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Saluki Success

Carl Jones and Jonathan Walker, students from Cairo Junior High School, looked at the white linen and food-covered table with satisfaction.

The two boys did not know the exact steps they were going to take to achieve their career goals in the culinary business, but Jones did know one thing about who would be his boss and who would not.

"I'm not going to work for him [Walker]!" Jones said.

The Saluki Kids' Academy Supplemental Education Services Initiative program ended its last day on Tuesday in the Friends Room at SIUC's Touch of Nature Outdoor Environmental Center. Family members and program staff joined the 30 participating children from Cairo Junior High School. They shared lunch and slide show presentations and showcased what each student wants to be when they grow up.

The program has helped both boys sharpen their academic skills, and has given them something to take back to their school.

" It helped me because I was doing pretty bad in school and I didn't pass, so I had to come to this program; it worked out nice. I passed and I'm going on to the next grade," Jones said. " It feels good."

This program is a part of the larger Saluki Kids' Academy program that is hosted in partnership with Shawnee Community College in Ullin. It is an outreach program that was started three years ago by the SIUC College of Education and Human Services.

Saluki Kids' Academy curriculum director Marla Mallette and director John Davis shared a vision to begin a service that would enrich children's learning and made it possible this year. This supplemental service program was offered to parents in the Cairo area whose children were having difficulty working to their academic potential.

"It's an extension of the Saluki Kids' Academy; a new program we're doing this year. What we're doing is providing supplemental services to students whose parents have selected us as their provider," Mallette said.

Two hours of intensive tutoring at the clinical center with graduate students in reading and language studies are spent during the morning. The focus was mainly on reading, writing and comprehensive strategy.

Lunch and recreational breaks were learning times. Mealtime was not just about eating, children were given debit cards that gave them a certain amount of money each day to spend on food. They were taught about nutrition in class and learned what kind of food choices were good, then they put this knowledge to work during meals at the Recreation Center. For fun, the children swam in the pool at Pulliam Hall. No child was left out, even it they forgot to bring a swimsuit with them.

"This was the first time some of them have ever been swimming; it was a great treat for them," Davis said. "If one of them forgot their swimsuits, Marla went out and bought them one."

The children explored different career possibilities around the campus and chose one they would most like to do. Campers were told they would be able to interview people who held their dream jobs. They looked up their specific career on the Internet to find background information to use in the interviews.

"John Davis helped get various people throughout the University and the community to come for an interview with the kids based on their career choices they had," Mallette said.

After the interviews the children put together electronic slide shows from the information they gathered to show each other, their parents and staff what they aspired to be. They presented the show after a grilled lunch that was prepared by two of their very own. Chef and restaurant owners in the making, Jones and Walker were asked to help prepare the meal for the last day of camp by the program catering director Shelba Nickell.

The children are not the only ones excited about the program and the results it is yielding. Ashley Ivory and Alfonzia Swift's parent Yvonda Swift said the children needed help reading, and with their school subjects. She believes that more parents need to take an active role in putting their children in academic aimed camps.

"I've seen some improvement with them going to our book studies," Swift said. "I think it's a nice program for kids to figure out how to read, write and begin to figure out what they want out of life."

Mallette hopes this program will continue on in the fall and eventually be available to other counties and year around.

"This program is needed; the main thing is it provides an opportunity for our kids to explore more educational opportunities through the University," said Tommy "Coach" Ellis, the program's bus supervisor and principal.