Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Super Model: Laura Jacobs was voted role-model of the year last year.
Role Model Program sets example by bringing adults into classroom
WG's Laura Jacobs was nominated as volunteer of the year for work helping kids
By Genevieve Roja
Once upon a time a man named Ron Gonzales, a Santa Clara County supervisor, visited a classroom. He was introduced to the class as "Mayor."
"You can't be Mayor," they said.
Gonzales asked why not.
"Because you're Hispanic and you can't hold an important job," they said, much to the shock of the adults present, including Gonzales.
The story isn't fiction; it actually happened about 11 years ago.
Stunned by the children's perception that he couldn't become a prominent figure because of his race, Gonzales piloted an educational program called Dare to Dream. He called on his friends in various professions to volunteer their services. They would spend time in the classroom, talking with students about what they do for a living and answering their questions.
Since then, Gonzales actually became San Jose's mayor, and despite his duties, he volunteers his time twice a year at middle schools countywide. The initial program is now called The Role Model Program, which uses the same elements of the pilot program.
The program enrolls working adults who volunteer to visit a middle school for four visits. The program is so effective that administrations from elementary schools have requested to bring Role Model into their classrooms. For the people involved with Role Model, the program helps young people not only realize their dreams, but helps them reach their potential.
"The message is that you can be empowered and that you can have your own life if you stay in school," says program manager Gail Wiest-Haywood. "It's so important for children to realize that people in this world care about them, that they take time out of their day to spend time with them."
That's what makes the program so important and effective, especially considering the number of working adults who can't make time for children, period. The program consists of adult volunteers who have contacted the organization, or completed an application posted on the program's website.
There is no cost to schools to have role models visit their classrooms. A nonprofit organization funded largely by grants and donations, Role Model seeks to inspire children who, when asked, cite superstars, such as Michael Jordan, as an adult influence.
That may change thanks to countless adults, including Gonzales and Willow Glen resident Laura Jacobs, who was nominated as the Role Model Program's volunteer of the year.
Jacobs, a senior financial advisor with Waddell and Reed Financial Services in Santa Clara, has been a volunteer with the program for three years.
Three years ago, Jacobs saw an ad for the program and decided to throw her hat into the ring by putting her time into the classroom.
"I think it makes a big different and you get immediate gratification," Jacobs says.
During a four-week session, Jacobs tries to teach children that, if they set goals and work hard, they can make all of their dreams come true. Jacobs says that if she can change the outlook or increase the self-confidence of one student, her time is well spent.
At the beginning of each new session, Jacobs gives her students $1,000 in fake cash. The students learn to put together a mutual fund and investment portfolio. Students buy stocks and get their own stock certificates. They track them over the four-week period.
Each week, Jacob brings in photocopies of the stocks page from The Wall Street Journal, and students can watch their stocks rise and fall.
Jacobs says through most of her classes, the market had been going up. Though in one of her classes the market went down--and so did the faces of her young students.
Jacobs says she, as thousands of others out there, are fortunate to live and be successful in the Silicon Valley. She says that everyone should give something back.
In the program, role models fill out applications and teachers, at schools where the program will be implemented, get information about them from the organization. This is so each volunteer role model can fit within the needs of the school. For example, if one school needs a music teacher, then Role Model can send someone with that background.
Volunteers make four one-hour visits to a classroom. During the first visit, role models discuss how they chose their professions. Students are asked how they choose their role models and keep track of their responses and ideas in an interactive workbook. On the second visit, students discuss empowerment and volunteers ask children about their strengths, Haywood says. On the role model's third visit, everyone talks about setting goals and how to go from graduating middle school to landing a job as a lawyer, for example. By the fourth visit, children learn about careers and how they can fit into an adult world.
"You'd have no idea how many of them don't know what's out there," Haywood says. "They make plans on how to get there."
One lawyer took his class to a courtroom to see him negotiate. One police officer in the mounted unit brought in his horse. Every role model in the program focuses on the program's three key concepts: education, empowerment and skills to make positive choices.
For more information on volunteering for The Role Model Program, contact 408.246.0433, or view the website at www.therolemodelprogram.org. Staff writer Chantal Lamers contributed to this story.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
