F R I D A Y APRIL 4, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 45
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
ResCouncil submits coed report to ResLife dean
Brown grad starts charter school in NY BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN
When Kristin Kearns Jordan ’91 graduated from Brown, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. Now, 12 years later, she has dedicated herself to helping children do something with theirs. Kearns Jordan is the founder and executive director of the Bronx Preparatory Charter School, a middle and high school aimed at preparing low-income children for college. The school is located in District Nine of the South Bronx, which has among the lowest reading and math test scores in New York, Kearns Jordan said. “The dropout rates are frightening” and the “educational opportunities are minimal,” she said. Bronx Prep uses a structured, skillbased program that is reading and math intensive in order to “make up a lot of ground,” Kearns Jordan said. One of the challenges has been “reworking what years of maltreatment or neglect from other schools” has done, said sixthgrade reading teacher Tara Kelley. Kearns Jordan said she has already seen much success in her scholars, as students are called at Bronx Prep. “It’s really making a difference,” she said. Only a quarter of the students in the district can read and do math at grade level, compared to one half of Bronx Prep students, she said. Bronx Prep has received excellent feedback thus far, Kelley said. Parents have cancelled plans to move because of the education their child receives at Bronx Prep, she said. In addition to preparing them academically to attend college, Kearns Jordan said she aims to prepare the students to identify themselves as college-bound. Since most students will be the first in their families to attend college, it is important to “start that identification process,” she said. Beginning in the fifth grade, Bronx Prep runs field trips to national universities, including Brown, during the school year and summer. Additionally, each classroom is identified by the name of a university, like Harvard and Princeton, the two sixth grade classes, she said. Kearns Jordan said they focus students’ attention on the top schools because those are the “schools that are going to motivate them to do well.” “I like the fact that this school — it’s goal is to get everyone to college. And that’s what my dream is also,” said eighth grader Eric Sanchez. Sanchez, who said he could not read a book by himself when he started at Bronx Prep in the sixth grade, also said he likes the school because it has “more expectations than what you would have at a public school,” he said. Kearns Jordan said she is pleased with the success of the school but said there is much work to be done. The two greatest challenges to charter schools are finding talented teachers and finding financial
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BY JULIETTE WALLACK
Residential Council submitted a report Wednesday night to Assistant Director of Residential Life Thomas Forsberg detailing the demand for co-ed suites. The report found that slightly over one-third of co-ed groups that entered the lottery received housing, and recommended expanding co-ed housing options. The report is an effort on the part of ResCouncil to convince the administration to increase the number of co-ed suites available, said Jesse Goodman ’04, ResCouncil policy chair. Goodman said the majority of complaints from the student body about the lottery this year focused on the availability of co-ed housing. Though the University has increased the number of co-ed suites available in the past few years, demand far exceeds supply, he said. Only 36.4 percent of the co-ed groups that entered the lottery were able to secure co-ed suites, according to the report. No co-ed sophomore group was Jason White / Herald
see RESCOUNCIL, page 4
Darrell Scott shared the story of his daughter’s life and death on Thursday night.
Father of Columbine victim urges simple acts of kindness BY XIYUN YANG
Amid the clearly audible crying of students touched by his daughter’s story, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine school shootings, urged students to reach out with simple acts of kindness. The lecture, sponsored by College Hill for Christ, drew a near full house to MacMillan’s Starr Auditorium. Beginning by dedicating the evening to those in the audience who had lost loved ones, Darrell Scott shared what he said was the eerily prophetic story of his daughter’s life and death. “In her life, Rachel was sure of two things: that her life will have a positive impact on millions of people and that she will die young,” he said. Rachel Scott’s friends, family and teachers, through video, all confirmed her affinity for calmly and comfortably stating this. Eleven months before her death, Rachel Scott wrote in her diary that it would be her last year on Earth. She profusely referred to herself as “God’s servant” in her writings, her father said. From the beginning, Darrell Scott differentiated between individuals who are religious and those who are spiritual and placed himself and his daughter in the latter group. “I can’t much stand to be around religious people,” he said. Darrell Scott cited his family’s faith in God as having pulled them through the tragedy.
Darrell Scott liberally quoted both from the Bible and his daughter’s diary, though the two at times converged. “Rachel was a true Christian, and there are very few of them. She never pushed anything. She was so confident in her faith, and she was beautiful to talk to,” said Brooks Brown, a friend who does not share Rachel Scott’s religious views, through video. Life is dominated and defined by the choices we make, Darrell Scott said. The two shooters, motivated by hate, made their choice through violence — Rachel Scott made hers through love and kindness, he said. “I’m not trying to preach to you — just trying to impart what little bit of wisdom that I have,” Darrell Scott said. Because she prophesied her early death, his daughter lived her life with a sense of urgency, he said. “Tomorrow is not a promise but a chance,” she wrote in her diary. Darrell Scott challenged audience members to appreciate their loved ones and, as future leaders, to make choices that will change the world in positive ways. “It’s amazing that he changed a tragedy into a blessing,” said Emily Love ’05, who cited difficulty in celebrating her Christian beliefs at Brown. “I feel like I just got punched in the face by real life,” said Forest Huls ’04. Herald staff writer Xiyun Yang ’06 can be reached at xyang@browndailyherald.com.
Brown student-run outreach program raises money for homeless in Calif. BY JESSICA WEISBERG
The story of Lilu, an outreach program founded by Libby Abbott ’06, begins on a slow summer day, when Abbott and her friend Lucia Plumb Reyes began sewing to ease their boredom. “We ended up making two really nice handbags and started talking about selling them and donating the money to benefit at-risk teenagers,” Abbott said. Four years later, Lilu (a combination of the founders’ names) has achieved great fame in Sacramento, Calif., where Abbott and Reyes attended high school, and has raised almost $20,000 for Works in New Directions, a center for homeless teenagers in downtown Sacramento. Abbott is now stretching the organization to bi-coastal proportions, beginning in the fall with a workshop for the Providence branch of Youth in Action, a nationwide organization dedicated to empowering at-risk teenagers. “I’m really excited to run the workshop,” Abbott said. “I’m hoping to get RISD students involved, so they can teach more technique.” Abbott also hopes the youths who participate in the workshop will change Lilu for the better. “The workshop will allow the kids to be helping themselves and it will be less of an elite, philanthropist activity,” she said.
see SCHOOL, page 10
see LILU, page 4
I N S I D E F R I D AY, A P R I L 4 , 2 0 0 3 Tim Robbins is among those speaking at the star-studded Ivy Film Festival this weekend arts & culture, page 3
Egg assaults, protein bar thefts among incidents reported in month of March page 5
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Post- asks Jedediah Purdy all the questions he’s too afraid to ask himself magazine
Alex Carnevale ’05 offers hope that the Iraq war will prove beneficial opinions, page 15
W. tennis returns from California ready to capture on Ivy League title sports, page 16
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