Area Teens Make a Mark
Devontez 'Tez' Blackwell
One Child at a Time
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The kids at Nia Public Charter School in Southwest Washington look up to Devontez "Tez" Blackwell, and not just because he's 6-foot-1.
They say they like the 16-year-old varsity basketball player because he's funny and cool. And they like him because he helps them makes sense of such fourth-grade writing concepts as "bullet points" and "supporting statements" on those days when they have to write essays about how they learned to hula hoop.
There are many ways to make the world a better place, and Tez, a junior at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, is making his contribution one child at a time.
He said he knows kids get frustrated when they can't crack a math problem or when the words in their brain get jumbled when they're trying to write an essay.
In his neighborhood in Southwest, he's the go-to guy when parents are looking for a tutor.
"They'll knock on the door and say, 'Can Tez come and help?' " said his mother, Lisa Blackwell. "I don't know what it is, but he has a gift for explaining."
On one recent day, the students at Nia -- a school that his mother and aunt helped establish -- grinned when they saw Tez strolling through the hallway. For Tez, tutoring is a way to show appreciation for all the good things that have happened to him. If someone helps him, it just seems right to help someone else.
"If people don't give back, where would communities be today?" he asked.
During one hour-long session, Tez coached three fourth-graders on the fine points of essay writing. He was quite the sight, trying to cram his long legs under a desk built to accommodate elementary-sized limbs.
He walked them through the "pre-writing" process.
"Do you know what supporting details are?" he asked. There was a bit of squirming and a lost pencil crisis. "Here, take mine," he said, quelling the panic. By the end of the session, the kids had a full page of writing, and Tez had the satisfaction of knowing three more kids weren't going to be left behind.
His mother and aunt initially coaxed him into helping at Nia. Mostly, he said, he did it as a favor for his mother. But after spending a bit of time with the students, Tez said, he found it wasn't a chore. He liked helping them. The thunderclap of triumph he felt when they got a concept he had spent several minutes trying to explain? Priceless.
