Don Cook understands the powerful impact of mentoring.
As a preteen, he was involved in a mentoring program that changed his outlook on life.
“I was in a group called the ‘Crusaders’ and my teacher took us to a number of places,” Cook recalled. “He talked to us about growing up and the importance of going to school.”
That mentoring program gave him the inspiration to start his own. In 2004, while serving on the school board for the Parkway district, he made a pledge to improve the lives of the African-American boys in the district in the same way his mentor had helped him.
Cook, a former teacher and a 29-year resident of Parkway, was honored with the district’s Spirit of Excellence Award for establishing a mentoring program that pairs local African-American businessmen with black middle school boys in Parkway.
As a successful businessman, Cook is willing to sacrifice time to make a positive presence in the Parkway School District and feels that his corporate experience could only help improve the boys he mentors.
“In my session, they talk,” said Cook, whose business, Capital International Communications, was named one of the top 500 black-owned businesses in the country by www.diversitybusiness.com.
“Sometimes in the classroom, they won’t talk because they may feel embarrassed, or if they don’t feel like they have the right answers they won’t express themselves. I’m trying to get them beyond embarrassment and create a safe environment for them to express themselves.”
Cook’s program started by way of a request from the district: to mentor a few black male students. He agreed to meet with the boys at Parkway Southwest Middle. Those occasional meetings eventually turned into a program, The Parkway Middle School Volunteer Program, spreading to all the district’s middle schools.
Cook called on some of his business friends to bring their expertise and help him train up the young boys. Dr. A.C. Favors Jr., physician at People’s Health Clinic; Jonah Hughes, retired vice president of Ascencia Health Care Systems; Clifton Berry, president of People’s Bank; Lin Hart, management coach and motivational speaker; and Charles Maclin, retired engineer of Anheuser-Busch Companies, all signed on to be mentors, whom Cook also trains.
The group visits each of Parkway’s five middle schools every other week to talk with young black boys about school, home and life in general.
“One thing is a lot of kids don’t see their potential and how they can benefit from having an education,” Cook said. “Education to them is something they do, not something they acquire.”
The program is different in that the mentors do not preach or tell the boys what to do but share advice, insights and wisdom and give them opportunities to talk about problems affecting their lives.
Middle school is often a roller coaster ride of growth and changes for students, Parkway Southwest Middle Principal Chelsea Watson said. It’s typically the age when adolescents are struggling to find who they are, make good decisions and establish friendships.
“The mentors in the mentoring program bring magic to our students in Parkway,” Watson said.
One Parkway Southwest Middle student called it a “privilege” to be in Cook’s program because he can “talk over school challenges and successes.”
Another student said of Cook, “He listens to what we have to say and helps us visualize what we have to go through in life.”
It is this small difference in his students’ lives that keeps Cook going.
For many years Cook has worked to ensure the proper development of youth in the district. He has served as a South High Band Booster and on the Craft Fair work team and High Technology Planning Committee. He has also been a speaker at many schools, a mentor at Southwest Middle School and a supporter of the Boy Scouts at Barretts Elementary.
He also serves on the board for Lincloln University Foundation and the art and education board for Portfolio Gallery Education Center. In his spare time, he performs with the band The Jazz Edge.
“You just do it because the need is there,” Cook said of his volunteerism.
Started in 2002, the Spirit of Excellence Awards was developed to honor African-American students in the Parkway School District. Each year, the district recognizes nearly 300 high school and middle school students with at least 3.5 GPA and grammar students with at least a B on their report card.
“So many times we hear the negative of African-American achievement and the achievement gap,” said Lisa Thompson, staff development facilitator for diversity. “But this night is the direct opposite of that where students can see that they are not the exception, but the norm.”
