Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993                   TAG: 9305050209
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SPEAKING, WRITING WELL WILL PAY OFF, CLASS LEARNS

Sherry Divers, Phonasa's fiancee who had brought their son to Daddy's class, said she and Sasit were up until 1 a.m. working on his talk.

The late hours paid off Tuesday.

Phonasa, a sophomore at the Roanoke City Alternative Education Center, for the first time didn't just read his speech. He looked at the audience as he spoke. He gestured.

And Jerry Powell, the Kroger Co. employee who runs the marketing class, was as proud as a papa.

Phonasa had gotten Powell's message: Being able to communicate is crucial to the success of an individual or a company.

"I know I've talked to each of you like my own children," Powell told the class in his farewell for the year. "There's a reason for that. I want you each to succeed."

The students attend the center because they haven't been able to achieve in regular classrooms.

The center is their last chance to stay in school, and Powell's opportunity to make a difference and carry out Kroger's corporate mission to "get more involved."

Powell, a Martinsville native, became coordinator of workforce diversity for Kroger's Mid-Atlantic Division in 1990. Before, he had spent several years in the company's management-training program, which he joined out of Hampton University.

Once in the new job, Powell's search for ways to get the food retailer more involved in the community led him to George Franklin, principal of the center. The Kroger "Education 2000" project was the result.

The program is in its second year. Its purpose is to improve students' writing and speaking skills, to acquaint them with business practices, and "to tell them about the real world," said Powell.

"We tell them what they will face if they don't learn how to write a resume or fill out an application," he said.

Getting into the class was the beginning of the real-world experience. The students had to apply and be interviewed and tested. Twelve were chosen from 25 applicants.

Since October, Powell and other members of the company's human resources staff have run weekly classes on topics varying from correct noun and verb use to proper display of merchandise. The students have toured a Kroger store and the company's distribution center in Salem and held mock shopping trips.

And they've given lots of presentations on what they have learned.

Powell said he has learned, too, that expectations for the alternative students have to be different than for students in regular classes.

"I feel good when they prepare a report and present it in written and oral fashion," he said. "I've had some students horrified at getting up in front of their peers."

Not Phonasa, though. Not Nickii Brown. And not Darlene Miller.

Phonasa won a "best all-round" student award and a $100 gift certificate Tuesday. Among the points in his talk:

"The management team's job is to take care of customers so they will come back to shop again."

Brown got the most-improved student award and a $75 certificate after discussing subjects like impulse buying. The senior works at Sears Telecatalog Center and plans to study computer science at Virginia Western Community College.

Miller, a 10th-grader who lost to Brown by just a few points, said she was soothed by past achievement.

As part of the mock shopping spree, students had to estimate food costs for a family of four for two days. Miller said her estimate was off "3 cents."