Special to The American
Sean Nichols, principal of Fresh Start Academy, was honored by the St. Louis community as the first recipient of the Tyrone Thompson Youth Empowerment Award during the Better Family Life’s Family Week 2010 Kickoff Reception held in the City Hall Rotunda.
The Tyrone Thompson Youth Empowerment Award was created in remembrance of Tyrone Thompson who dedicated his life to upholding the law as an investigator with the Attorney General’s Office, a former Police Chief at Pagedale, and a former University City Police Officer.
In addition, Tyrone Thompson dedicated time and energy to educating youth at St. Louis Public Schools by providing mentoring at Carnahan High School of the Future and Woodward Elementary.
Presenting the award was Betty Thompson, the mother of the late Tyrone Thompson, who earlier brought the entire crowd to its feet in applause by calling the community to action to stem violence in the streets.
As principal of Fresh Start Academy, a Missouri Options program supported by the In-It-2-Win Community Coalition, Nichols works with students, ages 17 to 21, interested in earning a GED.
Students attending participate in a minimum of 15 hours of academic instruction per week and are enrolled in other school supervised instructional activities (career education courses, elective classes, work experience, etc.) that lead to student’s classification by the district as a full-time student. Moreover, Nichols expertise working with dropouts has been crucial in meetings by the Missouri Taskforce on Dropout Prevention.
