March 1 - Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools

“I wanted to show the kids how quickly some crucial bad decisions can ruin your life,” Rose said.Though it was Rose’s idea to have her students read the articles about Davis, it was the kids who decided towrite him letters about what his story meant to them.Joshua Hernandez, Dania’s eighth-grade classmate at Central Middle, said it prompted him to take a hard lookat the bad choices he was making.Jermaine Davis“Since I’ve read the article about you, I’ve thought about everything I’ve done and I have to admit, I regretsome of the things I’ve done,” Joshua wrote. “This article has taught me to choose carefully who you hang outwith and how to make your choices and I thank you.”Despite the differences in age, gender and race, Dania said she felt a special connection to Davis because he hadbeen a student in Project Choice, an earlier version of the Kauffman Scholars program she is now part of thataims to prepare and assist inner-city youths in obtaining college educations.Davis, while a student at Westport High School in the early 1990s, not only had the same offer of a collegescholarship, he got to meet Ewing Kauffman and introduce him to a packed school auditorium.Dania said that until she read about Davis, she was ready to drop out of the program. She was frustrated withthe extra work and time after school and on Saturdays that it required while her friends, who were not in theprogram, were hanging out and having fun.