Marc Starnes, former Dukie now in public health grad school at Hopkins, sent us this note. While he's right in that it's not exactly what we normally do, giving a smart kid in a tough
situation some help is very cool. If anyone can help Marc and his pal Tyrell out, or the
organization, it'd be great. It's a chance to change a kid's life, and that's a great feeling.
Having worked at a Boys Club, we can guarantee you that little things make a much, much bigger difference than you could imagine.
Perhaps the DC Duke Club might be interested?
If you want to help, please contact Marc at mstarnes@jhsph.edu (just click on that e-mail address, it should pop up in your e-mail client) and we're sure he'll help you do it.
We'd love to see something cool happen here, either with Tyrell or another area
kid. Here's hoping Tyrell is a future Crazie!
I am a 4th year doctoral student at the Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health. I check in on DBR about 2 times a day on average. Thanks for the
site. Thanks also for responding to previous letters I have written to you.
I have a thought/suggestion that I wanted to pass to you folks at DBR.
I have mentored a 13 year-old African American boy in East Baltimore named
Tyrell Jones for 4 months, at about 10-15 hours per week. I met Tyrell
through a program that I have been an instructor at from 94-99, the Center
for Talented Youth (CTY). In this program, kids who score really high
(like above 1000) on the SAT in the 7th grade qualify for a 3-week in the
summer. Duke sponsors the Talent Identification Program (TIP) just like
CTY where I also taught math at from 89-93. I was a student at TIP from
84-87.
Many proven smart but poor kids in Baltimore city (like Tyrell) qualify but
don't attend CTY b/c they can't afford it, just like Triangle kids don't
attend TIP. It has become a rich kids camp.
Being a big bro has been arguably the most rewarding experience of my life.
Tyrell goes to Dunbar MS (yes, the hoops Dunbar) and has no dad and little
money. Through talking to people, I've gotten donations of a computer and
a printer and other items for Tyrell. He still has no health insurance...I
won't go on.
I was wondering if DBR was interested in one of the following:
1) Giving people a number to call where they could donate a used working
computer, printer (anything that could act as a word processor, or more) to
a poor gifted child in the Baltimore/DC area. I know a person with CTY
that would pick these computers up, and people with tech will "pretty much"
fix any computers that are being donated just b/c they are not Y2K
compliant. I have done this on a small scale at the school of public
health and it has been hugely successful. Everyone upgrades!!
2) Doing something specific with Tyrell? This kid has done nothing in his
life. I took him to an O's game (his first at age 13) and it was like he
was on the moon.
Boswell, while Tyrell speaks poor english, this kid is smart. He has
seriously beaten me in chess, and has great talent in math. Many kids like
Tyrell just end up in jail (especially in Baltimore) because they are not
given the advantages many of us had. Any little bit helps a lot.
IF this is not something for this site, I understand. I appreciate your time.
Many thanks.