THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 27, 1995 TAG: 9511270050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
The 10 high school girls, all juniors and seniors, had a holiday air about them, wandering Hampton University's campus on a gray Saturday morning.
It was their first college tour. There would be a football game later.
And they had a day away from their babies, a day just to be teenagers.
The girls all were single mothers. But instead of listening to people who told them college wasn't in their future - and listening to research that shows only 1 percent of teenage mothers complete college by age 27 - they joined a program that can help realize their dream of higher education.
The College Advisory and Mentoring Program, or CAMP, is sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's Chesapeake-Virginia Beach Alumni chapter - a group of African-American professional women determined to make a difference in their community.
They're already making a difference in the teenagers' lives.
The program ``gives you support, shows you you're not alone,'' said 17-year-old Lakeysha Rawlings, a senior at Granby High School. Rawlings, who has a 7-month-old son, has already submitted her application to Hampton - encouraged by her CAMP mentors.
``Everyone told me if you have a child you can't do anything. You can't go to college,'' she said. ``But I want to go and get a good job so my son will see that mommy did it, he can do it.''
It's mid-October, and in the cafeteria at Norfolk's Booker T. Washington High School, 30 girls, some visibly expecting, swap pregnancy and labor stories. They're here at the behest of their guidance counselors and teachers, many of them Delta members, for the first meeting of CAMP this school year.
Delta Sigma Theta is a service sorority. Its mission is to foster education and economic development, political and economic awareness, and physical and mental health among African Americans.
The CAMP program was the brainchild of Christine Handy, a teacher at Granby High School, who was deeply shaken by her own sister's pregnancy in her last year of high school.
``She was the smartest of all of us,'' she told the girls during the orientation meeting. ``She was college-bound, and it broke my heart that she got sidetracked.''
So Handy and her sorority sisters are relentless in their efforts to ensure that the teens stay on track.
They call their charges ``wonderful young ladies,'' and continually hammer home their message of success. They seek to inspire by example - through their own sharp, professional dress; their clear, crisp diction; their jobs as lawyers, doctors and teachers.
CAMP participants meet twice monthly in sessions that take on the feel of a college boot camp.
There is no acceptance of the words ``can't,'' ``won't'' and ``don't.'' Instead, Delta members start with the assumption that the young women will go to college and be successful. That they just need some extra help.
And CAMP provides it.
Sorority members babysit for the girls' children during meetings, pay for transportation to meetings, arrange college tours and coach them in the essentials such as taking the Scholastic Assessment Test, writing essays for college applications and applying for scholarships and financial aid.
And they constantly push the girls to set high goals.
When one girl said she wanted to be a day-care worker, or maybe an assistant administrator at a day-care center, her Delta mentor gently corrected her. ``Why not be the director? Or the owner?''
When another girl confided that she had hoped to attend the exclusive Spelman College in Atlanta, but now was resigned to the Norfolk State or Old Dominion universities in order to remain near home, the Delta sister said: ``We still want you to go to Spelman.''
This is CAMP's second year. Last year, about 10 girls - most of them juniors - stayed with the program through June. One made it to college - Shaneika Lawrence, now enrolled full-time as an ODU freshman.
``They gave me lots of support,'' Lawrence, 18, said. ``It's nice to know that people still care and didn't down you. They helped me carry on my dream.''
She dreams of becoming an obstetrician. It is a dream she feared would have to be deferred when she became pregnant with her daughter, now 8 months.
``I thought the baby would slow me down,'' she said. Instead, the Delta sisters showed her a way to make college a reality. They helped her complete applications, find financial aid, budget her money and time. The sorority even awarded her a $1,000 scholarship.
Most importantly, the sorority provided role models. Like the dermatologist who spoke to the group one night, describing her own pregnancy during medical school.
Today, Lawrence is earning A's and B's at ODU, working part-time as a hairdresser and spending as much time as possible with her daughter.
``A lot of times the community shuns these girls,'' said president Cheryl Footman-Banks. ``They feel they can't succeed. We believe in our pregnant girls and have a sincere indication that a lot of teen mothers have an ability to achieve.''
Their encouragement has Shemika Williams, a 17-year-old junior at Granby High School, hoping to attend St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, which has a special program for single mothers. She's always wanted to major in nursing or physical therapy. But when she got pregnant with her son, now 1, Williams thought, ``There went that dream.''
But because of the sorority sisters' encouragement, she's dreaming again. ``They're always involved and interested in whatever you're doing,'' she said of the Delta women. Handy, who teaches at Williams' high school, checks in with her, checks up on her and shows that she cares.
``You hear all the time that you can't go to college because you had a baby,'' said 17-year-old Elizabeth Robinson, a junior at Granby High who has a 16-month-old son. ``But they gave us a hope that we can go to college and do more positive things.'' ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN
The Virginian-Pilot
CAMP participant Lakeysha Rawlings holds her 7-month-old son D'Andre
Hicks in their Norfolk home.
by CNB