A.B.C. Project and Students Both Measure Up to High Expectations

FOR a venture that is expectantly and pointedly called "A Better Chance," that is fraught with possibilities for disappointment in an emphatic concern for "risks" in human potential, there can be no definitive evaluation on eight summer weeks. Only a future study of 55 lifetimes can provide that.

An interim report on the first session of Dartmouth's Project A.B.C., however, would indicate that under the direction of Associate Dean Charles F. Dey '52 the program in the classrooms, dormitories, dining hall, and playing fields moved forward with efficiency and understanding. It would also indicate that the experience had a profound effect on the principals involved. For example:

A mother of an A.B.C. student wrote this to the College: "I am sincerely grateful to all of the people who have and still are helping (son's name) to have such opportunities as he had this past summer and the ones he is moving on to now. You don't know, really, what you have done."

An A.B.C. student wrote this as part of a critique distributed by the Boys Club of New York: "I learned so much academically and I learned twice as much about life during this summer at Dartmouth." Another boy wrote: "I got a whole new outlook on literature."

And Dean Dey said this: "We gave them opportunity to meet high expectations, and most of them measured up. ... We know these kids in a way they've never been known before to adults."

And the boys know Dartmouth as few others have before. The students were predominantly Negro and from economically, culturally, and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Although they had the potential to get them into A.B.C., they were "risks" for whom few doors to higher education would be opening — without a break. For these boys eight weeks at Dartmouth could be the break. And they knew it.

For the boys chosen to participate, coming to Dartmouth was no easy matter. One, an Indian boy, traveled half the distance to Hanover before making his decision to return to the reservation. For the 55 who came to Hanover, for Dey, for his eight Dartmouth student tutors, for the faculty of nine, the first days were "full of electricity." The boys tested the bounds on study hours, scheduling, and about everything else according to Dey - and more aggressively than he or his staff had anticipated.

"They kept looking for the gimmick, anticipating 'the cop,' the threat, because this was what they knew and expected," Dey noted, but what they received instead was quiet, persistent understanding. "The boys also had trouble concentrating, sitting at desks, and grasping that the instructors were interested in the why and not the mechanics," and here again patience and persistence won out. The breakthrough in gaining the boys' confidence came in the second week. Project A.B.C. moved into high gear.

The schedule was flexible, adjusting to meet the needs of the individual boys and concentrating on mathematics and English (literature, composition, and reading). Classes were small, the largest being nine, the smallest one. Following a postlunch study hour afternoons were spent at sports, hikes, and other special activities.

A.B.C. became more than an idea last fall when the College linked its desire to broaden the pool of boys from disadvantaged backgrounds who would be qualified for higher education to the Independent Schools Talent Search Program, an effort to recruit qualified Negro youngsters for the 25 cooperating preparatory schools. Dartmouth offered facilities and an eight-week course of studies to help the boys make the transition to the level of work expected at the prep schools - but the College insisted that the boys be "risks." The prep schools for their part agreed to take specific boys (and to provide financial aid) if the boys should receive recommendation by Dartmouth at the end of the A.B.C. course.

Added impetus came when the Rockefeller Foundation found the project to its liking and made a grant of $150,000 for three years. To Dey and James E. Simmons, a young Harvard graduate who is field representative for the Independent Schools search, fell the responsibility of setting up the organization to find the "risks," evaluating them, "placing" them with a cooperating school, then carrying through the summer program. New ventures are not without problems and bleak moments, and A.B.C. was no exception, but with the help of the prep schools and the efforts of Dey and Simmons by mid-June the College was ready and anxiously awaiting the boys' arrival.

Of the 55 who arrived, 54 completed the full program. Only seven were not recommended to the 27 prep schools committed to A.B.C. boys, and several out of the seven are being admitted by the schools despite lack of recommendation.

Now as the 1964 A.B.C. boys are getting a first taste of prep school life, Dey and Simmons are "projecting" into 1965 with inquiries from parents, from "contacts" recommending new boys, and from more preparatory schools seeking to ally themselves with Dartmouth and A.B.C.

Ken Sharpe '66 one of eight undergraduate resident tutors, with A.B.C. boy Jim Brown of Pittsburghlived with students and gave individual attention at study hours. Staff called job "on firing line."

Ed Lemon of New York receives a prize book for academic honors from Director Charles Dey '52 at closing ceremony. Lemon is at Cheshire Academy.

Clarinetist Wendell Hale from Birmingham, Ala.

Non-study hours were busy with activitiesincluding an A.B.C. singing group (left), allsports, hiking, mountain climbing, art, music, and dramatics too.

Ron Clark, who took art, is at Holderness.

A.B.C.'s drama group put on "Stalag 17"to the delight of the boys and faculty.

Former baseball star Jackie Robinson (I) was a popularvisitor to the program. With him are Leslie Powell (c)of LaCrosse, Va., now at Andover, and Jose Alvarado ofNew York City who is now attending the DeVeaux School.

Dartmouth shirts and milk were both A.B.C. favorites.

Classes ranged in size from a high of nine for English literature and mathematics to two or three in special emphasissections in composition and math problem solving. Studentsin this class are (l to r) Allen Wade, Memphis, Tenn., nowat Tilton; Larry Miller, N.Y., at Governor Dummer; Lemon.

Dinners were coat and tie affairs with special guests suchas Grenville Clark, '53 Honorary (left foreground) joiningthe students and Director Dey (background). Faculty families, tutors, and all met for dinner but not for other meals.

The A.B.C. students make up in competitiveness for what theylack in height in one of many contests with program's staff.