Baltimore Community Fellowships
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Photo: Bruce Weller for the Open Society Foundations
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Baltimore, Maryland
2009
Commuting to class as a Johns Hopkins University undergraduate, Sarah Hemminger never really noticed Dunbar High School, which she often passed.
But in 2004 as a doctoral student, "I saw it in a totally different way," she says.
Hemminger's husband, Ryan, had failed his freshman year of high school but went on get accepted into the Naval Academy. He credits concerned teachers, who helped him with his academics and his troubled home life, as the catalyst that led to his turnaround.
"I thought there must be kids at Dunbar going through the same things that Ryan went through," says Hemminger, 29. "It's not that they lack potential. It's just that other things they're going through are a real hindrance to them succeeding."
So Hemminger started the Incentive Mentoring Program (IMP), a very personal intervention program for a small group of the most troubled freshmen at Dunbar. Her students are failing more than half their classes and/or are struggling with severe personal challenges, such as drug and alcohol abuse, an incarcerated or deceased parent, homelessness, gang affiliation or sexual, emotional or physical abuse.
"We want the kids nobody else wants," she says. "We think they have the greatest potential to be community leaders. If you have gone through hell by the time you're 18 and make it out, you have skills you just can't buy with money, which makes you quite a compelling force for change."
Hemminger, who is close to earning her doctorate in biomedical engineering, has gathered, over time, 350 Johns Hopkins students to be volunteers in IMP. They become a "family" for the students—of 5-to-10 mentors each, doing everything from daily tutoring to home renovations, to driving them to school and helping their parents find jobs or avoid evictions. Tutoring, community service and camping trips are important to the program, but the critical piece is that each young person gets a "customized solution" to help change his or her life.
"We basically do whatever it takes to stabilize the household of the student," Hemminger says, recalling one student who had missed 50 days of school because of gang affiliation and a chaotic home life. About 20 volunteers repaired holes in the walls of his home, replaced carpet, cleaned and stocked the home with donated furniture. Soon after, the student began passing his classes and is well on his way to graduation.
Similar stories exist for all the IMP participants. In fact, every one of the first class of 15 freshmen was accepted into college.
Currently, 31 students participate, and Hemminger will recruit a third class this spring.
"This works because we create practical hope," she says. "They start to really see how to get themselves out of their circumstances, and it's like a light switch. As soon as they see that, they start to step up on their own."
