My name is Julius Defour and I'm
a graduate of Lewis and Clark
high school class of 2002.
I'm working for Gateway to
College which is a dropout
reengagement program students
who have disengaged I think is a
better word from high school
for one reason or another get a
second chance with Gateway
to College so it's a dual
enrollment program where they
are taking college classes to
earn high school credits.
Essentially my role is academic
success coach which is basically
an advisor in addition to the
advising I also teach a class to
students is a career guidance
class it gives students an
opportunity to really process
kind of who they are and what
their interests are and passions
are start to really generate
some ideas about major or
degree paths and career paths.
What I found is that many times
students who are categorized as
at risk they're bright
individuals and they have great
skill sets they're resilient
individuals that many of them
have probably overcome quite
a bit but many times it just
requires the right setting in
the right atmosphere for them to
really thrive and for me in
all my instances where maybe I
struggled in school there was
sort of a system that caught me
that brought me back.
In eighth grade I was in a
pretty cool program called
Quest which was a program that
Spokane Public Schools did for I
guess you could say at risk
youth and it was more of a tight
knit group so the teachers were
really intentional about kind of
that mentorship piece and I
had some teachers and there that
were really caring kind of I
think got me back on track so I
went to high school there were
no glitches at all it was pretty
easy I did well in high school.
So for me to continue to be
qualified to actually do a
quality job it's essential
that I continue to be a lifelong
learner.
Mentorship is a very important
piece as far as being an
educator in general I think
that's whether your teaching or
counseling or being an
administrator absolutely having
a kind of open-door policy
having time and energy for the
students you work with when I
worked at Rogers Lori Wyborney
and all the administrators all
the Assistant Principals, all
the Principal Assistants they
always had time for students and
staff in a big way and the
students knew that and they
would seek those Principles
and Assistant Principals out so
absolutely we're all just people
when you get a chance to connect
with another individual or
whatever you're going through a
kind of softens it a bit and
just because you know you've
been heard when that's the
foundation of your practice I
think that super powerful.
Spokane just as kind of a
community is really interesting
and unique because we pull
from all these different
socio-economics status' racial
divides and nationalities Grant
was amazing because we had
students from Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, Russia we had
Native Americans students we had
Ethiopian students my
father's from Trinidad we always
especially in Grant took time to
really celebrate the things that
were unique about us which again
is one of those lifelong lessons
because each one of us come with
our own uniqueness to be told
that from a young age is pretty
powerful specially from somebody
outside your home.
I love Spokane Public Schools, I
think my experience in Spokane
Public Schools was outstanding.
