Grads

For five years, crack cocaine had Tony Smith in a choke hold. He once spent more than $800 a week on crack and bounced from homeless shelter to homeless shelter. Last year, after the habit cost Smith his fiancee and his job at an Abington tool manufacturer, he decided he'd had enough. "I didn't want to go back to living in and out of shelters," Smith said. "I knew I needed some help in getting my life together. " Help came from One Day At A Time, a transitional housing and substance-abuse program, and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition's Job Placement for the Homeless Program.

Valley Forge Military Academy graduates Larry Smith and Gary Stills were selected in the NFL draft Saturday, increasing the number of former Trojans in the NFL to seven. Jacksonville picked Smith, who played at Valley Forge in 1993 and 1994, in the second round with the 56th pick. The 6-foot-5 288-pounder played defensive tackle at Florida State. The Georgia native led Valley Forge in sacks in his two seasons there. Kansas City chose Stills in the third round with the 75th pick.

In the 39 years that Edgewood Senior Regional High School has been educating children, more than 10,000 students have passed through its halls. Whether members of the Class of '67 or '87, those students are bound together by memories of Eagles touchdowns and Cooper's Folly Road - but not by an alumni association. Until now. A small group of dedicated parents, alumni and administrators have banded together to create an Edgewood Alumni Association. The group met for this first time this month to discuss raising money and compiling a database of all alumni.

It does pay to be a college graduate. A college graduate's earnings should be at least 62 percent higher than those of someone with only a high school education. The news is even better for college grads earning advanced degrees. The average annual salary for someone with a bachelor's degree is around $48,300, but people with master's degrees earn $54,300 annually. Those whose names begin with "Dr. " have mean annual salaries of $67,500. Lawyers and physicians do even better, of course, earning more than $90,000 on average.

This summer, shortly after graduating from Temple, I was cleaning out my room in preparation for my move from Philadelphia. Included among the stacks of newspapers was a recent issue of Penn's paper, the Daily Pennsylvanian, that had a cover story about the city falling even further in the percentage of residents with college degrees. For decades, despite city officials' best efforts, many students have been leaving Philadelphia after graduation. This deprives the city of the taxable and disposable incomes of young professionals, as well as the social cachet of being a desirable destination.

When the first announcement of my 25th high school reunion arrived in the mail, I put it aside for a while and then threw it away. None of that nostalgia stuff for me. Then, a few months later, the second announcement arrived. The reunion organizers, it said, decided to make it a "grand reunion" with many classes from the 50-year history of Philadelphia's Widener School. What began as a reunion of just a few classes turned into a sort of mini- convention of people with disabilities.

During his inaugural speech in January, Mayor Nutter made a grand promise to double the city's number of college graduates over the next five to 10 years, pointing out that with just 18 percent of the adult population holding bachelor's degrees, Philadelphia ranks a lowly 92d among the nation's 100 largest cities. To achieve this goal, Nutter claimed, "we need to commit our resources - both public and private - to helping those who started college but did not finish, some 73,000 Philadelphians.

Two 1988 graduates of Methacton High School died Friday night from injuries they received in an auto accident in Valley Forge National Park earlier that evening. Killed were Sara Pontaski, 19, of the 800 block of Sunnyside Avenue in Audubon, and Michele Russo, 18, of Stoughton's Road in Collegeville. Russo, a freshman at Kutztown University majoring in art, was home for the weekend, her family said. Pontaski was a nursing assistant at Plymouth House in Plymouth Meeting. The two were riding in a 1988 Toyota pickup truck that went out of control while headed south on Old Route 363 at the Steel Bridge, according to Upper Merion police.

For some city high school grads, a few dollars have meant a chance at a future. And yesterday, 26 of them were honored for making the most of that chance. The 26 students graduated from college this spring - partly because of the help they received from the "last dollar scholarships" they received through the Philadelphia Scholars program, which is funded by an endowment of nearly $6 million. Ranging between $200 and $3,000, last dollar scholarships have been awarded to more than 500 graduates from nine city high schools since 1990.

Alexander Woolcott. Marian Anderson. Mark Blitzstein. Wilt Chamberlain. Stan Berenstain. Pearl Bailey. David Brenner. Frank Piasecki, the helicopter inventor. Guy Bluford, the astronaut. There, I have your attention - which demonstrates my point. The accomplished and famous Americans mentioned above share something in common with nearly 200,000 local schoolchildren: All of them went through the Philadelphia public school system. Yes, this is the very same school system that many Philadelphians have written off as a lost cause - partly, I suspect, because every time journalists like me discuss test scores and busing plans and Constance Clayton and Marvin Schuman, most people fall asleep.

Former basketball star Melissa Rotz will receive her doctor of Pharmacy degree and deliver the valedictory speech at the University of the Sciences graduation ceremony on Wednesday night at the Mann Center. Rotz, a graduate of Central Dauphin High School, was the women's basketball player of the year on the 2011 Inquirer all-academic team, chosen from the Philadelphia region's Division II and III schools. A four-year starter on the women's basketball team, Rotz has the distinction of graduating from University of the Sciences with the most individual academic honors ever won by a student-athlete at the institution, earning a dozen such awards over her career while performing as the team's starting point guard, the university said.

DEVON WHITE just graduated from La Salle University, but he has another season of eligibility. Under a fairly recent NCAA rule, a player who has graduated with eligibility can play immediately at another school if he takes graduate-level courses. So White will play next season at Niagara for coach Joe Mihalich, a La Salle grad himself. The 6-8 White (Strawberry Mansion) often showed flashes of talent but could not sustain it. Perhaps a change of venue will help. "I went up there on a visit and kind of enjoyed myself," White said.

Geoffrey Canada, president and chief executive officer of the Harlem Children's Zone, wears many hats — and changes them quickly. "I'll go from sitting with a parent because they're worried their son will get shot, to sitting with a billionaire who is thinking it would be smart to help my organization, just minutes apart," he said. For Canada, whose nonprofit runs charter schools and community programs, rapidly switching gears is but one aspect of being a successful leader.

It's amazing how quickly an athlete goes from unwanted to desired in the NFL. Running back Jonathan Grimes, the former Paul VI and William & Mary standout, experienced this quick transition after the recent NFL draft. Grimes enjoyed a spectacular career at William & Mary, becoming the program's all-time leader in rushing yards (4,541), all-purpose yards (7,955), kickoff-return yards (2,289), and rushing attempts (936). Yet possibly because he excelled only in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA)

WASHINGTON - The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge. Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs - waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example - and that's confounding their hopes that a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

James Madison coach Matt Brady had to watch his men's basketball team attempt to withstand one injury after another this season, so in a symbolic way, it should be no surprise that the 1983 graduate of Paul VI is on crutches. After a few of his players went down, Brady did the same. With so few available bodies to practice late in the season, Brady, a former standout at Siena after his stellar career at Paul VI, served as one of the practice bodies. He suffered a torn Achilles tendon, forcing him to coach the rest of the season on crutches.

Khadijah White is a doctoral candidate in communications at University of Pennsylvania, has taught school in Brooklyn, been a White House intern in the Obama administration, and a journalist for PBS who once interviewed the president of Senegal. That resumé, however, apparently did not prepare her for what could happen at a public hearing in the City of Philadelphia. White, 28, spent about 19 hours in police custody. She was charged with resisting arrest, harassment, and disorderly conduct after a confrontation with police doing crowd control at Thursday's meeting on the Department of Public Health's proposal to regulate the feeding of homeless people outdoors.

Penn Charter and FC Delco product Chris Albright is coming home. The Union said Monday that they have signed the veteran 13-year Major League Soccer defender. Terms were not disclosed. The 33-year-old Albright, who earned 22 caps with the U.S. national team, isn't expected to be a starter but he brings a valuable veteran defensive presence. Last year, Albright appeared in eight games, making six starts with the New York Red Bulls in an injury-plagued season. He is a three-time all-star who has been part of three MLS championship teams - 1999 with D.C. United and 2002 and 2005 with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Villanova University law school announced it has received a $5 million gift to underwrite the creation of a center for the study of sports law, its largest gift ever. The gift was made by Jeffrey S. Moorad, a 1981 graduate of the law school and currently the vice chairman and chief executive officer of the San Diego Padres. Villanova said it planned to host a symposium Friday on the business of sports with Moorad and Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, the subject of the book and film titled Moneyball . Also on the list of attendees is former New York Mets general manager and current Padres senior vice president Omar Minaya, MSNBC president Phil Griffin, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.