New Haven Independent

Dandre Amos (pictured) is one of a group of high-achieving sixth-grade students from New Haven public schools enrolled in Yale’s US Grant summer school program. In a wrap-up session of a civil rights class this week, students took turns giving passionate speeches on their topic of choice.

More often than not, the students came down on the tough side of ongoing society debates: One girl blasted rap music for its negative influence on middle school kids; another intoned that, as far as criminals were concerned, “prisons aren’t enough.”

After each speech, a pair of volunteer judges - minister Kevin Ewing (pictured in middle) and Alan Soloway (pictured at right), an Assistant US Attorney for the District of Connecticut - weighed in on the students’ performance. Plus points were given for passion and eloquence, but pointing at the audience was deemed a little “too much.”

For the past six weeks, summer school students had been waking up early to attend classes taught by eight Yale undergraduates. The teachers, most of whom had no prior experience in the classroom, came up with their own curriculum at the outset of the program, and led some 80 students between the 6th and 9th grades through a full schedule of classes at Dwight Hall.

Sam Purdy, a sophomore who taught a civil rights class, said he enjoyed opening students’ minds to analysis and scholarly methods—so much so that he was considering a career in education.

“[The 6th graders] learned that there were black people who didn’t support Martin Luther King, and white people who did,” he said. “It was their first time learning something in an abstract way…not everything is black and white.”

The Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, Purdy said, has catered to New Haven students since 1953, and has always been staffed by Yale students. Originally, the summer program was designed to teach young black men about the classics, he added.

At Wednesday’s event, many students gave tightly-structured, well-written speeches with remarkable aplomb. Isabel Courtelis, a chic young lady with bow-strap shoes, railed humorously against the ills of not paying attention at school; and David Elkin-Ginneti harangued his audience (with a smile) on the “evil” of eating meat.

One young boy (pictured) gave a speech that offered a moving insight into New Haven crime and gang violence, as seen from the perspective of a 12-year-old. He described lying awake one night in his former home in the Hill, unable to sleep because his street was ablaze with sirens in the aftermath of a shooting.

Read on for an extract of Dandre Amos’ speech, “On Gang Violence.”

“I am here today to discuss the issue of gang violence and why we do not need it.
A gang is a group of criminals or hoodlums who join together for a sense of protection and in some cases for profit. Why does anyone join a gang you might ask? They join to feel a sense of belonging and for recognition and membership.”

“Since the summer began, there has been several reports of gang activity in several New Haven neighborhoods like the Hill and Newhallville. In these neighborhoods and others like them, opposing gangs fight each other for supremacy among other things. They kill each other, wound each other and innocent lives are constantly in danger. The routines of law-abiding citizens are compromised and there is much fear and worry among them.”

“The issue is personal for me because the neighborhood that I lived in previously had some gang activity. Teens and minors loitered on our property, used profanity and broke into our neighbor’s car and stole his briefcase. There were times when young boys stole cars and tried to hide them in our back yard. One night a murder was committed close to my home, I could hear the gunshots and the police sirens through my window as I tried to sleep. It made me feel nervous and scared that the same thing might happen to me. Soon after that, my mom and I moved away. In my current neighborhood, I see no loiterers, no one uses profanity that I can hear but best of all, I feel safer than I did before.”

“In order to decrease the interest in gangs, adolescents need to have positive role models. These could be their parents, their teachers, family members and friends or anyone who has a positive effect on them that can help them to make better decisions for their lives.”

“I am happy that I have positive role models in my life in my mom, my teachers, and my other relatives and friends. I am also involved in different activities that keep me busy and out of trouble. I think that one solution to keep minors and adolescents out of gangs is family support and encouragement. Parents should always be aware of where their children are and what they are doing. They should know the friends of their children, monitor the video games they play and search their rooms periodically for anything that might indicate that there might be trouble like weapons, drugs, or anything mysterious. The parents can then take steps to get help for their child and offer support and encouragement as needed.”

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