“It has taught me so much and I’m walking away from this experience with so much,” she said. “I’ve learned life skills, teamwork, how to respond to others in a non-threatening way.”
What is her expectations for South Africa?
“I don’t want to have a lot of expectations. I want to go with an open mind, open heart and learn,” she said.
But she added, “I don’t want to go to South Africa and feel like I’m on vacation,” because she wants to get the most opportunity out of the visit.
Adrienne Minter, 18, who gave birth to a son in 2007 before coming to the school, said her life is much better now.
“Before I was skipping school, but now I’m getting good grades and I’m having a better life,” Minter said.
The thought of going to South Africa, Minter says, thrills her because “I want to help others eat healthy” and traveling to another continent for a course tied to her ambition of being an urban farmer will help do just that.
And when Ciara Hamiel, 18, found out in 2008 that she was pregnant, it was a difficult moment for her as would be any young woman who was not prepared for the consequences of motherhood.
Looking back, she says her life has changed and that a visit to another nation will be a “new outlook on life and to see Africa from our own perspective. It is very fulfilling to learn more about starting my own business and learning about solar energy.”
The innovators of the world today, from Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey to the founders of Facebook and Google, ventured into entrepreneurship.
Today they are making a permanent and persistent impression in the marketplace.
Detroit City Councilman James Tate said the students are showing another side of Detroit that we often miss.
“They are ambassadors, they are traveling across the world to show another side of Detroit. These students have exhibited resilience and all the qualities of leadership,” said Tate whose “Better Detroit” initiative has a focus on teenage pregnancy and supporting institutions like the Catherine Ferguson Academy.
Against all odds students from struggling backgrounds to now leap forward into the future with promising potential is significant.
“We have kids who have not even ventured on the other side of the city,” Tate said. “Yet these students are getting ready to venture and experience other cultures. But what is exciting about this is that they will come back to the city and help solve our issues.”
The students are presently constructing a greenhouse on a vacant lot on 1554 Temple, where all the materials for the project were donated by Phil Cooley, the owner of Slows Bar-B-Q.
“I think that the students are doing a an amazing thing. I support this educational initiative and wanted to give back to the community,” Cooley said.
Rice, stressing equality and striving together to realize shared hopes and dreams of prosperity, security and liberty in an interwoven world, called for helping forgotten communities.
“Being serious about equality means ensuring that people everywhere — from Harlem to Harare — can rise as far as their talents can take them and not be shackled by the accidental circumstances of their birth,” Rice said.
These students should not pay for the environment they are brought up in or given birth to because they did not create it. But they do take responsibility for their own choices today and are working hard to offer a real and pragmatic alternative to what is beyond the wisdom of sociological experts and self-proclaimed analysts.
Ambassadors do not have to be appointed in gold-written letters. They can be each and every one of us who dare to change and question inequality and address the many ills we are facing.
Catherine Ferguson Academy is playing its role.
What role are you playing?
To support the students with funding for their South Africa trip, call (313) 596-4771.
Watch senior editor Bankole Thompson’s weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL TV 38 Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday, July 10, will feature an interview with U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade about the federal indictments of city officials, including former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. A round-table discussion will assess the charges against the ex-mayor as well as the toll the federal indictments are taking on the city of Detroit. E-mail bthompson@michronicle.com
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