Aspira

If there was ever an organization that has made a difference in the lives of disadvantaged youth - motivating them to stay in school and get a college education - it is Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania. We were thus surprised last week to learn that the federal Department of Education was preparing to eliminate its contribution to this useful program. Aspira, from the Spanish word for aspire, is a national organization with chapters in Washington, Camden, Philadelphia and Puerto Rico that provides bilingual counseling and educational programs for Latino students.

For the last two decades, it has worked to impress the importance of schooling on Latino and other minority youths, and last night Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania basked in tributes from political and other leaders as it celebrated a milestone. "You've been out there in the trenches 20 long years, trying to rescue young people and pointing them in the right direction," Mayor Goode said in saluting the group. Then, alluding to drugs and the forces pulling young people out of school, he warned, "We are on the verge in this city and throughout the country of losing a whole generation of young people, and we have to redouble our efforts to make sure that every person who can be saved, is saved.

Today is the last day at Olney High for Brenda Torres, 18, and she's bursting with plans and self-confidence. She's going to major in business administration at Community College - first in her family to go beyond high school - and open a travel agency some day. "I can do mostly anything I set my mind to," she says. Not every girl from Hunting Park is launched into adulthood full of hopes and dreams. Brenda's optimism stems in part from her involvement with ASPIRA, an organization dedicated to developing leadership among low-income Hispanic youth.

The head of Aspira Inc. of Philadelphia, a Latino educational organization, says the federal government has not renewed a $250,000 grant used to provide academic counseling for Latino high school students, and as a result, the 18- year-old organization will lay off one-third of its staff in the next two weeks. "It's going to be sad here," said Emanuel Ortiz, Aspira's executive director. "It's going to have a ripple effect in terms of our overall organization. " Ortiz said he expected to receive official word from the U.S. Department of Education in the next few days and that he planned to appeal the decision.

A Latino educational organization that applied to manage 24 city schools said yesterday that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission had not followed its own rules for selecting outside education managers. Leaders of Aspira Inc., which was among 10 finalists for managing schools, said the commission named six providers Wednesday even though finalists had been told that yesterday was the deadline for responding to commission questions. "We don't understand this process," Alfredo Calderon, Aspira's executive director, said yesterday.

A Hispanic youth-advocacy agency has made an offer to buy the 12-acre campus of the now-defunct Cardinal Dougherty Catholic High School. The Aspira Association, a national nonprofit dedicated to developing the educational and leadership capacity of Hispanic youth, offered the Archdiocese of Philadelphia $8 million for the land and buildings on the sprawling Northeast Philadelphia property. "Cardinal Dougherty is a beautiful property and we want it," said Alfredo Calderon, executive director of Aspira.

Aspira of Pennsylvania Inc., a Latino educational organization facing federal cutbacks, is fighting back. Aspira supporters plan to demonstrate today at the regional offices of the U.S. Department of Education at 35th and Market streets to protest the decision not to renew a $250,000 grant for Aspira's popular high school counseling program. Funding ended Aug. 31. The grant made up about one-fourth of Aspira's annual budget, said Aspira's executive director, Emanuel Oritz.

A GROUP OF WOMEN listens during "Las Mujeres Hablan," or "Women Speak," at Aspira, on North Sixth Street, that addressed issues affecting women. Topics at the gathering yesterday included AIDS, drugs, domestic violence and health and reproductive rights.

Twelve years ago, Michael Melendez was a freshman at Roman Catholic High School, a 15-year-old from Northern Liberties with limited ambitions and few dreams. "I wanted to just go to school for 12 years and then get a job somewhere," Melendez said last week. "I didn't want to go to college. I didn't think it was for me. " Then Melendez got into Talent Search, a federally funded program run by Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit agency working to educate Latino youths. Today, he has an associate's degree from Community College of Philadelphia and is 49 credits away from a business administration degree at Temple University.

While many lawmakers yesterday were at work in Trenton attending to state business, a few were taking a break to attend a golf outing - in Puerto Rico. The golf outing, organized by ASPIRA Inc. of New Jersey, a nonprofit charitable group, attracted lawmakers such as Assembly Speaker Albio Sires (D., Hudson). Sires, the mayor of West New York, paid for the trip with money from the West New York Municipal Democratic Committee, a spokesman said. Besides the golf outing, which helps to fund scholarships, ASPIRA sponsors other events related to government and education, said William Colon, the head of the organization.

A Hispanic youth-advocacy agency has made an offer to buy the 12-acre campus of the now-defunct Cardinal Dougherty Catholic High School. The Aspira Association, a national nonprofit dedicated to developing the educational and leadership capacity of Hispanic youth, offered the Archdiocese of Philadelphia $8 million for the land and buildings on the sprawling Northeast Philadelphia property. "Cardinal Dougherty is a beautiful property and we want it," said Alfredo Calderon, executive director of Aspira.

If simply having a multitude of people, programs and policies dealing with violence prevention were all that was needed to keep order in the classroom, the Philadelphia school district would be as calm as a Quaker meeting. There are programs teaching conflict resolution and anger management skills, and programs teaching "social competencies. " There are counselors and school climate managers, school police officers and per-diem security officers assigned to school safety and discipline.

Holy Family University in partnership with a sister university in Puerto Rico and a local Latino advocacy agency announced a new program yesterday to help the Philadelphia School District cultivate more Latino and bilingual teachers. Each year beginning in August, Aspira Inc. will identify and mentor up to 25 school district seniors who will be enrolled in the teacher-education program at Holy Family. The students will spend the first two years at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, where they will be immersed in Latino culture and language.

A 33-year-old lawsuit that first sought to desegregate Philadelphia's massive school system and then focused on providing equal opportunity for minority students may soon be coming to an end. The School District of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission - as well as a coalition of advocacy groups that have been part of the case since 1993 - will ask Commonwealth Court Judge Doris Smith on Thursday to approve terms that could...

While many lawmakers yesterday were at work in Trenton attending to state business, a few were taking a break to attend a golf outing - in Puerto Rico. The golf outing, organized by ASPIRA Inc. of New Jersey, a nonprofit charitable group, attracted lawmakers such as Assembly Speaker Albio Sires (D., Hudson). Sires, the mayor of West New York, paid for the trip with money from the West New York Municipal Democratic Committee, a spokesman said. Besides the golf outing, which helps to fund scholarships, ASPIRA sponsors other events related to government and education, said William Colon, the head of the organization.

A Latino educational organization that applied to manage 24 city schools said yesterday that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission had not followed its own rules for selecting outside education managers. Leaders of Aspira Inc., which was among 10 finalists for managing schools, said the commission named six providers Wednesday even though finalists had been told that yesterday was the deadline for responding to commission questions. "We don't understand this process," Alfredo Calderon, Aspira's executive director, said yesterday.

The Seventh Councilmanic District cuts a narrow, 11-mile swath through the Northeast, including Rhawnhurst, Feltonville and Juniata Park, and struggling sections of Kensington and North Philadelphia. Be they Latino, black or white, poor, middle- or working class, these residents have, more than any other district, exercised their power of term limitation. That's why over the last 20 years, no district incumbent has won reelection. Democratic voters should repeat that pattern this year - and give challenger Maria Quinones-Sanchez an opportunity to show her impressive grasp of the issues and her excellent record as a community leader.

Another story in a continuing look at charter schools in Philadelphia. Art teacher Lucas Rivera turns the little boom box on and off, trying to get the collective attention of his kinetic fourth-graders. He won't let them dance to the music until they are under his direction. After all, they aren't just grooving to a Lauryn Hill record. Rivera is laying a foundation to teach the children about capoeria. Similar to break-dancing, it was created by Brazilian slaves in the 1500s as a clandestine form of self-defense.

Robert Dancy joins in a big cleanup of Indiana Avenue between Front and 10th Streets in North Philadelphia. Sponsored by Aspira Corp., yesterday's community event aimed to help change the area's nickname from "The Badlands" to "Land of Hope. "

The call went out to every public school student in Philadelphia: Honor Martin Luther King's Birthday by doing something good for someone else. Shovel snow. Fix houses. Feed the homeless. Sounded right to Aaron Benson. Yesterday, the 17-year-old senior from William Penn High School was in the basement of a rowhouse shell on 19th Street in North Philadelphia, shoveling sand, water, cement and lime into a vat. With the mixed concrete, Benson helped shore up the crumbling wall of what soon will be a community center.