COLUMN: Influence a child's life today

From: Delia Vallejo's, "Journey to Aztlan," Fall '97 From: Delia Vallejo's, "Journey to Aztlan," Fall '97 Can you remember at what point in your childhood you decided you wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor when you grew up? Maybe your father or your mother is a lawyer, and so, you grew up knowing you would be one too. Or maybe five generations of your family had gone to college, so that was a given in your life as well. Many of us are very lucky to have people -- not just our parents -- in our lives who pushed us to achieve. Where would we be without all our role models to whom we looked when we needed guidance and support? We probably wouldn't be at Penn today.From: Delia Vallejo's, "Journey to Aztlan," Fall '97 Can you remember at what point in your childhood you decided you wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor when you grew up? Maybe your father or your mother is a lawyer, and so, you grew up knowing you would be one too. Or maybe five generations of your family had gone to college, so that was a given in your life as well. Many of us are very lucky to have people -- not just our parents -- in our lives who pushed us to achieve. Where would we be without all our role models to whom we looked when we needed guidance and support? We probably wouldn't be at Penn today. I define role models as people who can shape your life explicitly through advice and implicitly through example, especially as a child and as a teenager. They play an imperative role in our lives and we all need them. There are so many children who lack positive influences in their lives which is unfortunate because everyone should have someone in their corner -- their own champion or someone they wish to emulate. I believe role models make the difference between success and failure in life, especially for a child who may be surrounded by negative influences such as violence and drugs. The University has several programs such as the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project and the ACELA-ACAMP program that bring college students into the lives of children who are in need of a positive influence. Everyone who volunteers in tutoring and mentoring programs for children can probably tell you how receptive kids are to the attention given to them. Because we attend an urban university, we don't have to travel far to find children who suffer from the ills of the inner-city. If you find you have a couple of free hours in your week and enjoy being around kids, consider tutoring or mentoring someone. A couple of weeks ago, my tutee didn't feel like doing homework. He just wanted to talk. This 9-year-old boy wanted to tell me about his nine brothers and sisters and about becoming an uncle again when his teen-age sister had her second baby. He said, "I don't want to have no kids until I'm grown because then you can't take care of them. That's why my daddy left us." He proceeded to tell me he lives with his grandmother and that his mother gave her children up because of her drug problems. His maturity shocked me as he told me he didn't hate her, and he just wanted her to get better. "I want to be a football player when I grow up because they make a lot of money and I want to buy a big house," he said. Of course he also told me he wants to go to college because it will be easier to get recruited to the NFL that way. It's too bad he doesn't play football more often but he doesn't have a ball. I was trying to convince him of the virtues of a business degree, but he was not buying it. Maybe next time, I will try to talk him into pursuing a career in law, or maybe medicine. In the meantime, I think I will buy him a football. I cannot say with certainty how much it affects him and the other children we tutor to spend several hours every week with a group of Penn students. However, I do know they look forward to studying, talking and playing games with us. A child always needs an example. How else will many of these children be exposed to the possibility of attending college? Sadly, for the majority of them, we are the only people in college they know. We are one of the few people who can tell them about the world waiting for them outside of their neighborhood. It does not take much to give a little time to potentially change the course of their lives. Hopefully, some of these kids will be going to Penn or other universities when they graduate from high school.