A Clear Road Ahead

Lamantice Givens was sure he didn’t want to be hanging out with people who never graduated from high school. He also knew he would need help to make sure he wasn’t one of them and he found it through Communities In Schools.

Lamantice Givens’ future is wide open.  He has plans, he has support and most importantly, he has a high school diploma – something that wasn’t always a sure thing.  “I doubt I would have graduated from high school if it weren’t for Communities In Schools,” Givens said.

In June, he graduated from El Dorado High School in Las Vegas.  But he’s the first to admit that he wouldn’t have walked across the stage to receive a diploma if it hadn’t been for the efforts of Lou Antoine, Communities In Schools of Nevada’s director of the Fellows Academy.  “I slacked off in my senior year and got lazy after having done pretty well the other three years,” he explained.

Then, he said, he looked around at the people he knew who didn’t graduate and realized he didn’t want to be hanging out with them when school was over.  It was serendipitous that he found the motivation and support he needed from Communities In Schools.  “I went to my guidance counselor and he told me I was already signed up for the Fellows Academy class.”  The Fellows Academies are designed to ensure that high school seniors at risk for dropping out complete all their credits for graduation.

The class, explained Antoine, is offered by Communities In Schools of Southern Nevada in area schools to help students who may need credit to graduate.  For example, an English teacher is part of the class offering students like Lamantice the opportunity to get credits for English that they missed earlier.  The class also offers life skills, job preparation and consumer education.

After that, Lamantice’s future went from looking foggy to crystal clear.  “Being in the class with other students I wouldn’t have talked to otherwise showed me how cool it was to work hard.”

And then there was “Mr. Lou,” as Lamantice politely calls him.  “He did so much for me.”  Antoine helped Lamantice get glasses and found a short-term job for him.  He stayed in touch throughout the time Lamantice was in the class and continues to check in with him today.

Antoine pays back the credit Lamantice gives him in kind.  “He was willing to work, learn and listen.  For instance, I’m the president of the Las Vegas Civitan Club.  The parent organization was holding a conference in Las Vegas, and I asked the kids in the class if they would be interested in making some money by working at the convention.  They had to get up early to do the job.  Lamantice was the only one who said yes.

“I picked him up at 6:00 a.m. every day of the four-day convention.  The vice president of Civitan International noticed his work and said he did a great job.  It was his first paid job and he was fantastic at it.”

“This young man has overcome some obstacles to get to this point.  He has never gotten along well with his stepmother, which caused him to stay out of his house a lot of the time.  His parents did not push Lamantice to succeed in school,” said Antoine.  Lamantice relied on teachers and Antoine to give him the support and drive he needed.

It worked.  “When I started in high school, I did all my work but then I got lazy.  I needed to persist so I could graduate and Mr. Lou gave me that.”

While Lamantice was only with Communities In Schools for a short time – during the second semester of his senior year – both Lamantice and Antoine believe it turned him around.  “He took part in everything Communities In Schools offered him, from field trips to life skills workshops to community service projects,” Antoine said.

“He’s a respectful young man who is very grateful and thanks the people who help him.  And he’s someone you can count on.”

With those qualities and the persistence he regained with the support of Antoine and Communities In Schools, Lamantice is set to be the first person in his family to attend college.  He attends the College of Southern Nevada, where he is studying criminal justice, business management and marketing.  He would like to be a police officer, he said. As far as Lamantice is concerned, the road ahead is clear all the way to the horizon.

January 2010