THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409100058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Poised at the Threshold
The Class of '95 is roaring to get going in life's race
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
When he traveled to Germany last spring for a 9 1/2-week vocational exchange program for high school students, LeVar Thornton took along his radio. After he settled into his host family's home outside Munich, he tried plugging it in.
The plug wouldn't fit. For LeVar, who wants to become an electrician, the experience was a bit, well, shocking.
``I always thought the whole world works like it does over here,'' LeVar said. He realized he still had a lot to learn - about life, about his chosen career path.
It is LeVar's eagerness to learn and his quiet determination that most impress his teachers at Booker T. Washington High and the Norfolk Technical Vocational Center. They have watched him gain the skills and confidence to be a success in the ``real world.''
``He's got all of the attributes that you could ask for in an employee,'' said Ted Morton, LeVar's construction-electricity teacher at the ``voc tech'' center. ``I guess you could say he's got his act together. He knows where he's going.''
As a kid, LeVar spent hours taking toys apart and trying to put them back together. It challenged his mind. He liked working with his hands. By middle school, LeVar had pretty much decided his life's work.
Now 17 and in his last year of high school, LeVar's ambition after graduation next June is to land an electrician's apprenticeship with a local company.
College doesn't interest him. His ultimate goal, which could take up to 10 years, is to qualify as a master electrician. Then he could become an independent contractor and start his own company.
He wants to make a lot of money, though not necessarily get rich. The important thing, he said, is to be free of financial worries and to earn enough to support a wife and kids, if he decides to have a family.
In January, the start of his final semester, LeVar hopes to enter a ``work release'' program. Instead of going to the voc-tech center, he would hold a job in his field and earn class credit.
But there is no guarantee that a job will be available; a lot depends on the economy, Morton said.
LeVar was born in Norfolk. He lived with his mom until she died when he was 11.
Now, he resides in a Norview townhouse with his dad, George Williams, stepmother Renee Dillard and two younger brothers, 4 and 5 years old. He has two older sisters and an older brother no longer at home.
Two people he admires most are his dad, a truck driver for a food company, and oldest brother, Shawn Thornton, a mechanic.
``My father is the big reason I stayed out of trouble,'' LeVar said. ``He wants all his sons and daughters to do better than him.
``I have to work for it. That's the only way I can get what I want - books, stay in school, do well in my grades.''
LeVar arrives at Booker T. about 7:15 a.m. for three academic classes - consumer chemistry, composition and algebra. Around 10:30, he grabs a quick lunch, hops in his 1984 Ford Mustang GT and drives across town to the voc-tech center.
LeVar got the car about three weeks ago. He needed his dad's permission, but LeVar intends to pay for it. For the past couple months he has earned spending money at a Norfolk convenience store.
The maroon sports car gleams. He plans to install a cassette player and speakers in the car. Before long, it'll be jammin' with the ``bad'' sounds of Rap and R&B.
His friends call him ``Var.'' Last week as he walked Booker T.'s crowded hallways between bells, he exchanged greetings with a seemingly endless stream of buddies.
In his spare time - what little he has - LeVar shoots hoops, hangs out at the mall with friends and ``chases girls.''
He lettered in high school basketball, soccer and track. But he decided not to play sports this year. In his senior year, he doesn't want to be distracted from his career plans.
Last year, he made the ``A-Team'' at the voc-tech center and had better than a 95 percent attendance record. At Booker T., he pulled mostly Bs and a few Cs in his academic classes.
``I want to go out of high school with at least a B average,'' LeVar said. ``There's no reason now to let my grades slip.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Motoya Nakamura
LeVar Thornton
by CNB