Stories Differ, Goals the Same
Pr. George's Teens Overcome Hardships, Win Full Scholarships to U-Md.

By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Komi Akoumany grew up poor in West Africa and learned there were "three ways to become somebody: Your father is head of a military branch or knows the president, you are gifted with extreme soccer skills that will catch the eyes of European soccer coaches, or you get on a plane to United States of America." In 2000, he moved from Togo to the Washington suburbs. Now a graduating senior at Central High in Capitol Heights, he just won a full four-year scholarship to the University of Maryland.

Antonio Tyson, born in the District, also is about to graduate from Central. For years he has cared for his little brother and sister after school so his mom could work to support them. He, too, has won a four-year scholarship to College Park.

Neither Akoumany nor Tyson is tops in his class. But these 18-year-olds fit the profile of what the university is seeking in a new initiative in Prince George's County: students who have shown academic promise amid hardship and in years past might have been overlooked.

Maryland's flagship university this year has built an unusual link to a cluster of five Prince George's schools inside the Capital Beltway that serve high-minority, moderate-income communities. The university's goal is to find five students to receive full scholarships -- kids who live nearby but sometimes are distanced from the campus by perceptions of a financial or academic divide.

They're often the first in their families to attend a four-year college. They could be immigrants, such as Akoumany, who once lived in a village without electricity or running water and ran three miles to and from school each day. Other winners this year spent time in a homeless shelter or worked long hours at a cineplex to help support the family.

"This program gives them a chance to have . . . great opportunities," said university President C.D. Mote Jr. "It's thrilling."

Other universities, public and private, have expanded aid to low-income students in recent years. The University of Virginia helps almost 800 needy students a year with a $20 million aid program; those whose families meet certain income criteria get a full ride. George Washington University awarded nine D.C. public school students scholarships of $200,000 apiece this year.

At College Park, Mote aims to help more than the five students chosen this year from Prince George's to receive scholarships covering tuition, fees, housing, meals and other expenses (but not books) in four-year packages worth $100,000 each.

He also wants to raise expectations -- and open doors -- in public schools that often send just a trickle of graduates to a major public university a few miles away. To do that, the university is enlisting the award winners as academic emissaries.

These students and their successors will be asked to return again and again to Central, Fairmont Heights, Northwestern, Suitland and Potomac high schools to "start talking it up, tell what it's like in college, try to build a little pipeline of students who are brave enough to apply," said William W. Destler, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. The Prince George's initiative is modeled after an effort the university began in Baltimore City in 2001 that has expanded, slowly but steadily, the flow of students from there to College Park.

One afternoon this month, a crowd gathered under a tent on the lawn outside Mote's house to salute 14 scholarship winners -- five from Prince George's and nine from Baltimore. High school principals, guidance counselors, civic leaders and university officials mingled with the students, friends and family members over pizza, soft drinks and root beer floats.

Mark R. Vogel, a real estate developer based in Greenbelt, came to see the rollout of the Prince George's program, which he has helped fund. Most costs are paid by private donations. Vogel, a College Park alum, said a public university should seek to level a playing field that often favors the elite. "It's just so logical," he said.

The Akoumany family fits no one's definition of privileged. Akoumany's mother, Afiavi, is a house cleaner. His father, who manages a Sbarro restaurant in a local mall, groped for an analogy to explain his reaction to his son's scholarship. "Maybe lottery," Dovi Akoumany said. "Maybe Powerball. Now, I'm still dreaming."

He stood behind rows of chairs to capture the event with a camcorder.

Tyson came with his mother, Tonia Robinson; his 11-year-old brother, Ronald; his 8-year-old sister, Tajah; and a jubilant grandmother. As the winners were introduced, a university official said Tyson proved "invaluable to his mom" over the years by caring for his younger siblings while she was at work.

"I do it so much I don't see it as 'baby-sitting,' " Tyson said afterward. "It's not a burden to me at all. I'm responsible."

Central High benefited this year from a foul-up at another school. It was given a second scholarship slot after Potomac High in Oxon Hill failed to meet program requirements for reasons that are unclear. The other winners were DeAngela Boone of Fairmont Heights, Maria Vasquez of Northwestern and Kareem Shakoor of Suitland.

At Central, near the Addison Road Metro station, Tyson and Akoumany are described as solid achievers in a graduating class of about 225 students. Tyson's grade-point average is about 3.1; Akoumany's is above 3.4. Akoumany is taking Advanced Placement calculus and is the campus computer fix-it man. He learned English from scratch when he came to the United States in seventh grade. He plans to study computer science. Tyson has earned credits at Prince George's Community College and is a trusted aide in the guidance office and gymnasium. He plans to become a psychiatrist.

Both students said they had not thought much about College Park until a friend and a counselor persuaded them to attend an assembly in October to hear about a scholarship for students who had overcome obstacles. "When I heard this, it clicked in," Akoumany said. "It could be me."

Tyson's reaction in March when he heard who had been chosen from among five students nominated at the school: "I was speechless." But his teachers whooped.