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UP FRONT
People
Soldier of good fortune
Former Marine commands respect from kids
By Doris Bloodsworth
Just few years ago, Andrew Turman was a Marine Corps corporal trained and ready to defend his country. Now he's waging a different kind of battle - rescuing inter-city children.
Turman, 28, is one of 25 veterans enrolled in Soldiers to Scholars, The program, a brainchild of Rep. Alzo J. Reddick, D-Orlando, recruits former members of the military, enrolls them in college and encourages them to act as role models for at risk children. "Its a way I can give back to the community," says Turman, who was born and grew up in Orlando.
In addition to his full-time job as a corrections officer at the state's Central Florida Reception Center, he attends classes at Valencia Community College, supports his wife Carla, also a student, and spends time with sons Jarrell, 9, and Aaron, 3.
Three days a week, Turman mentors inner-city children, taking them to the Orlando Public library, helping them with their homework and teaching biology by showing them how to grow their own flowers and vegetable gardens. He believes it is time well spent. "If we don't invest time and influence them positively, there are lots of things out in the world that will influence them negatively," Turman says of the school-age children he mentors.
In 1992, when he discharged from Camp Pendleton in California, Turman's primary goal was to establish roots for his young family back in his hometown. He landed a job with the state corrections department in Orlando. His career was interrupted for almost a year while he helped liberate Kuwait in the Gulf War. He credits his wife for encouraging him to go to college after the war. Turman is finishing up at VCC and plans to attend the University of Central Florida before entering optometry school. "She said, 'You can do it, you can succeed,- he recalls.
It was actually Carla Turman, who is working toward a degree in health services administration, who first heard about the Soldim to Scholars program from a fellow student at Barry University. She was excited about the prospect of her husbands receiving financial aid for school, which included assistance for an apartment. "It was a Godsend for us," she said. "It allows us to have a roof over our head, go to school and help the younger community."
The scholars live in the remodeled Madison Pointe Apartments on Rio Grande Avenue, where they receive a break on the rent in return for their volunteer service with the neighborhoods children. In the case of the Turmans, they pay $250 a month for a three-bedroom apartment.
Former service members also receive subsidized tuition and books, as long as they attend class and keep their mentoring commitment of at least 20 hours a month.
Since the Soldiers to Scholars program started in July 1995, hundreds of people, some from as far away as Germany and Korea, have contacted the program administrators at the University of Central Florida. So far, the fledgling program boasts 10 graduates, with eight alumni teaching in Orange County schools. Still, as an educator and legislator, Reddick is far from satisfied. "It feels like I have completed about 10 percent of the dream, he said. I would like to see 100 scholars and 500 children involved."
Reddick, who grew up in the Parramore area of Orlando, identified a need for positive black male role models in inner-city schools. Calling on his own experiences, where he served in the Army in the early 1950’s and later went on to earn his boctorate in education, Reddick saw the downsizing of the military as the perfect resource for his vision.
Although the Soldiers to Scholars is not based on race or gender, black males who make up about 30percent of the military, are targeted. These individuals often are highly motivated men who provide mature leadership for inner-city children. Reddick said.
Turman is proof the dream has become a reality. But Carla Turman says her husband's role is much larger. "My husband is not just a role model for the children," she said. "He's a role model for the men in the community. Andrew's always met his responsibilities. He's a father, he's a son, he's the total picture of a man."
No wonder Reddick says, "Car you imagine if I had 10,000 Andrew Turmans?"
The prisoners Turman sees daily are constant reminders of how important his efforts are with each child. "If someone gives these children inspiration early" he said, "its less likely I will have to attend to them later
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The Orlando Sentinel
Monday, August 21, 1995
Page- A- 10
Boost for ranks of role models
What's missing from the lives of many children growing up in urban neighborhoods is a strong, responsible male role model. That lack of male guidance contributes to misbehavior In schools and crime in the street.
An intriguing project has been introduced in Orlando, though, to address that problem. The idea. a brainchild of Florida Rep. Alzo Reddick, in cooperation with the University of Central Florida, is to recruit as inner-city teachers men who are leaving the military because of defense cuts. Under the plan they would get their teacher training at UCF and, while being trained, would be hired to work as teacher aides in the schools. That worthy experiment deserves attention.
The program also would provide participants with a rent subsidy to live in a newly renovated apartment complex in an urban neighborhood. The money for the rent subsidy would be provided by the Housing Finance Corporation. The Florida Department of Labor would provide money to market the program to people preparing to leave the military.
The program emphasizes recruiting black males because 83 percent of the black families in America are headed by a single parent, usually the mother.
The project provides potent! al solutions to a number of problems because it:
-- Offers a challenging new career path to people leaving the military.
--Has the potential to put more male role models into public schools.
--Has the potential to put more positive male role models into neighborhoods where their presence can be a stabilizing factor.
The project will allow the former military men to pass on to young people the lessons they have learned of leadership. self-confidence and teamwork Obviously the Project alone, will not be able to solve all the problems of inner-city neighborhoods, but it can be a significant part of the solution
(This article is out of date, several statements are wrong, i.e. no tuition assistance and the amount of rental subsidy)
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The Orlando Sentinel
August 14, 1995
p. 1, Local & State
UCF seeks role models for black kids
Wanted: Black men who lost a military or defense job
and want to study to be teachers.
By Shirish Date
OF THE SENTINEL STAFF
The University of Central Florida is looking tonight for a few good African-American ex-soldiers, and ex-defense contractors who want to become teachers. And while they're learning how, they will serve as role models in a neighborhood that, until recently, was among Orlando's most drug infested.
In a joint project at UCF and the State, the university wants anyone who lost a military job - black males are preferred but others are welcome - to learn how to be a teacher. While attending college they will live in the Rio Grande Apartments, which before a recent cleanup was the site it persistent drug-trafficking.
"We're trying to reclaim the inner city by having African-American military people model behavior for the community.'' said state Rep. Alzo Reddick, D-Orlando.
Black teachers, particularly men, are needed in schools because they am sorely underrepresented in the profession, according to studies. One 1994 'survey found that less than 26 percent of the 4.2 million teachers in the country are male, and 9.3 percent are black. A 1992 survey found that black children make up 13 percent of students in kindergarten through 12th grade. "We're encouraging African-American males" to apply, Reddick said.
Applicants must have lost a defense-related job either in the military or with a defense contractor, hold a high school degree with a 2.5 grade-point average or better and live in Florida. Those who already have their bachelor's degrees will study for their Florida teaching certification
Although no tuition assistance .is offered, those who take part are eligible for subsidies of up to $200 a month, depending on their financial situation, toward the $400 to $500 rent.
Reddick said that although the financial inducement isn't much, those who fit the bill should apply, 'both to help themselves and help young people in the neighborhood, grow up around strong, self-disciplined men and women.
Charles Hite program manager for Defense Transition Services said UCF's contract with the state calls for at least 40 students in the program by the end of September but they will take more. "We'll take as many as we can get," Hite said.
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Soldiers to Scholars
By William Raspberry
Monday, November 23, 1598; Page A23
You don't have to admonish Alzo J. Reddick to pull himself together. The University of Central Florida educator has made a second career of pulling himself together, weaving the disparate elements into a potentially transforming approach to education.
There's Alzo, the burly footballer who boasts of playing (he doesn't say how successfully) against Deacon Jones when both were high school jocks In Orlando. There's Sarge Reddick, who decided 30-odd years ago that a military career wasn't for him and who landed a job as high school teacher and coach within a month after leaving the service. There's Doc Reddick, whose doctorate in education attests to his determination to be a leader In his profession. There's state Rep. Reddick, a member of the Florida legislature since 1982. And, of course, there's Alzo "The Dreamer" Reddick, who came up with the UCF program he calls "Soldiers to Scholars."
Reddick says that his program is an adaptation of "Troops to Teachers," an alternative certification idea that came out of the American Federation of Teachers a few years back. But what an adaptation. "You're right," he told me after reading my recent column on alternative certification for public school teachers. "Recruiting teachers for inner cities is especially difficult. We need highly motivated, positive role models, particularly in the African American community. The military does provide a ready source of these types of can-do individuals, but many of them leave the service ineligible for the Troops to Teachers program - even though many of them do have excellent leadership skills and a strong desire to teach."
"Soldiers to Scholars" recruits these former service members, enrolls them in college and points them toward careers in teaching. "That just the beginning though," Reddick told me. "When these soldiers enter our program, they agree to live in an inner-city apartment complex, provide after-school mentoring for at-risk children at a nearby elementary school, and act as positive role models in their community - all while taking classes as full-time students.
The results, he says, include the creation of a cadre of male role models for neighborhoods in which they are in notoriously short supply and the transformation of Orlando's drug-ridden Franciscan Apartments into the safer, cleaner, drug-free Madison Point Apartments. "The idea came out of my work as educator and legislator," he says. "It dawned on me that the people I would see in prisons when I made my rounds of the state correctional facilities as a member of the legislature were just grown-up versions of the kids I saw in special-ed classes as a teacher. It became something of a fixation with me to try to do something
about it." He talked Central Florida into establishing a special program for former service members interested in teaching, and he talked the Florida Housing Corp. into subsidizing the Madison Point rent for his recruits. "They get a three-fifths housing subsidy and free tuition, but no salary, while they are In school. We require them to live in the complex, to do volunteer service, keep their grades up and work toward on-time graduation," he says.
"Most are black men, mostly single, but one of the beauties of the program is that we've also had a number of families in the program. I can't tell you what a profound impact our scholars have on this one community (which includes what used to be five of Orlando's lowest-achieving schools) - and what impact they could have in so many troubled areas. And schools are waiting for our graduates. I have a guy who's graduating next month and has three job offers even before he completes certification."
Soldiers to Scholars, launched in 1995, boasts just 10 graduates so far, six or seven teaching in Orange County schools. But 27 enrollees now are living at Madison Pointe. Says Reddick: "We have taken two negatives - downsized military personnel and the urban education crisis - and created a positive: excellent teachers and role models for the children who need them most."
That's one way of looking at It. I prefer to think that this remarkable man took inventory of the elements that make up his experience, his assets and his most basic concerns - and pulled himself together.
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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