Miss America Outstanding Teen teamed up with a Columbia-based nonprofit that helps at-risk youth of incarcerated parents.
The unlikely pair met up this week at Collington Square Elementary in East Baltimore.
Meghan Miller, 17, of Beaumont, Texas, performed her ventriloquist act at the after-school initiative, which focuses on reading, math and character-building. She answered questions about her act and pursuing dreams.
U.S. Dream Academy was founded in 1998 by Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Wintley Phipps, a Columbia resident for 23 years.
With a $2 million annual budget, the academy manages after-school programs for youths in ZIP codes with high incarceration rates in 10 U.S. cities, including Baltimore and Washington. An overwhelming majority of people in prison are children of current or former prisoners, Phipps said.
“My wife, Linda, has seven brothers and sisters,” he said, “and they?ve all been incarcerated. Another family took an interest in her when she was a child, and it meant everything. She?s a registered nurse.”
The 95 children in the Collington program practice reading and math skills, join voice, drama or art classes, and participate in character-building exercises. More than 80 Johns Hopkins University students and employees each serve an hour every week as mentors.
The work appears to have affected reading test scores. In the 2005 Maryland assessment tests, 43.1 percent of Collington sixth-graders scored as proficient, higher than the 36.1 percentage for all city public school sixth-graders and the 39.1 statewide average. In math, however, 15.5 percent of sixth-graders scored proficient, vs. a 26.5 mark citywide and 45.2 statewide.
