How a pair of former Lady Lions are teaming up to help youth affected by COVID-19 access education
The ties of former Penn Staters are unbreakable.
For Inspiring Minds, a nonprofit organization started by former Penn State and NFL linebacker Deryck Toles and laced with many former Penn State athletes, the goal now isn’t to face the University of Connecticut in the Final Four or be the best linebacker on the field, but to help youths become the most successful they can be.
Inspiring Minds helps under-represented youth gain educational success with after-school programs, trips and speakers. With chapters in Philadelphia, New York City, Youngstown, Ohio, and Toles’ hometown of Warren, Ohio, and a new addition opening shortly in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, they partner with schools to reach youth and build success in local communities.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, particularly devastating cities served by the program, those ties were tested. But former Lady Lions Andrea Garner and Katrena (Carr) Perou, executive directors at the Philadelphia and New York City chapters, respectively, are drawing from what they learned during their time at Penn State to raise money through the #WeAreEssential online fundraising campaign to help the youth who utilize their programs.
So far, more than $15,000 has been raised through their GoFundMe page.
“Once we knew the kids had to stay in their homes, we knew it was important for them to engage and connect somehow,” Garner, who’s also the athletic director and and a teacher at Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, said.
With the coronavirus crisis, many of the youth involved in the Inspiring Minds program are in homes that don’t always foster growth and success. Inspiring Minds is like a family to some of these kids, Garner said.
Garner, who played a key role in the Penn State’s historic 2000 Final Four team, said that they have programming Monday through Friday.
“There is consistency in our program in addition to things we added to it … just giving them a platform and an opportunity to stay connected with each other,” Garner said. “They have increased family responsibilities now that they are home all the time, the stress of having to do remote learning, which is not always the best thing for most of our students.”
Monday’s video session prepares kids for college, with a speaker talking about their career or college choice. Tuesday’s session is a “lighthearted” discussion about a Netflix show or current event happening in the United States. Wednesday is “Work out Wednesday,” the kids do a financial workshop on Thursday, and Friday is game night.
Perou, who was also a member of that 2000 team alongside Garner, held a focus group with high schoolers in her NYC program to see what they would like to learn and explore during this period.
“There is this program called Life Goals Lab, and this provides them tools on how to deal with anxiety and stress and to also help them with goal-setting right now with everything that’s going on — and they do this every single Tuesday,” Perou said. “And on Wednesdays they have poetry and music class called Civics. For them, for the kids who are taking this class, they see it as an outlet. They’re feeling, they have a lot going on inside and the poetry and the music is very therapeutic for them.”
Thursday’s activity is a men’s Right of Passage program, which is a space for boys to talk about current events, their history and foster meaningful relationships with each other.
The money raised through the campaign will help keep these programs going by funding continued workshops for students.
Building the foundation for success
The Inspiring Minds New York City branch doesn’t just offer an educational program for these students, but also a paid internship program.
“What they do is they attend all of our programs during the week, and they also recruit other kids to join our programs,” Perou said. “Whenever I post something on my IG (Instagram), my interns post on their IG, and they actively recruit other kids. They help organize and host our virtual town hall meetings that we’ve been having. We’ve already had two, and each of them was hosted by a different intern, and the topics and what we talk about in those virtual town halls are also decided by my interns.”
This paid internship is not only a learning experience for these kids and a valuable tool to “empower” them to be leaders, but also provides them with funds to care for their families, Perou said.
“For them the money is important because they all live in Brooklyn — and Brooklyn, out of all of New York City, has been hit the hardest as it related to the number of COVID-19 cases and number of deaths related to COVID-19,” Perou said.” Their parents are at work, they have family members who are sick and some that have died. So by being able to pay them through the internship it allows them to support their families with essential needs as it supports their households.”
The GoFundMe, started by Inspiring Minds, has been especially beneficial during this time, as it allows the organization to supply students with groceries, needed electronic devices, a virtual gym membership and the ability to provide more paid internships.
Perou discussed how a principal reached out to her and said a student with whom Perou had a relationship with wasn’t doing his schoolwork.
“So I called him to see what was going on … and he said ‘I don’t have an iPad or a computer and trying to do work from my phone is too hard,’ so he gave up,” Perou said. “So what I was able to do with some funds that were donated is, I bought him an iPad and dropped it off at his house. And now he’s engaging in schoolwork.”
In a traditional setting, Inspiring Minds often relies on volunteers, Garner said. Donations typically help fund things such as guest speakers and trips to places such as the White House, Madison Square Garden, the Ohio Statehouse and BET Headquarters.
“The big thing for us is exposure, the more our kids are exposed to, the bigger they dream,” Garner said.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 8:00 AM.