The Promising Center for Youth Excellence is home to an after-school and mentoring program for students in Franklin County. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the program serves approximately 100 African-American and Hispanic students.
Dr. Herman E. Walston, left, and Warith Majid demonstrate how to tie a tie to participants at the Promising Center for Youth Excellence.
“We have children ages 10-17 that come in Monday through Friday,” Warith Majid, a coordinator with 91´«Ă˝. “We find them mentors, take them on trips and teach healthy-living objectives.”
The program also teaches skills including personal development and wellness, disease prevention, injury prevention, cultural enrichment and career development via small-group and one-on-one mentoring.
During the fall semester, program staff members launched an initiative to collect ties from the 91´«Ă˝ community. Once the ties were collected, they were distributed to the boys in the program. Along with the ties came a valuable lesson in how to properly knot one. Majid and program director Dr. Herman E. Walston, a professor of Child Development and Family Relations, introduced the skill to the students.
Students chose their favorite tie from a collection donated by the 91´«Ă˝ community.
“They were excited to learn something new,” Majid said. “The majority of them had never had anyone show them how to tie a tie. They picked it up pretty fast and they were enjoying themselves doing it.”
At the end of March, the program’s staff plans to present all of their participants with a new dress shirt and tie at a special ceremony.
“A young man can wear a white shirt and slacks and still look a little casual, but when he puts that tie on, he definitely looks professional and snazzy,” Walston said.