'Bright Star' inspires underserved youth

IEA-Inspire, Encourage, Achieve recently hosted its 20th Camp Bright Star Closing Ceremony Luncheon at the Paul A. Brown Learning Center Gymnasium. The program recognized 21 IEA youth who completed 100 hours of a five-week Summer Learning Initiative.

In partnership with the Jefferson County Juvenile Probation Department and other community sponsors, and named Bright Star in recognition of Entergy’s initial support in 2004, this endeavor empowers at-risk youth during the summer months when they are the most vulnerable to unhealthy behaviors. The program enhances the participants’ summer schedule by introducing a host of mentors that engage the youth in structured activities that focus on promoting healthy lifestyle choices, including drug/alcohol awareness, mental health awareness, art therapy, counseling, career awareness, academic enrichment, and physical fitness.

Attending supporters of the event included IEA board member Bishop Emeritus Curtis J. Guillory, who assisted a camper in delivering an opening prayer, board members, Beaumont Police Department Chief Jimmy Singletary, service dog Bozzie who visited with the participants, Dr. J. Coffy Pieternelle, and former juvenile probation chief Bubba Martin.

ExxonMobil Beaumont Area Public and Government Affairs Manager Nakisha Burns served as the event’s featured speaker, encouraging the audience by sharing her life’s experiences that included a childhood of poverty followed by a successful career in adulthood.

“What you see today is not what I’ve always been,” Burns shared. Now a professional at the top of her field, the woman who is now working on her doctorate degree told the youth in attendance that education was her way out of a a troubled life that could have been hers if she had let her circumstances decide her future.

“I started out with very humble beginnings,” Burns shared, pointing to bargain basement shoes she had to wear to school amid taunting by her fellow classmates, the inability to afford a haircut, and living in poverty with her grandparents in a neighborhood rife with drugs and prostitution. “In my neighborhood, I saw and experienced a lot.”

Burns said she was inspired through the tough times by her religious faith, her educational foundation, and a dream to one day shake her current trappings and rise above the hand she had been dealt.

“Even if no one else believes in you, you have to believe in you,” she urged the Bright Star participants. “Be selfish in your goals; no one limits you but yourself.

“You can be whatever you want to be.”

This year’s camp theme was “Developing the Best Me That I Can Be!” emphasizing programming in literacy, STEM, art, music and physical health and wellness. Participants were also treated to sessions that explored street law, civic engagement, technology, job training and career exploration, workouts at the Beaumont Police Department Fitness Center/Boxing Ring adjacent to IEA’s offices, field trips and other pro-social activities.

“Our mission is to offer services with compassion, understanding and love in a rehabilitative environment that helps the youth achieve self-respect and dignity,” Regina Rogers, IEA founder and chair, said. “We are so pleased to be able to help our young people develop their talents and to let them know we care and are here to support them, whatever might be their circumstances and challenges.”

IEA Interim Executive Director Imogene Chargois, who said she had been a member of the board for 20 years before accepting her new role, expressed appreciation to IEA staff, BISD and Jefferson County Juvenile Probation Department Chief Ed Cockrell and his probation officers for their involvement. She said she knew IEA had an important role in the community but did not realize the depth of its accomplishments until she came on board in this new position.

“It takes a village,” Chargois said.

For more information on the program or to volunteer, call (409) 839-8778, or visit www.ieainspires.org.