After reading about the Sankofa program in a previous Daily News article this spring, Rick Ketterer, 67, of Society Hill, was moved to donate money toward a scholarship for a graduating Sankofa senior.
“The fact that I’m white and the program is for boys of color, it’s inconsequential to me,” he said. “The fact is, in the environment they’re in, the circumstances are wired against them, and I saw this program as trying to level the playing field and I wanted to help.”
Only 57 percent of black boys in Philadelphia graduated from high school on time in 2013. In 2010, the year before the Sankofa model debuted, a task force commissioned by the district to study dropout issues affecting black and Latino boys recommended that the district provide mentors. It also noted that when students turned to teachers for help, they often felt ignored.
Sankofa not only provided that mentorship, it also provided the boys in the program with someone who gave a damn about whether they showed up to class and how they were doing.