Lecture Addresses Youth at Risk
Vision Series Speaker Offers Suggestions for Solving Problem
Staff Writer Mrinalini Ramanan

In his Vision lecture on Monday, December 3, “A Generation in Jeopardy: Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Future,” counseling and development professor Fred Bemak will be addressing the issue of “youth at risk” in America.

Most residents of Northern Virginia hold degrees, however many youth in America do not have the opportunity to be a part of an educational institution such as a university or an intellectual workplace. There are many causes for this phenomenon, Professor Fred Bemak will pinpoint the general trend of causes to the lack of resources and services for certain socio-economic and ethnic groups in America. Bemak’s issues refer to children up to the age of eighteen who do not have full opportunity to receive higher education.

Bemak will examine the causes of this phenomenon, what has been done to help the youth at risk, and what both educators and interested youth can do to further aid this process.

According to Bemak, much research in the field points to the “intersection of poverty, race, and ethnicity.” The lack of resources for people in poor neighborhoods often results in low quality healthcare services and inadequate school curriculum.

Bemak will also speak about the historical perspectives of youth, and the cyclical nature of prior generations feeling the next to be immoral and lacking driven youth.

Bemak has been working to educate underprivileged children for four decades, starting as a summer counselor in Upward Bound, a program created by the Department of Health and Human Services for children who come from financially unstable backgrounds. Upward Bound is one of the two programs created by the government for children specifically in the K-12 system, the other being Headstart, designed for the pre-kindergarten age group. Bemak became the director of Upward Bound, a gaining much insight to the various causes of the ignored youth.

“Blaming drug or alcohol abuse is not the solution to helping these kids,” said Bemak, adding that these factors have always existed.

Bemak claims the solution to the problem of underprivileged children lies in restructuring how the government deals with the issue. According to the professor, the government currently focuses more on the incarceration of delinquents than the education of children who are at risk of failing and dropping out of school. Thus contributing to the punishment and control methodology.

When comparing students in America to their global counterparts, Bemak notes that more than fifteen countries in the developed world are twice as effective as the U.S. in producing critical thinkers. This results in a lower number of crime committing youth and youth who are a threat to themselves as well as their environment. The only way to end the repetitive flow of children in and out of rehabilitation and juvenile detention centers without a change in their notions is to fund the educational aspect that would, when implemented correctly, prevent a need for incarceration itself. The lecture will take place on tonight, at 8 p.m. in Mason’s Concert Hall.