By Sarah Garrecht Gassen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Sarai Alvarez needed a family of friends away from home.
Karmyn Rowe wanted to avoid going boy-crazy.
And Cori Steele figured she'd like high school better if she threw herself into it.
Each of these local teens had reasons for forging a personal connection with school or an outside activity - the key to making education work, according to students and researchers.
Being involved does not mean being on every team and in every club a school offers - it means students being engaged in their own lives, experts say.
The immediate payoffs are making friends, exploring interests and feeling needed, say teens and educators.
But the effects of being active linger - a child who participates in activities is more likely to go to college, research shows.
The key to staying motivated in activities is to find an interest and run with it, said the 16-year-old Alvarez. The Cholla High School junior has turned her interest in her Pascua Yaqui culture into activism and outreach.
"You have to find those people who are going to lead you," she said. "If you get involved you won't just be another number at school; they'll know your name.
"Getting involved is part of getting to know yourself and what you like," Alvarez said. "You have to find something you can be in so those people can become your support."
She is president of the Cholla High School Tribal Images Youth Council this year and the Tucson Unified School District tribal council. Alvarez is also the first Pascua Yaqui representative to the national UNITY organization for Native American students.
Being involved is a daily endeavor for Alvarez, in her official capacities and trying to get other students involved.
Alvarez was spurred to action early in life. She was president of her fifth-grade class and helped her classmates after she finished her work.
"Kids would be failing and no one would help them and it made me so mad," Alvarez said. "When I was little I would just help where I could - now I speak to students and public groups."
Keeping busy with activities helps Alvarez stay focused on school and make friends.
"Freshman year I let a lot of problems at home affect me," she said. "I was losing faith.
"But because I was in Youth Council it kept my mind off of my problems and it was an escape," Alvarez said. "Every-thing might not be right at home, but I could go to the council.
"It helps to have a family away from your family," she said.
Karmyn Rowe has found staying busy outside school works better for her.
Rowe, 15, spends several hours after school working with younger kids at the Greenview Neighborhood Network Center in her Midtown apartment complex. She helps with crafts and the computer lab.
"I can do more because my mind isn't all on guys, it's more on my schoolwork," Rowe said. "Most of the girls now, that's all they think about and that's not what I'm into."
Rowe is also starting a snack bar business with two other girls at the neighborhood center.
"I think all kids should be involved in at least one extracurricular thing," Rowe said. "It helps clear your mind and you can go into class with a clear head - you don't have time to think about all the other things, and you don't have to worry about what everybody thinks of you."
What Rowe and Alvarez have found works in their own lives is borne out by research, according to Margaret Stone, a research faculty member at the University of Arizona in Family and Consumer Sciences.
A study of 10th-graders in Michigan, directed by her colleague Bonnie Barber, found that the effects of being involved in community or school lasted past high school graduation by helping teens form a positive self-identity.
"Youngsters who can find an identity in band or on the football field have opportunities to be with adult role models and feel that they're an important part of their school," Stone said.
Involvement has been linked to lower dropout rates, she said.
"There are other studies that indicate that the kids who just come and go don't have as much investment in their education or the institution," Stone said.
"Children who grab on to different things in a school are more likely to be able to develop a strong academic identity," she said.
High school counselor Susan Jenkin has found those findings to be true in her job at Canyon del Oro High School in the Amphitheater School District.
"The most important thing is that the student is engaged in the community and their lives, and it's empowering them," Jenkin said. "It enables one to make good decisions, to be a productive citizen and to give back to the community and the people in their lives."
Whether a student is active in or outside of school does not matter, Jenkin said.
"You need connections - the most important thing is that you're connected," she said.
Cori Steele , 17, thinks her constant activity helps her to be well-rounded, but she does have to remind herself to slow down occasionally. She goes to bed around midnight and is on her way to school before 7 a.m.
Steele is president of the Tucson High School student body, captain of the golf team, on the basketball team, on the Tucson Unified School District Student Advisory Council, in the school Home Room Federation, co-president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, in the Spanish club, the National Honors Society and in advanced modern dance.
And she works as a waitress at an assisted-living center - although she'll have to cut back to just weekends during the school year.
Steele's mother, Lisa McCorkle, said her daughter has always been in activities outside school because she's seen the value of involvement throughout McCorkle's career as a teacher and elementary school principal.
The key is to strike a balance between a child being active and burning out.
"I think parents today feel like they have to have their kids do everything - there's a real pressure that if my child isn't a star by the age of 4 there's something wrong," McCorkle said.
"You need to have fun with what you're doing," she said. "It's not about winning or necessarily being the best, but being a team player."
Steele wants to make her school experience positive and being so active helps create a wide network of friends across the school.
"All the reactions I get about high school that are negative, it's usually from someone who wasn't involved in school," Steele said. "You need to be involved to like high school - you can't expect it to be all great when you don't put any effort in and join clubs or whatever."
* Contact Sarah Garrecht Gassen at 573-4117 or at sgassen@azstarnet.com.
