Peak Education success attributed to ongoing support, expectations

On a recent morning, Harrison High School physical education teacher Kevin Davenport battled his students’ Monday doldrums.

Clipboard in hand, he yelled, “Come on that’s not jogging! Go! Go!” The students picked up steam, running circles around the gym.

Davenport, too, has come full circle here, in a very different way.

He was a seventh grader at Carmel Middle School, also in Harrison School District 2, when called to the  principal’s office. A bit frightened, he couldn’t imagine what he might have done wrong, he recalled. Actually, he was being summoned because he was doing a lot right.

School officials made him an amazing offer: Get good grades and stay out of trouble and a new organization called Peak Education would help pay his way through college.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was really excited,” he said.

Like most students in the diverse school, he had enough economic hardship that college could have been an unfulfilled dream.

But school officials and founders of Peak Education saw in Davenport something else: enthusiasm for his studies and a supportive family willing to make sure he stayed on track, said H. Dalton Conner, a retired periodontist who founded the organization with attorney Steve Mullens.

Since its inception 13 years ago,  the organization has groomed 90 Harrison students from Carmel and Fox Meadows middle schools for college and careers.

Peak Education combines mentoring, tutoring and financial aid to attend college. The commitment to the students is for 10 years or more, from their entrance into the program in sixth grade through high school and college. The first students to have completed the program are just now graduating from college and beginning careers.

“The whole idea was to keep their talent from being wasted,” Conner said. “We don’t stop when they graduate from high school. We help them adapt and succeed at college, too.”

The high school graduation rate for participants is 100 percent, and 96 percent have gone on to college.

Davenport  graduated from Colorado State University at Pueblo with a teaching degree in May. He was doing volunteer work with the Harrison High School wrestling team when a physical education job came open.

“Some people say they’d never teach at the school they came from, but I wanted to. I wanted to give back,” Davenport said. “I fit in because I know where the students are coming from. I’ve been there.”

In fact, some of his students are in the Peak Education program.  

As more students have been signed on and college has become more expensive, the program has changed. The organization initially  provided scholarships, now it focuses on helping students get grants and scholarships from local foundations and other sources.   

It started, in 1997, when  the founders visited the police department.

“We explained we wanted to make a difference in the city’s toughest neighborhood. On a map, they pointed to the area surrounding Carmel Middle School. At the time they were tracking something like 23 gangs in the Pikes Peak Park area,” Conner said.

Things have improved, but many kids live in poverty and are at high risk of dropping out of school.

The next stop for Conner and Mullens was Carmel Middle School.

“We met with Rick Price, who was principal. We were impressed,” Conner said. “He knew every kid in the school and their families, too.”

It didn’t take much to convince Price to help.

For a  year,  they met weekly at 6:30 a.m. in a coffee shop to talk strategy.  

Price, who is now a D-2 board member, also is on the Peak Education board. He recalled the early days of looking for students with financial need and academic promise.

“When we got enough kids and donations to start, I’d go talk to the students and parents,” Price said. “It felt sort of like that old TV show ‘The Millionaire.’ The mom would start crying because we wanted to help.

“It is a powerful program and has made a difference in a whole lot of lives.”

Recently, a young man who had been in the program two years before he moved out of state contacted Price.

“But he told me that he had become an engineer. He said he had never forgotten that experience and said, ‘You thought I could make something of myself.’”

Conner noted that all is not roses when working with at-risk youth.

“We’ve had every experience you can imagine. They happen and we deal with it.”

For some kids it takes a couple years to get with it.

“They are diamonds in the rough,” said Dee Beaudette, Peak Education CEO. “We never give up on them.”

The students themselves, even those who are waylaid by life and bad choices, keep at it, said Vennita Browning, program director. Even the student who left for months, saying, “I don’t need you” — she’s back.

One youth ended up in juvenile detention. They helped him get back on track and he is poised to enter college.

Another missed  a month of school when he and his girlfriend had a baby. He thought his previous academic efforts were lost.  But Peak staff provided parenting classes, he got a job and graduated from high school — the first in his family to do so. He plans to enroll in community college.  

“He could have been another bad statistic,”  Browning said.

While Peak Education started as a scholarship program, the staff soon realized that it had to be much more to be successful.

The program focuses not only academic excellence, but on developing leadership and accountability, family commitment and service, Beaudette said.  

Family commitment is particularly vital.

Parents and students sign contracts to underscore how serious the effort must be. Siblings are recruited for support. The rules are detailed, including  requiring parents to provide a quiet place for study and ensure that homework is done.  

Some parents unfamiliar with college culture are uneasy, Beaudette said. They learn about college along with their children by visiting local institutions.  

There are family events to build ties with the other families and seminars for  students and parents on leadership skills, study habits, strategies for surviving high school and preparing for success in college, budgets and other subjects.  

The older students attend events to network with community leaders who can help them with college and job references.

The Peak Education staff makes home visits and refers parents to local organizations if they need food, medical services, jobs and such. They don’t fix families’ problems, but show them how to do it themselves.

And it goes both ways. The families and students all participate in community service projects.

Last summer Mileena Agustin,15,  volunteered with El Pomar’s  summer camp program. “I taught little kids different sports, it was really neat,” she said.

Initially Peak Education participants didn’t want anyone to know because it made them different, and they would be bullied or laughed at for wanting college, Beaudette said. But that has changed.

“My friends are curious and say they want in the program too,” Mileena said.  She recently took a pre-ACT test and did so well that colleges are writing her letters. A 10th-grader at Sierra High School, she wants to attend the Air Force Academy and medical school and become a neonatal nurse.  

She credits Peak Education with helping her deal with  stressses and inspiring her. “They do an amazing job of staying on top of us.”

She particularly praises program director  Browning: “She really keeps track of us, and makes sure we are doing what we are supposed to. We all call her mom.”

Jen Agustin is thrilled that her daughter is in the program. An Army reservist, she is not working because of back surgery. The life skills classes have helped her as well as her daughter, she said.

Agustin has met like minded parents at various Peak Education events.

“Honestly, things are tough,” she said. “I don’t think I would have been able to pay for her college or know how to get college aid.”

Mileena’s college efforts have rubbed off on her two younger brothers. One was just selected for the program,  and the youngest is showing signs of interest, too.

This snowball effect is what the Peak Education founders are looking for.

They hope someday to have enough financial support from the community to place 300 to 400 students in the program.

“We believe with those kinds of numbers it would be possible to  change the face of the neighborhood, and eventually the entire community,” Beaudette said. “For many families it becomes a shift from generational poverty.”