Neighborhood by Neighborhood
Fall 2016 | By Jeffrey C. Billman 鈥�01
This past spring, a group of about 100 Jones High School students were summoned to an assembly in the school auditorium.
鈥淲hat did we do?鈥� thought Jenny Simon, who graduated from Jones earlier this year.
As it turned out, they weren鈥檛 in trouble. In fact, they were about to receive news that, for many of them, would be life-changing.
The students were all residents of Parramore, a predominantly African American neighborhood just west of downtown Orlando, across Interstate 4 and the aptly named Division Avenue, markers of segregation that separated white from black.
According to James Clark, a 激情快播 history lecturer, this history is intrinsic to understanding why the neighborhood has long been synonymous with blight and crime. Start with the fact that Parramore was named after a Confederate Army captain. Add to it that in the 铿乺st half of the 20th century, blacks were forced to give up their homes in east Orlando and move into public housing in Parramore, where they suffered generations of institutional neglect.
That鈥檚 not to say the city hasn鈥檛 tried. The millions spent on initiatives to lure commerce, improve housing, reduce crime and develop the Creative Village tech hub 鈥� which will be anchored by 激情快播鈥檚 new downtown campus 鈥� attest to officials鈥� efforts.
Some of it was successful. 鈥淲hen I 铿乺st was there, [there was] more of the drug dealing, police being around our neighborhood,鈥� says Simon, 18. 鈥淥ver time, a lot of that has changed.鈥�
But problems persist: unemployment near 25 percent, incomes nearly a third of Orlando鈥檚 average, lackluster graduation rates, violent crime. According to a survey reported by the Orlando Sentinel last year, nearly one-third of the neighborhood鈥檚 children lost a parent to incarceration or death in the previous 12 months.
This is the world in which those Jones High students grew up, the world in which they and their parents tried to imagine a brighter future. Simon, then a senior, had tried to get a softball scholarship, but that didn鈥檛 pan out. 鈥淚 was in the auditorium,鈥� she says, 鈥渟tressing about how we were going to pay for college.鈥�
By the time the students left the auditorium, she didn鈥檛 have to worry about that anymore. None of the Parramore students did. Their college, they were told, would be entirely paid for 鈥� tuition, housing, books, everything 鈥� as long as they graduated and were accepted to a state university, community college or vocational school in Florida.
Current Jones High School senior Chris Chong plans to attend 激情快播 next fall.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really believe it at 铿乺st,鈥� says Chris Chong, who plans to attend 激情快播 next fall. 鈥淚 felt like there was a catch somewhere.鈥�
But there wasn鈥檛. In another Orlando neighborhood, something similar had been happening for the past 23 years. Now, Tangelo Park barely resembles its former self: Property values are up, crime is down and families are moving into the community rather than 铿俥eing it. More than 90 percent of Tangelo Park students earn a high school diploma, and almost 150 have used a scholarship to earn a college degree.
鈥淲e鈥檝e broken the cycle,鈥� says Chuck Dziuban, director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at 激情快播 and the school鈥檚 liaison with the Tangelo Park program. 鈥淲hat you see is this remarkable change in the community
And now the man behind that program hopes to replicate its success on a larger scale, this time in Parramore, where he expects to spend $3 million a year. In May, he awarded the 铿乺st 15 scholarships.
Jones High School students who live in the Parramore district will have their college expenses聽entirely paid for 鈥� tuition, housing, books, everything 鈥� as long as they graduate and are聽accepted to a state university, community college or vocational school in Florida.
Harris Rosen is 77, white-haired and still vigorous. For more than a quarter of his life, he has been a generous philanthropist 鈥� supporting not just the Tangelo Park and Parramore programs, but also donating $18 million to 激情快播 in 2000 to help fund what is now the Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
But he didn鈥檛 start out that way. Forty-two years ago, he started with a two-story Quality Inn that he has since expanded into a hotel empire along Orlando鈥檚 International Drive. Nearby is Tangelo Park, a small neighborhood of about 3,000 named for the orange groves that once grew there.
A quarter century ago, like so many other disadvantaged neighborhoods, Tangelo Park wasn鈥檛 somewhere you went if you didn鈥檛 have to.
鈥淟et鈥檚 just say it was a community that needed some help,鈥� Rosen says. 鈥淚t was not safe; teachers were told that they [had to] leave right after classes.鈥�
Harris Rosen is hugged by a Tangelo Park resident.
鈥淚 could virtually sit in my office and see drug deals going down across the street,鈥� recalls Bob Allen, then the principal of Tangelo Park Elementary. His school 鈥� a D school, bordering on an F, he says 鈥� was broken into about once a week. The neighborhood鈥檚 homes, many owned by out-of-state landlords, were in various states of disrepair. Families 鈥� almost all black, almost all poor, many single-parent households 鈥� came and went; more than 90 percent of elementary school students moved away from Tangelo Park.
鈥淭he thing is, if you can鈥檛 keep [children] in the schools, you can鈥檛 educate them,鈥� Allen says. Indeed, fewer than three in 铿乿e Tangelo Park kids were graduating from high school.
Tangelo Park鈥檚 not like that now. The mobility rate is near zero. GPAs hover around 3.0. Crime is down more than 50 percent. In 2014, every single Tangelo high school student received a diploma.
It鈥檚 easy to mistake correlation for causation 鈥� after all, crime rates have fallen and graduation rates have risen in underserved communities all over the country. It鈥檚 also easy to reduce Tangelo Park鈥檚 success to that of a wealthy white man parachuting in to save a struggling black neighborhood. But prior to Rosen鈥檚 arrival, residents were already rallying to improve the neighborhood.
Even so: 鈥淢r. Rosen, he had infused that hope we were looking for,鈥� Allen says.
One afternoon in 1993, Rosen had an epiphany. 鈥淚 heard a voice say, 鈥業t鈥檚 time for you to thank God for everything that has happened to you,鈥� 鈥� he says. 鈥淚 asked myself 鈥� what to do. 鈥�
Then it came to him: education.
His parents鈥� families had immigrated from Eastern Europe, and he鈥檇 grown up poor in New York City鈥檚 Lower East Side; nobody in his family had gone to college. 鈥淢y mom and dad would sit down with my brother and me and say, 鈥楨ducation will level the playing 铿乪ld,鈥� 鈥� he says.
He called school board member Bill Spoone, Dr. Phillips High School鈥檚 铿乺st principal, and early education expert Sarah Sprinkel and told them he wanted to send more kids to college.
鈥淚f you want to prepare youngsters for college,鈥� Sprinkel told him, 鈥測ou need to start them early.鈥� The sooner they start preschool, Sprinkel said, the better they鈥檒l do in kindergarten, then elementary school, then middle school, then high school. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an advantage they鈥檒l never lose.鈥�
Rosen shakes hands with a recent graduate during Jones High School鈥檚 commencement this past spring.
So the program they created offered both college scholarships and a preschool program for children age 2 and up. It was a simple setup, but it was also revolutionary in its scope: Instead of a broad-based investment over a few years, Rosen鈥檚 investment would be narrowly focused over a few decades.
鈥淵ou have to think [about] one community vertically,鈥� Dziuban explains. 鈥淭his is the philanthropy of you just don鈥檛 write a check and walk away.鈥�
The question was, which community? Orange County Commissioner Mable Butler suggested Tangelo Park. 鈥淭his community needs help,鈥� she told Rosen. 鈥淎nd they are actively involved in trying to change things … so they are ready for new ideas.鈥�
Rosen was sold on Tangelo, but Tangelo wasn鈥檛 immediately sold on Rosen. 鈥淭ypically, in our community, [investors] want to come in and sell you a bill of goods, and then look for something in return,鈥� says Allen. 鈥淭he community, of course, was a little skeptical.鈥�
After Rosen announced that he would immediately award scholarships, the Tangelo residents came around quickly. Twenty-four Dr. Phillips graduates received a scholarship that 铿乺st year.
The program did something else unorthodox: Instead of building a new preschool, Rosen decided to put several small preschools 鈥� six students for every teacher 鈥� inside people鈥檚 homes. He paid for the renovations and equipment and made sure the providers were certi铿乪d and insured.
It didn鈥檛 take long to see improvements. 鈥淭he mobility rate went from 95 percent to about 42 percent in a couple of years,鈥� Allen says. 鈥淭he following year, we became an A school.鈥�
The mobility rate went down primarily for two reasons: One, young mothers were able to work or go back to school, which increased their 铿乶ancial stability; and two, people now had an incentive to stay in Tangelo Park 鈥� and, perhaps, to move there.
Kamillia Crawford 鈥�16 was born in Tangelo and was the 铿乺st of her family to use the scholarship. Earlier this year, she was one of 20 undergraduate students awarded the Order of Pegasus, 激情快播鈥檚 highest student academic honor. She recently 铿俥w to California to begin a stint in the Air Force and plans on attending law school.
For Crawford, the scholarship was a safety net. After her 铿乺st year at 激情快播, she didn鈥檛 even need it. She had Pell Grants and Bright Futures, Air Force ROTC and multiple academic scholarships; and as a resident assistant, she received free housing and a stipend.
鈥淣either of my parents graduated from college. 鈥� It opened up a lot of opportunity for me that wouldn鈥檛 have happened without a scholarship.鈥�
This, Dziuban says, isn鈥檛 unusual. The program encourages students to seek out other scholarships and sources of 铿乶ancial aid. 鈥淚f nothing else works for [Rosen scholars], they have a scholarship,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut they鈥檙e getting other [assistance]. So basically Harris is spending less and less money on the scholarship program.鈥�
In other words, the program helps Tangelo students help themselves. 鈥淚 probably wouldn鈥檛 have gone to 激情快播 right away without scholarships,鈥� says Kira Leach, a current 激情快播 student majoring in psychology and a 2014 valedictorian at Dr. Phillips. 鈥淣either of my parents graduated from college. 鈥� It opened up a lot of opportunity for me that wouldn鈥檛 have happened without a scholarship.鈥�
For the 铿乺st 10 years of the Tangelo program, Rosen didn鈥檛 talk much about it, nor did he bother collecting data on the program鈥檚 results.
鈥淚 believed that it would be misinterpreted,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat if 鈥� people started hearing about us, they would think 鈥楻osen is doing it because he wanted a pat on the back.鈥� 鈥�
Then someone pointed out something rather profound: By not talking about what he was doing in Tangelo, Rosen was keeping secret something that had proven results.
鈥淢y hope now is that when 鈥� we talk to The New York Times or we鈥檙e on a TV show, that lurking in the shadows is someone who will say, 鈥楾hat sounds like a great program. Let鈥檚 give Harris a call and see if we can get things moving in Philadelphia,鈥� 鈥� he says.
鈥淚f you want to help an underserved community, you focus laserlike on the underserved community and ask yourself, 鈥榃hat can we do to help?鈥�”
He decided to approach the private sector, but to do that, he needed numbers. Even the most altruistic philanthropists want to quantify what their investment will do. Dziuban commissioned a study, and the results were remarkable: For every dollar Rosen spent in Tangelo, the community received $7 in bene铿乼s.
He had the data. He had the template.
Rosen (center) at Jones High School鈥檚 graduation with students who were awarded full scholarships as part of his program.
鈥淚f you want to help an underserved community, you focus laserlike on the underserved community,鈥� Rosen says, 鈥渁nd ask yourself, 鈥榃hat can we do to help?鈥� It鈥檚 not rocket science. 鈥� You say, if we have income inequality in America, and we certainly do 鈥� how do you correct that? Education will level the playing 铿乪ld. Listen: A kid grows up in Flatbush and goes to Harvard, and another kid grows up in Winter Park and he goes to Harvard. Who cares where they came from if they both graduate, right? 鈥� And not only that, when they graduate, they鈥檙e no longer underserved or disadvantaged, they鈥檙e advantaged, because they鈥檙e sitting around a table with their colleagues, and, of course, the question arises, how much money do you owe? And so our kids are sitting there quietly, smiling and saying, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 owe a penny.鈥� So from underserved to advantaged in four years.鈥�
That鈥檚 certainly the case for Brikti Tsegaye.
鈥淚 know that a lot of people 鈥� I鈥檝e met in college that didn鈥檛 grow up in Tangelo Park, they took out every sort of loan available,鈥� says Tsegaye, a pre-nursing major at 激情快播 and a Tangelo Park scholarship recipient. 鈥淟oans aren鈥檛 something I have to worry about paying.鈥�
But Rosen鈥檚 most poignant pitch is personal, a letter from a 铿乫th- or sixth-grader he received earlier this year, thanking him for the breakfast buffet he provided Tangelo students immediately before the FCAT.
鈥淢r. Rosen,鈥� the letter begins, 鈥淚 just want to tell you how much I loved the breakfast. It made me so strong. I know that I killed the FCAT. But most importantly, I love the strawberries. And Mr. Rosen, you are like a strawberry. So sweet.鈥�
鈥淎nd what is that worth?鈥� Rosen asks, his eyes alit. 鈥淲hat is that worth? Getting a letter from a young lady who says I鈥檓 like a strawberry.鈥�
Jeffrey C. Billman 鈥�01 鈥�10MA graduated from 激情快播 with a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in political science. He is currently the editor in chief of INDY Week in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.