The message was fitting, for it was Sicat who had taught these inner-city kids to believe in themselves. They are members of Emagine, the innovative after-school program Sicat developed in graduate school at Harvard. For four years this son of Filipino immigrants has been their mentor, friend and guiding spirit. Showing up at the marathon "was our way to support him," says Maalum Robinson, 17, "though it wasn't close to what he's given us."
That would be a new lease on the future. Accepting 20 freshmen who expressed interest in 2002, Sicat has tutored the students twice a week during the academic year and for six weeks in the summers. But his efforts have gone far beyond the classroom—the full-time teacher has taken students on rafting and theater trips, helped them land paid internships and toured colleges with them, funding the program with grant money and out of his own pocket. "They don't hear positive messages every day," says Sicat, who takes no salary for Emagine. "They needed to have someone teach that to them."
It looks as if the message has sunk in. Although only half the Emagine students passed state standardized math and English tests before starting with Sicat, every one of them passed by their senior year. Out of an original freshman class that had a 37 percent dropout rate over four years, every one of Sicat's kids is going to college, many on scholarships. Almost all are the first in their families to do so—and some parents have questions. "My mom is nervous about me not being able to help her do stuff," says Robbie Rodriguez, 18, who helps pay the bills with an after-school job as an office assistant and is headed to UMass-Amherst. At a recent ceremony where Rodriguez won an award, Sicat eased his mother's concerns: "I told her he'll come back and make her proud—and the family more secure."
To a lot of his kids, Sicat—who named his program after John Lennon's "Imagine" (the "E" is for equality through education)—is part of the family. After accepting an invitation to a student's Quinceañera (15th-birthday bash), only to later learn it was to be held in Puerto Rico, he embarked on a 36-hour odyssey to share her celebration. When student Cathy Coppin sent him a note saying she wanted "to end it all," Sicat swung into action, helping her find counseling and encouraging her to keep a journal. "He showed me," says Coppin, 19, who is heading to UMass-Boston, "I have a voice that deserves to be heard." At times Sicat's devotion strains his personal life, like the Friday night his normally supportive fiancée, Zipporah Allen, 25, an M.B.A. candidate, had had enough of his tapping on his laptop. "I threw it into the hallway," she recalls, laughing. "Then I threw him out of the apartment."
Indeed, laptops—and the prospect of raising $20,000 to buy them for each of his soon-to-be high school graduates—sent Sicat on his marathon quest. Finishing in 4 hr. 24 min., he managed to collect $5,265 and expects to raise the rest mainly through his Web site. "I want to say, 'Here's something that will help you guys out,'" he says, "even though I won't be around." On June 24 Sicat leaves for Chicago, where he will develop a charter school based on Emagine—a step that students like Robinson applaud. "I don't think it's the end at all," says Robinson, who will attend UMass-Boston. "He's going on to bigger and better things. And so are we."
- Contributors:
- Kristen Mascia/Boston.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
