Local Standout Eyes Harvard
Dyan Watson promotes teaching fo r people o f color
See story, Metro section inside
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www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
Volume XXXII
Number 30
Wednesday
July 31, 2002
Self Enhancement, Inc. Turns 20
Mentoring program reaches thousands of kids each year
‘L.A. Times' Building
Evacuated After Bomb Threat
LOS A N G E L E S — T he Los Angeles
Times building w as evacuated and
surrounding streets w ere shut dow n
for m ore than four hours before police
captured a man they said had th reat
ened to blow up the new spaper office.
Whales Stuck on
Another Cape Cod Beach
E A ST H A M , M ass. — A bout 40 pilot
w hales becam e stranded on a C ape C od
beach, ju st one day after volunteers
pushed them back out to sea from an
o th e r b e a c h . T h e d e v e lo p m e n t is
“pretty bad new s” and m ay be a sign
the w hales are dying, an expert said.
Bush Ruts More Bite Into
Corporate Accountability
W A SH IN G T O N — H oping to restore
investor confidence in A m erican cor
porations and solidity voter confidence
in Republican econom ic stew ardship,
President Bush signed corporate ac
countability legislation in a splashy
W hite H ouse cerem ony.
Amtrak Train Brails Near D.C
KENSINGTON, Md.— A n Amtrak train
carrying about 200 people derailed near
W ashington, injuring dozens. T here
w ere no im m ediate reports o f fatal ities.
T he train w as the C apitol Lim ited en
route from C hicago to W ashington.
Rescued Miners
Prepared for Death
SO M E R SE T , Pa. — N ine coal m iners
w ere in good shape after spending 77
hours in a flooded m ine shaft that they
thought w ould becom e their tom b. T he
miners, w ho w atched as floodw ater rose
to their chins, tied them selves together
so all o f their bodies w ould be found if
they drow ned.
by D avid P lechl
T he P ortland O bserver
T w o decades ago Tony H opson had
an idea that has brought big results. He
w anted to reach out to overlooked inner
city kids in danger o f heading dow n the
w rong path — a path that often leads to
gangs, drugs and se lf destruction.
His idea for a weeklong basketbal 1 cam p
turned out to be m uch m ore than a lesson
in “ju m p ers.”
T hough the kids cam e to play hoops,
H opson had his ow n agenda.
“W e brought them there to talk about
other issues,” he said. “To show them
how to transfer skills they learn in ath let
ics to other areas o f their lives. If you can
handle the pressure at the foul line you
can handle the pressure o f a m ath test.”
The organization H opson now leads,
S e lf E nhancem ent Inc., is the heir to that
very first cam p.
S piritually speaking. H opson has al
w ays know n w hat he w anted to do. W hen
he w as only 13 years old, he w as busy
helping Portland youth through different
after school program s.
“T his is w hat I’ve know n throughout
m y life,” he said.
H opson pursued degrees in p sy ch o l
ogy and sociology, got his teaching ce r
tificate and alw ays kept his goal in m ind
to give back to the com m unity.
H o p so n 's public outreach soon ex
panded to north and northeast Portland
schools. It w as a turning point that put
SEI in contact w ith a broader cross sec
tion o f at-risk kids.
H opson says SEI tries to develop as
m any potential options for kids as p o s
sible.
“All kids have the potential to be su c
cessful in som ething. T he question is,
w hat can I put before them to give them
the courage to go after (that success).
T he kids rise to w hatever levels o f ex p ec
tations you set, as long as you are co n sis
tent w ith those levels,” H opson said.
Genia Adair tutors students in the well-stocked library at northeast Portland's Self Enhancement, Inc. “Mygoal is fcr
the kids to enjoy reading, ’ Adair said.
photo by D avid P lechl /T he P ortland O bserver
A lthough SEI w as doing well reaching
kids through the public schools, H opson
still felt som ething w as missing.
A bout 10 years ago he had a conver
sation w ith a m iddle school boy w ho w as
becom ing involved with gangs. H opson
set him dow n and addressed him squarely,
“W e’re here foryou. W ha, is ityou need?”
The boy told him flatly, “Y eah, y o u ’re
there, but y o u ’re only there during the
day. W here are you after school?”
H opson then realized the im portance
o f a center that the children could alw ays
Bush: Welfare Reform Is
Working; Let's Do More
Stocks Surge
Three Former Adelphla
Execs Arrested
N E W Y O R K — T hree form er execu
tives o f bankrupt cable T V provider
A delphia C om m unications have been
arrested on charges alleging they stole
from their com pany. C om pany founder
and form er chairm an and C E O John
R igas w as arrested along w ith his sons
T im othy and M ichael.
— □
jj
con tin u ed
on p a g e A 3
Badi Cross (from left with child)
joins Diane Taefy, Zhalih Taefy-
Cross and Nekicia Luckett at the
Race Unity Festival Saturday.
The celebration at the north
Portland campus o f Portland
Community College was
sponsored by the Baha ’i faith to
honor the city’s diverse races
and cultures. See additional
photo on Page B6.
N E W Y O R K — G alvanized by hopes
that the m ark et’s w orst days are over,
investors bought stocks enthusiasti
cally, extending a rebound and sending
the D ow industrials up m ore than 270 in
afternoon trading.
W A SH IN G TO N — Multimillion-dollar
loans to Enron by big investm ent banks
helped the now -collapsed com pany con
ceal its true financial condition, and the
banks w ere aw are in som e cases that
Enron w as using questionable account
ing, a Senate investigator testified.
capital cam paign com m ittee to help raise
the additional $9 m illion it w ould take to
build the 62,000 square foot facility.
“That w as the beginning o f som e m a
jo r grow th,” says H opson.
T he SEI center at U nthank Park in
northeast Portland is now com pletely paid
for. A five-year financial cam paign raised
al 1 the money. Sixty percent o f the funding
for S E I’s program s now com es from gov
ernm ent grants. The rest o f the balance
com es from fundraisipg and private do-
Diversity
on Parade
CH A RLESTO N , S.C.— President Bush
urged the S enate to pass legislation to
stiffen w ork requirem ents for w elfare
recipients and “free people from the
clutches o f our governm ent.” B ush
asked senators not to drag out renew al
o f the 1996 w elfare overhaul and criti
cized S enate proposals.
Banks May Have Helped Enron
com e to, a refuge kids could seek out not
ju st during school, but all day long.
“W e started envisioning our own facil
ity,” Hopson says, “where we had the key.”
T he idea cam e along at a tim e w hen U S
Bank w as looking to m ake few er yet sub
stantially larger donations to local non
p ro fits. B ank re p re s e n ta tiv e s lik ed
H o p so n 's idea for the center.
“O ur timing was perfect,” Hopson said.
U S Bank put up the first m i 11 ion dol lars.
Bank President Ed Jensen liked the idea
so m uch he even decided to chair the
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland
O bserver
Parents Rally to Keep
Kids at Jefferson
C iting statistics that show steady im
p ro v e m e n t an d fa v o ra b le tre n d s at
Jefferson High School, the Jefferson Par
ent-T eachers A ssociation held a rally last
w eek to encourage fellow parents to re
je ct student transfers.
Portland school district officials re
cently notified Jefferson parents, along
w ith parents at R oosevelt and M arshall
High Schools, that they have the legal
right to transfer their kids to higher-achiev
ing schools in Portland w ith tran sp o rta
tion paid.
H ow ever, the Jefferson PTA asked
parents and students to stay put. thereby
supporting the north Portland school and
helping Jefferson continue on its path o f
improvement.
“Jefferson has been on a steady course
o f im provem ent since 1999 - show ing,
ju st in the past year the second-highest
gains in reading and math in the district,”
said PTA P resident Barb Lescher.
R eferring to Jefferson’s recent “unac
cep tab le” rating on student behavior,
L escher said, “the rating was based on
attendance and dropout rate s...n o t on
gang violence or drug dealing.
co n tin u ed
on p age B3
A group o f Jefferson High parents are encouraging other parents to embrace
the school's steady course o f improvement and reject student transfers.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver