Academy taps culture, confidence.

Byline: JEFF WRIGHT The Register-Guard

BRYAN RICE, who is part Cherokee, doesn't know many Asian kids. Lee Maire, who is part Filipino, doesn't know many American Indian kids. But on Wednesday, Bryan and Lee learned to lean on each other - literally.

The setting was a basement dance studio at Lane Community College where Karimu Kudura, who is black, led 60 teen-agers through an hour of tai chi instruction. The routines include a trust-building exercise where students pair up and lean on each other, back to back.

It's all part of LCC's Rites of Passage Summer Academy, where minority students gather for four weeks to learn about themselves and their cultures.

Begun seven years ago for black teens, the program added an Asian component last summer, and this year has expanded to include programs for Latinos and Indians. The academy has captured national attention and could soon be copied at other campuses across the country.

At LCC, all the students start the day together with tai chi. It's definitely a new experience for most of them, including 16-year-old Sebastian Jaramillo, one of 23 Latinos enrolled this summer.

"It's really relaxing," he said. "Tai chi puts you in a good mood for the rest of the day."

Typically, the rest of the day includes classroom instruction in life skills, career planning, and cultural history and literature.

The curriculum is as eclectic as the student body. Jose Ortal, an LCC instructor working with the Latino students, is leading discussions on topics as varied as 14th-century Central America, modern-day Cuba, U.S. immigration policy, the North American Free Trade Agreement and work-force diver- sity.

Adriana Montes, 15, drinks it all in. "I'm really into history," she said. "I like to know many things."

But it's not all textbook and paper: Today, for example, the Asian students will learn first aid, and on Friday the Latino students will resume work on a mural.

Next week, the academy's black students will job-shadow and interview black professionals around town, then share their experiences in class. And the Indian youth - only three have enrolled so far - will get a chance to do some drumming.

Greg Evans, LCC's special projects coordinator, calls the expanded program "the realization of a dream." Evans launched the academy in 1995 and has struggled to keep it alive and growing ever since.

The academy's goals, he said, extend beyond teaching kids about their ethnic heritage. It also aims to promote self-confidence, self-direction and the idea that they belong and can succeed in college.

"We want to get more kids of color in the pipeline, and more importantly, prepare them for the rigors of academic life," he said. "Many of these kids come out of high school clueless about what's expected of them in a higher education setting."

The academy operates on a budget of around $44,000, with LCC contributing about $30,000, Evans said. Private fund raising, grants and LCC Foundation support covers the rest. Students pay $50, but the fee can be waived in cases of financial hardship.

The operation succeeds because of the nearly 40 people - classroom instructors, mentors, guest speakers and student interns - who contribute their time and expertise, Evans said.

Originally, the program was aimed at at-risk high school kids only. But the academy now accepts any interested minority youth in either high school or middle school.

"We looked and saw a real gap in the cultural knowledge for all of these kids," Evans said. "And middle school is not too early to work on students' self-esteem and get them thinking about college and their future."

Kelly Fuller, 12, may be the youngest - and lightest-skinned - student enrolled. The Springfield middle-schooler is part Indian, "but I got my color from my grandmother, who's Irish."

It hasn't been hard to fit in - "I've started feeling like one of them," she said of the other students - and she said she's already learned plenty she didn't know, from the Cherokee alphabet to the way Hollywood has helped perpetuate the myth "that all Indians are mean and warlike."

Several students said they've learned more about their heritage at the academy than they have during years of public school.

"It's not just Martin Luther King and Malcolm X," said Desiree Williams, a 15-year-old black enrolled for the third straight summer.

Desiree, who hopes to combine her math and art skills for a career in architecture, said the academy has done wonders for her self-confidence.

"I used to live in Baltimore so it was a real culture shock when I came to Eugene," she said. "It was like, `Oh wow, there are other black kids in Eugene, Oregon.' '

Evans said the academy can be especially helpful for youth in homogenous communities such as Eugene, where whites make up 88 percent of the population, according to the 2000 census.

Among the campuses that have inquired about the academy, he said, is Eastern Washington University near Spokane, which has similar demographics.

"There's a lot of interest in what we're doing here," he said. "Other places see the need, and I'm very proud of the fact they're looking to follow Lane's lead."

CAPTION(S):

NICOLE DeVITO / The Register-Guard Bryan Rice (left), part Cherokee, and Lee Maire, part Filipino, pair up in a trust-building exercise as part of LCC's Rites of Passage Summer Academy. "We looked and saw a real gap in the cultural knowledge for all of these kids." GREG EVANS LCC's special projects coordinator