By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia

Tre’ Ross, Bodhi Roberts and Noe Recendiz took the stage in
front of several hundred University of Georgia faculty and
staff. The middle school boys stared at their feet and glanced
occasionally at the crowd before presenting their boldly
colored painting, centered on the word “Involved,” to a group
of UGA deans.

Three years ago, they wouldn’t have had this opportunity. Three
years ago, they were constantly getting into trouble, and BOYS
(Building Our Youth’s Skills) didn’t exist.

BOYS is a program designed specifically for struggling middle
school boys, said Mary White, a UGA Cooperative Extension
agent. Its aim is to make sure these boys are promoted to the
next grade level on time and that they develop social,
behavioral and independent living skills.

“It’s very gratifying,” said Booker T. Hobbs, who leads the
Candler County, Ga., BOYS program, along with Ken Dekle. “You
see it in their eyes that you’re making a difference in their
lives. It’s very satisfying.”

Off the stage, Ross, Roberts and Recendiz opened up to
questioning slowly. Recendiz, a sixth-grader, said his favorite
thing about the BOYS program was “meeting new people —
actually, everything about BOYS.”

Ross, also a sixth-grader, loves the trips. Roberts, a seventh-
grader, enjoys playing sports.

Before they were introduced to the BOYS program, many of the
students had never traveled outside Candler County. Now they’ve
gone to Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton, Ga., a UGA
basketball game, a Georgia Southern University football game, a
Savannah Sand Gnats baseball game and an ice-skating rink.

“We got to see the locker room at Sanford Stadium,” Ross
said. “It’s nice.”

It’s not all fun and trips. “We’re busy after school,” he
said. “Mr. Booker stays on us about our homework.”

The project started in Candler County in May 2003, when White
received a $250,000 Children, Youth and Families-at-Risk grant
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service. The grant continues
through 2008.

The program began with 34 fourth- and fifth-grade boys and now
has 45 fifth- through seventh-graders.

“Working closely with this group has given me a tough look at
the challenges many young people have in their lives,” White
said. “It’s going to take that whole village to help many of
our kids succeed, and sometimes I’m not sure the ‘village’
cares enough.”

“The fourth- through seventh-grade kids are in limbo,” said
Sharon Gibson, CYFAR coordinator for the UGA College of Family
and Consumer Sciences. “They’re not little babies and not
teens. They were falling through the cracks. If we didn’t grab
hold of them while they were in middle school, we would lose
them. Realizing this, we said, ‘we’ve got to do something.’”

For some of these boys, the program is the first place they’ve
had someone use the word college in a sentence connected to
them, Gibson said. “When we hear ‘when I graduate from high
school, this is what I want to do,’ we’re a success.”

For a boy to be enrolled, families have to agree to be
involved.

“These parents are coming out to the family-night activities,”
Gibson said. “They’re sharing food together, creating an art
project together. All these pieces come together and encourage
young males to stay in school.”

The community, Gibson said, identified the need for the BOYS
program. Then they started a separate program, GIRLS (Gaining
Important Real-Life Skills).

“We’re developing whole males and whole females,” Gibson
said. “They’re expected to perform. These expectations are not
out of reach. The final success is graduating from high school,
not becoming fathers or mothers in their teens, giving them the
opportunity to go on to college.”