Teens Who Beat the Odds to Receive Awards Through PW Bar Foundation
By E. Bruce Davis, Bull Run Observer
Published April 24, 2009
"Beat the odds" is much more than just a mantra for gamblers playing against the house in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. Beat the Odds is a nationally recognized program that in Prince William County aims "to celebrate and, encourage the positive potential of our community's youth [residing in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park] who are able to overcome significant obstacles in order to achieve substantial social and academic progress to become positive and productive members of our society."
The Children's Defense Fund began the Beat the Odds program in 1990. In 2001, the Prince William Bar Foundation started managing the Beat the Odds program, which is funded by the PWCB Foundation, a nonprofit organization, with help from Jan Roltsch-Anoll and contributions from private and corporate donors.
On May 28, the 2009 Beat the Odds Awards Banquet will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Heritage Hunt Country Club. Two categories of awards will be distributed at the banquet. Honorees of the Beat the Odds Scholarship are graduating high school students. They will have been selected by a committee to receive scholarships and, if not college-bound, assistance in vocational training.
Beat the Odds Phoenix Awards recipients are juniors and sophomores and are described by the organization's literature as "Youth who may still be of high school age, but not ready for college, or who are contemplating a GED and/or vocational training." Phoenix Awards include goods and services, possibly computer gear, books, tuition and vocational training, designed to further the recipient's educational or occupational goals.
"Beat the Odds is designed by representatives of courts service, community services board, social services and schools," said Joan Hughes, chief deputy clerk Prince William County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. "The applicants are nominated through schools and social services in the county, Manassas and Manassas Park. The applicants are frequently troubled and/or abused, with some delinquency activity and perhaps some truancy issues," she explained.
"We have 15 to 20 applicants a year, and last year we had seven Phoenix Awards and 10 Scholarship Awards," Hughes said. "This year applications were due April 1." The application includes essay questions about life history, dreams, work aspirations, educational experience, highlights of work or volunteering efforts, people who helped and lessons learned from experience, working with the Department of Social Services or other similar boards or services.
Committee members were to notify winners on April 14 so that they can prepare to attend the banquet.
Fundraising, headed by Megan Kelly, assistant county attorney, provides about $50,000 for scholarships and other awarded goods and services.
On April 28, there is a mandatory meeting of nominators, award recipients and mentors. Each winner is assigned a mentor to assist in making sound future judgments. Over the years, Beat the Odds has seen its efforts pay off handsomely as recipients have made the best of their opportunities.
When she was a senior at Osbourn High School, Kristina Lese was nominated for a Beat the Odds award by Sophia Lenk of Manassas Family Services due to family issues. Lese remembers filling out the lengthy application, including an essay on troubles she had to overcome. She also was an intern at Manassas Family Services her senior year. Attorney Cathy Croft of Farrell and Croft, PC, in Manassas was assigned as Lese's mentor.
"The Beat the Odds scholarship was very special to me, and it was an amazing experience," Lese said. Now 20, Lese is a sophomore at George Mason University, working on a double major in legal studies and child and family studies. She appreciates the efforts of Dorothy Clemens, Osbourn's college and career services advisor who helped her through her entire effort to make the best of college.
Beat the Odds initially awarded Lese a $2,500 scholarship. Once her college efforts were recognized, it granted her an additional $5,000. She said she is trying for a guardian ad litem, being a lawyer for vulnerable groups, children, elderly and the handicapped. She hopes to work with foster children or those on probation. Twice now, she has spent her spring break serving others; last year, she worked on homes in New Orleans; this year she provided service in Atlanta.
"I am very fortunate," Lese said. "I have a 3.5 GPA. I am trying not to let anybody down." Quite the contrary, her efforts, along with many other Beat the Odds honorees, have proven it is a program that re negative results in difficult situations and, instead, produces consistent positive results. Those are good odds, anywhere.
Tickets, $50 each, for the Beat the Odds Awards Banquet went on sale March 27. The event sold out last year. While they last, tickets can be purchased by contacting Joan Hughes at 703-792-6169 or jhughes@Courts.state.va.us or Jennifer Weiss at 703-494-7171 or jweiss@szelaw.com.
