THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505270404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
He was a 10th-grader at Norview High when he was suspended for the rest of the school year in February 1994 for fighting. A few months later, he was arrested on robbery and assault charges.
It was not his first scrape with the law. But on Friday, Michael Ricks, 18, vowed it would be his last.
Friday, with his mother and younger brother on hand, Ricks and five other juvenile offenders donned blue caps and gowns and became the first graduates of the Norfolk Marine Institute, an alternative education program designed to help troubled youth.
``I'm not the same person I was when I came in,'' Ricks said after the ceremony at Nauticus' Celebration Pavilion. ``This program teaches you to think twice before you act because if you don't you could be in a world of trouble.''
His mother, Hellice Ricks, shed a few tears and shouted ``Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! when his name was called to accept his diploma.
``I'm overjoyed,'' she said. ``This program really has been an inspiration to him, and he's stayed out of trouble.''
When he faced a Juvenile Court judge last summer, Ricks was given a last chance: go to the institute and try to get his life on track or spend time in a juvenile correction center.
Facing hard choices in life is what the institute is all about, said Lawrence G. Stewart Jr., its executive director.
``We use a simple reality system called choices and consequences,'' Stewart said. ``We basically let them know that it's their choice to be successful. We confront all negative behavior. What we try to do is to instill internal change.''
The institute, which does not house the students, opened to 40 students last August in a former office building on Avery Avenue along the Elizabeth River. Its annual budget of $450,000 is provided under a three-year contract with the state Division of Youth and Family Services and the city's public schools.
The institute is patterned after a successful approach developed by its parent company, Associated Marine Institutes Inc. of Tampa, which has 40 of the institutes nationwide. The goal is to prepare kids to get a job or return to the public school system, Stewart said.
One of the six graduates didn't attend Friday's ceremony because he was taking a test for his GED, the general equivalency diploma, an option for anyone without a high school diploma.
James Prosoco, the institute's aquatics instructor, said the institute uses the city schools' curriculum and teaches marine-related skills such as seamanship, knot-tying and scuba diving. Teachers work closely with the kids, gradually building trust, and help them develop social skills and positive ways to deal with anger.
``We recycle kids, we give them hope and a chance to succeed,'' Prosoco said. ``Tough love is the key. We promote family values, love and warmth. When they know you care, then they'll sit down and you can teach them.''
State Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, chairman of the Virginia Commission on Youth, helped convince the General Assembly to fund the program.
``A year ago these kids were almost being written off,'' said Jones, the keynote speaker at the graduation. ``This is a good investment. It's the type of prevention program we need to be supporting.''
Like Ricks, the other kids at the Norfolk institute, ages 14 to 18, were one step away from incarceration. Their crimes ranged from drug offenses and car theft to assault and burglary.
Scott Lange, 17, who also graduated Friday, had a long list of offenses and faced five years in a juvenile facility. He was given a chance at the institute instead.
Lange now has a job at a truck stop and has earned his GED, scoring highest in his class on the test. He plans to attend college.
Lange said he's made new friends, leaving behind the ones he said were bad influences. ``I learned to be a leader, not a follower.''
When he accepted his diploma, graduate Dennis Jerome Rogers thanked his mom, the institute staff and the juvenile service workers. ``Without them,'' he said, ``I'd probably be locked up or dead somewhere.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PAUL AIKEN, Staff
Albert Eure, academic coordinator of Norfolk Marine Institute, gets
a hug from Michael Ricks Friday during graduation.
by CNB