s loss of funding over the years. “We went to Mississippi with them; we had a lot of fun.” Brooks went camping for the first (and last) time with LEAP. These days they find there’s less to do.

“To me there’s a lot of stuff but it’s hard to find it,” countered Toren. He’s already involved in the Centro San José community center, where “every day they have something new for the youth.” He’s working on a newspaper called Teen Voices to get more teens involved. In his free time, he hangs out with friends — “We don’t have to do anything, just talking,” hanging out. “That would be better — a place to hang out.”

Abelardo Martinez (in picture at top, at left) said he spends his summers hanging out with friends in Fair Haven. It would be nice to do “something else instead of the same thing over and over,” he said. Like summer courses, baseball or soccer.

Students at other tables lamented the lack of after school programs. Adrain Hart says he spends his summers “partying.” He’d like to be a camp counselor if he got the chance, or get some kind of job to earn money for the mall.

Sophomore Al Bowman agreed “working with kids” would be a good way to spend the summer. For now, he’s happy just being really involved in school — student council, and recruiting other kids to go to Connecticut Scholars. And he was pleased with the lunch: “It’s not only a reward — it’s showin’ us they know what we’re doing.”

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