Youth Center Focuses on Discipline, Dedication and Good Grades

De La Salle senior Luke Sheridan, 17, loves wrestling. And he’s good at it —really good. Last March Sheridan won a gold medal at the Pan American Youth Olympic Games Qualifier in Monterey, Mexico, which secured him a spot in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

His love of wrestling started nine years ago at the Community Youth Center (CYC) in Concord, but CYC didn’t just affect who Sheridan is as an athlete; Sheridan says CYC kept him in school.

Tucked at the end of Galaxy Court, CYC is housed in three non-descript buildings. Each day, more than 300 children ranging from age 3 to 18 bustle from one class to another, learning taekwondo, gymnastics, dance, boxing, wrestling and more—all with the support of a coaching staff. Two Academic Excellence rooms have tutors standing at the ready if any child needs academic support.

Sheridan came to CYC’s Academic Excellence room as a freshman three years ago after some arm twisting from his wrestling coach. “When he started at De La Salle, he got hit pretty hard [with school work]. He was not taking school too seriously and he was goofing off,” said Lead Instructor for Academic Excellence Deborah Jansen. “We sat right next to him and wouldn’t let him blow stuff off anymore; he had to finish his work and we worked closely with him until he understood it.”

“Without CYC’s Academic Excellence Room,” Sheridan said, “I would have dropped out of high school.”

Sheridan is one of hundreds of students who take advantage of the Academic Excellence Rooms—one for Kindergarten through sixth grade students, another for seventh through twelfth grade students. The rooms not only provide a quiet place for students to study and computers to work on, but dedicated tutors provide help for students “in crisis.”

For 14-year-old Chase Shackleton, who is a swimmer and a water polo player, it was all about math. “When he first came to the Academic Excellence Center, he was doing poorly on every math test,” Jansen said. “When a student is in crisis like that, we sit with them every night until we can find the problem. Chase had missed a concept in math a long time ago. If you miss one concept, like how to multiply fractions, or convert to decimals, it becomes hard to keep up. Once we find the issue, it usually takes a few months to get them caught up.”

Shackleton recently got a B- on a math test. “He came in all excited, jumping up and down,” Jansen said. “It was great.”

“CYC’s Academic Excellence Room changed my life, my grades are better and the tutors have taught me that math is my friend,” Shackleton said.

CYC tutors are well versed in the subjects that prove problematic for many high school students such as physics, geometry, government and biology. Jansen, who volunteers 40 hours a week as the head tutor at CYC, graduated from Harvard with an MBA.

“It’s so hard to find affordable tutoring for high school kids,” she said, “and it’s great that CYC offers it.” 

While you can drop in at any time to the Academic Excellence rooms, students can’t just "hang out." Even kindergarten students who are in the Little Academic Excellence room will know to stop their homework at a certain time, attend a class, and then return to the room to continue their work.

Other members, however, simply see CYC as a great place for sports activities.

Monthly rates are only $26 per month, with scholarships offered to many members who cannot afford the fee. “Underserved families in the community have an outlet for their children who may not otherwise have a place to go,” Executive Director Dennis Costanza said. But CYC is open to anybody with an interest in learning. Positive discipline and structure are the hallmarks of CYC programs.

“It’s not enough to just be inside walls. Students need to be doing something, taking classes, and following a schedule,” Costanza said. “We hope to use sports, academics and a positive environment to help build a better person and make students self-sufficient, teaching teamwork, confidence, honesty, and integrity.”

CYC’s guiding principle is bringing out the best in its students, explained Head Dance Coach Katrena Cohea. “We take the qualities that children naturally have, such as energy and enthusiasm, and harness those qualities to bring out the best in each student. I want my students to be able to see dance in everything and to be able to appreciate the artful nuances in the world around them.”

With 1,600 kids enrolled, however, problems can arise, said Campus Manager Matt Martin. “But kids who have issues are the kids that probably need this place the most. We want to let them know we’re here for them.” 

For Sheridan, CYC opened the world of wrestling to him, and kept the doors open for him academically. His GPA now stands at nearly 3.5 and he continues to come every day to the Academic Excellence Room to do homework before heading to practice. His success underscores what CYC is all about.

 “Students need to learn to think on their feet, to know what they want, to obtain self-discipline and to learn how to manage their time,” Costanza said. “But each child is different. Some kids need pushing; some just need a hug.”