Keith Jackson flies to keep vow to witness graduations
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225377/
Years ago, Keith Jackson made a promise to attend the college graduation ceremonies of every child who advanced through his Little Rock-based outreach program for youth at risk of dropping out of school.
With a pilot class of only 25 eighth-graders in 1996, it didn’t seem like it would be difficult for the former National Football League tight end and Arkansas Razorback football radio analyst to keep his promise.
With more than 250 children enrolled in Jackson’s Positive Atmosphere Reaches Kids program, and 50 alumni enrolled in state colleges, making all of the graduations is getting more difficult.
This year, five program alumni will receive diplomas from Arkansas colleges and universities. Only four have graduated since the program’s inception.
On Saturday, two former enrollees graduated from Harding University at Searcy and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The ceremonies, separated by 210 miles of highway, were held just 2 1 / 2 hours apart.
So, Jackson found a creative — but expensive — solution: charter a private plane.
Having to spend $ 1, 200 on transportation to attend graduation ceremonies is a good problem to have, Jackson said.
It’s a sign that the nonprofit’s mission of changing the lives of Little Rock’s inner-city youth is working.
“We’ve sown seeds for so long,” Jackson said. “Now, we are starting to reap the harvest.”
In 1993, he launched the nonprofit that supports the program, after raising $ 1. 7 million in donations from foundations, corporations and philanthropists, many of them based in Little Rock. Jackson has spent $ 300, 000 of his own money, so far.
Today, the program has a $ 1 million budget that covers the entire $ 4, 000 cost of a student’s attendance. Jackson is working toward building a $ 10 million endowment that would generate $ 500, 000 annually. There is $ 3. 7 million pledged so far.
Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a donor and serves as president of the nonprofit’s fundraising board.
The program operates after-school and summer-school programs year-round out of its 65, 000-square-foot complex off Geyer Springs Road in southwest Little Rock.
Students enroll as eighthgraders and pledge to stick with the program through high school graduation. Students are accepted from all Little Rock and some Pulaski County Special School District schools.
Only students who are struggling academically, and are most at-risk of dropping out of school, are eligible.
Enrollees must have a gradepoint average between 1. 5 and 2. 5. That usually means the students are multiple grade levels behind in math and reading.
Only 33 percent of the eighthgraders who start the program finish.
Just like the two Saturday graduates’ roads to diplomas, Jackson’s Saturday trip was not without bumps.
He flew out of Little Rock into clear skies about 8: 30 a. m., but in the afternoon had to weave through thunderstorms on his way in and out of Fayetteville.
He made it to Searcy for the 10 a. m. Harding graduation with time to spare, and met with alumna Brittany Garry beforehand.
Garry, 22, who earned a bachelor of arts in communications disorders, said she would not have graduated from Harding if not for Jackson and the program. With more than $ 60, 000 in scholarship money, Garry’s Harding education didn’t cost her family anything.
She called graduating from Harding on Saturday her own personal miracle.
Jackson had to leave Harding’s ceremony early to make Justin Johnson’s 12: 30 p. m. graduation in Fayetteville.
Jackson walked into UA’s Barnhill Arena about 15 minutes after the ceremony started, but with plenty of time to see Johnson, 22, walk down the aisle.
The two embraced after Johnson walked off the stage, clutching his new diploma.
The transportation and logistics major already has a job in Dallas as an American Airlines sales representative serving corporate clients.
After the ceremony, Johnson said that he’s pleased he didn’t become another “negative statistic” like many blacks who grow up in Little Rock.
He was the only black graduate Saturday with a transportation and logistics major out of a class of about 40.
“PARK gave me the chance to succeed in anything I do,” he said. “This is unimaginable.”
Jackson promised to continue attending every alumni college graduation as long as there are enough hours in the day to do it.
There are 20 students set to enroll in four-year colleges next fall.
“I’ll rent a helicopter if I have to,” Jackson said.