PHOENIX — A classroom inside Maricopa County Juvenile Detention is creating important relationships between college students and teens looking to turn their life around.
“I’m just not trying to be a statistic you know. Like I’m really trying to break my habits,” said one of the teenagers.
We can’t tell you his name or show his face but this 17-year-old says it’s a decision he’s taking seriously and is now determined to earn his GED.
“Most of the staff here and the tutors, they motivate me,” he said. “I never dedicated to something like this but I’m almost eighteen and I want to do more with my life.”
He says he was never a good student but once his choices landed him here a new program also showed him what his future could be.
“I believe a lot of these kids, they just want to know that someone's looking out for them, and someone's there to help them when they need help,” said Sheila Uribe.
Uribe is a student at Benedictine University in Mesa. She’s one of a number of college students from ASU, GCU and others to join a new program offering volunteer tutoring.
“A lot of these kids are actually really good kids, they just made some poor decisions,” said Uribe.
“When I meet with my tutors, hearing they’re bonding, hearing about the relationship built with the kids, knowing that they’re able to really cultivate that, that’s awesome,” said Courtni Tran.
Tran is the program coordinator and says she’s been thrilled by the results. Seeing many of her students achieve things they never thought possible.
“Our tutor's willingness to help our youth here in detention to really succeed in school, that’s what makes the program so successful,” said Tran.
“Coming in, starting with them, they have no idea what they’re doing and closer to the end of this year there’s a lot of them that get the math problem faster than I do, and it’s like ok,” said Uribe with a smile.
The young man we spoke with is one of them. Now on track to test for his GED in March, with his sights set on college thanks to the inspiration he’s gotten from his tutors.
“I know most of them have master's degrees, and I want to do that, I know it takes time to get a master's but I’m trying, I talked to some of them, some of them go to ASU and stuff that’s where I’m trying to head to,” he said. "they come in and they actually sit down and show you how to do it, because most of the time it’s independent study, but I need the extra help because I’m on an IEP, like I need the extra help and they come in and show me the steps and actually take the time to show me. It’s inspiring.”