Chuck Licis-Masson, Program Coordinator for Take Stock in Children and the Executive Director of the Monroe County Education Foundation, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the program.
Take Stock in Children helps students realize their full potential.
Licis-Masson said, “I’m in the school district. I’m in schools. Every day I see our kids, and there are amazing young women and men in our in our education system. We have dedicated teachers guiding them through the process towards high school graduation and Take Stock in Children, what I love about our program is we bring our students into the program who are economically eligible. The family has to meet a certain income criteria in order to come into the program. It is a program for economically disadvantaged households and at risk students. When they come in, we assign them a volunteer mentor, and that mentor is from the community, someone who lives here and either is working or is retired, and they spend 30 to 45 minutes one day a week, talking to the student and helping the student learn those critical thinking skills and discovery. What is your passion? What is your goal as you grow older and as you leave high school and go into college and help them formulate those opinions and substantiate those opinions as well. You can have an opinion, but you have to be able to believe it and be able to defend it, and that’s some of the skills that I think our mentors do really, really well with our students, in talking to them and helping guide them through that process and then when they do graduate, they have to maintain their grades and their attendance and behavior. We are an academic program. The purpose of the program is to get them ready for college or a career technical education. When they graduate high school successfully, they will have access to a Florida Prepaid scholarship that the Monroe County Education Foundation purchases through fundraising efforts, and that covers 120 credits, four years at university, or you can do a two year associates and a two year university towards a bachelor’s. Or students who go into a variety of different career technical educational fields as well, whether it be cosmetology or firefighting or police work or nursing or HVAC, auto mechanics, marine mechanics, you name it, we’ll support them in that pathway as well. We’re a great program. We have a strong cadre of mentors who work really hard and are dedicated to our students. Each year, when we graduate our kids, it shows, as they walk across the stage and they’re ready to enroll in college or their career technical education program and go onwards towards success.”
Many children in the program will be and do become first generation college goers in their entire family.
Licis-Masson confirmed, “A lot of our students, we have a diverse group of students, not only in ethnicity, but background. We run about 60% women, 40% men in our program for our kids. We’re trying to increase the number of boys in our program, making sure that we can get that more equitable. But our young girls tend to be a little bit stronger, to be honest with you, in an education in the middle school level. So our focus right now is, how do we bring our boys into the program in grades six, seven and eight, give them the support that they need so they can be successful, as well as continue to support our young women in the program? It’s a great, diverse group of kids and they come together. They enjoy being in the program. They’re connected. It’s a peer group, and then it ripples from there, because their friends who are not in Take Stock in Children benefit from the program as well. And all of the things that we do and the services that we provide, it ripples through the entire school, so our kids are well prepared, especially those first generation college bound students who are very unfamiliar with college campuses and how to navigate the different offices. I don’t know if you remember, but having to go to this office and that office and register for your classes and pay for your classes and financial aid and all that’s involved, we are there. I can’t tell you how many times Miss Tammy, our administrative assistant, data specialist in the office answers the phone, and it’s one of our alums calling because they need help. Just the other day, she was calming one of our students who was a bit frantic about what was going on, and went through breathing exercises with her over the phone to make sure that she was calm so she can approach it with a calm, clear mind and move forward and problem solve. So that’s what we do. We help them through academics, but also through those life challenges.”
With local and state cutbacks, how does Take Stock in Children look?
Licis-Masson said, “First, I feel for the nonprofits in our community who were reliant on the HSAB funding, and I understand what the county had to do, that even 50% is still better than 0% in terms of funding, but I know it’s a hit. We are positioned very well as a foundation where we don’t rely on county funding. We only rely on the funding dispersed from Take Stock in Children state out of Fort Lauderdale. They received their funding from the Department of Education in Tallahassee, and it’s built into the budget, and it was passed this year again. It is a recurring budget line item, and the governor did not strike it out. When I go to Tallahassee, the legislators, they believe in Take Stock in Children. They love the program. They are strong supporters, and they know that it helps lift the state of Florida through education, and $7 million, it’s a fantastic investment. It’s a drop in the bucket in the whole budget. So that was not cut. So we received our funding from the Take Stock state office. But also it’s the school district that helps. We have an agreement with the school district. We work within the schools and the school district picks up a portion of our salaries and benefits as well to help run the program. So between the Take Stock program and the school district, and you, our listeners, our taxpayers, you’re supporting this amazing program in that way through our schools, and then our foundation fundraises for those scholarships, and we look at civic organizations, Ocean Reef is phenomenal. I cannot give enough accolades to the Ocean Reef community and for their support of the Take Stock in Children program in the Upper Keys. Rotary Clubs, all eight Rotary Clubs are involved one way or the other with Take Stock in Children and our fantastic supporters and contributors to the program and towards our scholarships, as well as a lot of individual donors throughout the county to help us raise our goal is about $900,000 each year, which is matched by the state dollar for dollar, and it allows us to purchase those scholarships for our new kids coming into the program, so they have a scholarship when they graduate. I can’t thank our donors enough, our civic organizations as well as our mentors. But thankfully, we’re in a position where we weren’t hit by the budget cuts for the county, and we were standing strong and moving forward.”
Mentors are always needed.
Licis-Masson explained, “I cannot bring a student into the program without a mentor. We have to have two things, a scholarship has to be in place for that student, and a mentor has to be ready to be matched for that student to come into the program. If I don’t have one or the other, I have to keep them on the sidelines, unfortunately, and wait. But we’re good with scholarships for incoming kids from last year’s fundraising, but we need mentors. Monday is a deadline for applications. They need to get their applications in. We’re going to review those applications on September 30, and an academic review committee meeting that consists of some of our board members and our staff, and we go through those one by one, and typically we get about 130 applicants every year. We’ll go through those and select the students to come into the program, the eligible students, and we’ll have contract signings at the end of October for those new students. So I need mentors in place for the end of October and we occasionally bring in kids then throughout the year, but our bulk of our students coming in the program is at the end of October, and I’m hoping to bring in, I’d love to bring in 80 or 90 students this year, and that’ll help us keep status quo from last year in terms of enrollment of 350 students in the county.”
For more information, click here: https://monroecountyedfound.com/about-take-stock