LEARNING ABOUT LEADERSHIP: At the closing ceremony of last year’s “At the Well” session on the campus of Princeton University, girls who completed the motivational program posed for a group portrait. This summer’s session, which begins July 22, inaugurates a companion program for boys.

By Anne Levin

For the past eight years, a week-long summer leadership academy designed to motivate teenaged girls of color has been held on the campus of Princeton University. “At the Well” has focused on critical reading, critical writing, and activities for leadership development, bringing in speakers from the worlds of business, education, and entertainment.

The success of the program has led sponsors to think about a companion program for boys. This summer, for the first time, the girls will have male counterparts attending sessions in another section of the campus. Thirty boys from different parts of the country will attend “From the Fire” July 22 to August 3, with a curriculum that bears some similarities but has a greater focus on mentoring.

“We felt the need to add two components for the boys,” said Linda Peavy, a consultant closely involved in the initiative. “They will be paired with a mentor, someone with whom they can have a lasting relationship. And they will also take part in a rites of passage program, which helps these young men as they enter manhood. It will deal with social issues and activities that provide them with life skills — very practical information that will help them become responsible and accountable.”

Among the speakers who will address the young men are actors Danny Glover and Delroy Lindo. It was Lindo, in fact, who helped spur the sponsors into making “From the Fire” happen. He is program chair for the inaugural conference.

“Over the years, we were always being asked, ‘What are you going to do for the boys? Because it is so needed,’“ said Peavy. “Last year, during the closing ceremony, Delroy Lindo’s niece was in the program and he came to pick her up. He said he saw the wonderful glow on the faces of the girls, and asked what it was about. That kind of started the discussion about providing something for the boys.”

Most of the participants in both programs are on scholarship. Eleven boys coming from Omaha, Nebraska have been fully funded by a sponsor from that city. Two boys from Newark are being sponsored by My Brother’s Keeper, which was launched by the Obama Foundation.

“To inspire them, we wanted to provide men who are successful from a number of different professions,” said Peavy. “Not just sports players and entertainers — we have an attorney, a life coach, a MacArthur fellow, Mayor Baraka of Newark, and a few NBA players. These are people who can teach these young men about leadership.”

Simultaneously, girls in the program will be hearing from actresses Nicole Ari Parker and Erika Alexander, D.L. Hughley Show co-host Jasmine Sanders, scholar Julianne Malveaux, motivational speaker Brandi Harvey, and 2016 Democratic National Committee Chief Leah Daughtry, along with a physician, inventor, attorney, and successful plus-size model.

To participate, applicants must have a certain grade point average, write a letter or essay, and provide letters of recommendation. With boys now attending the conferences, efforts will be made to keep the sexes apart most of the week. “We don’t want any distractions,” Peavy said. “But on Saturday, July 28, the boys and girls will take a trip to New York to see the play Carmen Jones. They’ll travel separately, but they’ll be together in the theater.”

A fundraiser for both programs is Tuesday, July 31 at 7 p.m. Stogie Kenyatta’s one-man show The World is My Home, A Tribute to Paul Robeson, is at Nassau Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $30 (visit www.
atthewellconferences.org).

Peavy said 65 girls are signed up for this summer’s conference. She expects next year’s event to attract significantly more boys than this year’s inaugural 30. Some of the speakers in the girls’ program are returning, as are some of the young participants. At the men’s conference, Lindo will speak at both the opening and closing ceremonies.

“During the closing ceremony, at the Friend Center, there will be an official rites of passage program for the boys,” said Peavy. “They will have learned a lot about leadership and team-building, and this is the official recognition of that.”