At arguably one of the most cruel times in 12-year-old Jimica Perea’s life, The Challenge Foundation’s summer school program wrapped its arms around her and held tight.
The math games, weekly essays and Friday field trips with new friends were a welcome escape from questioning police and lawyers, and memories of what had happened six months earlier. In December 1999, just a few days after Christmas, men knocked on Jimica’s door, saying they were friends of her stepfather, wondering where he was. She never saw him again.
Three months later, police found the body of Paul Bueno in an Adams County field, an assassin’s bullet silencing his planned testimony in a drug trial.
“My mom wasn’t the same after that. She was always crying,” says Jimica, who just celebrated her 19th birthday. “But I was so busy that first year with the program, all of the bad was in the background. People with the foundation kept me focused on school. They were always there when I needed them.”
The Denver Challenge Foundation arranged for a $12,000-a-year scholarship for Jimica, but also gave her everything she needed to guarantee she’d get to college.
“You can’t just give them a scholarship and expect success. We do everything to ensure they won’t fail,” says Don McFall, a Denver real estate developer who established the foundation in 1997.
Members of the foundation became a second family to her. They gave her a computer and other supplies. Tutors were on hand to explain tough lessons. Transportation to and from school was arranged. Mentors provided yet another tier of support.
More important, people were available to help deal with emotional scars. Jimica had more than any young child should bear.
When she was 2, a chow attacked her face and neck. She nearly bled to death after one hospital refused to admit her. It took 500 stitches to close her wounds and a mental toughness beyond her years to ignore elementary-school teasing.
At the age of 4, Jimica watched her biological father beat her mom. She later testified at her father’s trial. While her mother healed, Jimica lived with her grandparents. And in 2000, after her stepfather’s death, the family nearly became part of the witness protection program because they feared for their safety.
“I’m so thankful for the foundation,” says Jimica. “Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to go to a private school. Other girls I used to hang out with dropped out, some had kids. No one in my family finished high school. That makes me want to get to the top, for them. My family deserves that.”
And while she speaks matter-of-factly about her past, she talks about her first week of college with the bubbly enthusiasm and run-on sentences that can only come from a woman full of life and dreams.
Not even the 5½ hours of homework assigned on her first day at Regis University dampened her spirits. The Daniels Fund Scholarship recipient is used to the workload. Her plans of becoming a lawyer, like the district attorney and others who helped her family when she was 12, are now in the not-too-distant future.
She’s trying to juggle demanding course work, a 30-hour-a-week job, a boyfriend and the school’s dance team’s long practices.
“The Challenge Foundation taught me that anything’s possible,” she says.
It’s not exactly a mantra at the foundation, but close to it.
“We are cheerleaders. Our goal is to help kids who wouldn’t have had the chance,” says Kristin Wells, the executive director of the foundation, the only one like it in the state.
Each year, nine fifth-graders full of potential but without the family means to attend rigorous academic schools, enter the program. An elaborate selection process ensures there are no “curriculum casualties” – children who might not be able to handle the accelerated courses or the hours of homework each night.
A majority of the students are girls and attend St. Mary’s Academy or Colorado Academy beginning in sixth grade.
“The program works best in an environment where 100 percent of the students go to college. The kids are carried along,” says Wells.
Currently 53 students are in the seven-year program. Aside from the scholarships, the foundation spends about $10,000 per year on each student. Some of the money comes from a yearly fundraiser, and many of the supplies are donated.
Even with all the help, it’s up to the students to do the work.
Tough transition
Indya Clark, 16, awakes every morning at 5 to be ready for the two buses that carry her away from the inner city to the exclusive Cherry Hills Village neighborhood and St. Mary’s, where she is a junior.
Several times during her first year there, she nearly quit the program. She went from being an A student to one who got Cs. “I felt a little dumb, and it hurt my ego. I changed my mind (about staying in the program) so many times, especially when things got tough. It makes you grow up faster.”
Her mother, Dolores, remembers that Indya often was stressed with so many life changes. Just a year earlier, the family briefly had been homeless. Few minorities attended St. Mary’s. The family didn’t have Internet access, so sometimes Indya would use her lunch time to finish an assignment that required online research.
On school trips, when others had hundreds of dollars to spend, she would carefully budget her money, or often go without. Her mother says Indya took her homework with her wherever she went.
During the tough transition time, Delores Clark learned to lean on Wells and other program members. “(Wells) was good at listening to my concerns. Knowing you had everyone’s support helped.”
“My mom says she can’t be everywhere so God made Kristin,” says Indya.
Delores Clark says the foundation and her daughter’s acceptance into the program are “a blessing she wouldn’t trade for the world.”
Neither would Indya. Now she acquiesces to the early hours and bus rides, is an honor roll student, and has made many friends in the all-girls’ school, where everyone is like family.
“I’d never want to change any of the struggles. It made me Indya today.”
Such transformations are common to the Challenge participants. Crystal Santos, 14, was shy when she attended a school that had one of the lowest CSAP scores in the metro area.
“I really opened up and talked more because (St. Mary’s teachers and foundation staff) made me feel comfortable. It changed the way I thought and the way I deal with life.”
The program allowed her to grow in other ways, too. Because McFall believes a change in environment is crucial to students’ success, the program offers experiential opportunities.
“I never knew what lacrosse was before. I went to a Mammoth game and my first Nuggets game. I went to Washington, D.C., and New York City. Before, just going to the mountains was such a huge deal. Now I really appreciate that I’ve had the chance to do things I wouldn’t have been able to do before,” says Crystal.
Each student also must participate in 100 hours of community service work before they graduate. “It doesn’t do any good to produce this great person if they don’t give back,” says McFall.
And many of the relationships formed during the program continue.
Barbara Grogan, a Denver businesswoman and philanthropist, has been Crystal’s mentor since the girl was in sixth grade, helping her develop strategies for handling upsets or just spending time together as buddies.
“One day (Crystal) asked … how long I’d be her mentor. I told her it was for life,” Grogan said.
Cynthia J. Pasquale can be reached at 303-954-1722 or cpasquale@denverpost.com.
