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Youth of the Month/Year Award    

A.C.E. Award Essay

Youth of the Year Essay

Football athlete is 2009 National A.C.E. of the Year

Je’Vour Taylor is this year’s National A.C.E. of the Year awardee. He is sponsored by the Exchange Club of Bedford County, Tennessee, and the Tennessee District. A.C.E. is an acronym for Accepting the Challenge of Excellence.  The award recognizes high school students who have overcome difficult times and obstacles, yet still managed to graduate from high school and excel in some area. This positive program encourages students to overcome their hardships and work toward a high school diploma. It recognizes those students who are often overlooked for their accomplishments. A.C.E. of the Year recipients are shining illustrations of the rewards of hard work and perseverance.

According to his guidance counselor, Debbie Watkins, Je’Vour was one of those students who could have easily slipped through the cracks. Fortunately for him, school and football helped provide the structure and refuge he needed to walk away from the drugs and gang violence that surrounded him. “At school, Je’Vour could get two meals and life was somewhat predictable,” wrote Debbie.

Je’Vour had a very unstable home life and he was often placed outside the classroom due to his poor behavior. Since a young age, he had witnessed violence, experienced loneliness and hunger, and learned to fight to get what he needed, which often led to trouble. “His time in middle school was also plagued with behavior problems,” says Debbie. “Je’Vour’s instinct to fight was not welcome at school. He continued to get in trouble and eventually ended up on state probation.”

In 9th grade, Je’Vour joined the football team. Practice was long and tough, but he loved it and the team became the family he never had. By 11th grade, Je’Vour had matured and had very few discipline problems.

“Je’Vour came to school in khaki pants, and collared shirts that was tucked in, and a new attitude,” Debbie stated. “His head was high and he presented himself differently – like a man.” When asked later what brought on the new attitude and appearance, he said, “I made a decision to come back to school to play football. I wanted to do something with my life. I was tired of the violence.”

In Je’Vour’s own words

I was born December 15, 1989, to an 18-year-old high school senior. Because of her age, my mother and I basically grew up together. My father rejected me even before I was born and has never been a part of my life. I was born with my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. This cut off the oxygen to my brain and is the cause of my learning disabilities. I have lived in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Murfreesboro and Nashville. I have been physically and emotionally abused, seen my mother do drugs every day and even done drugs with her. I have been a gang banger, watched as a friend was carried away on a stretcher from overdosing and stolen so that I could survive. For many years, gangs, guns and drugs were a part of my everyday life.

My mother and I eventually moved to Shelbyville and I attended Cascade Elementary School. I didn’t like school very much because I felt like I didn’t belong. I was constantly late for school because my mom wouldn’t or couldn’t get out of bed to take me and I would have to wear the same clothes for several days in a row because she hadn’t done the wash. More times than not, I was placed outside of the classroom and told that “my behavior interfered with the other students’ learning.” Still most of the time, school was better than home. At home, I was often left by myself for days at a time. At home, I was usually hungry and scared. At home, I never knew if we would have electricity or if I would have only a candle for light. This was my life.

When I was in the ninth grade I decided to join the Cascade High School football team. I was small and skinny and knew that I would probably sit the bench. Practice was long and tough, but I loved it. My team was the family I never had. I had finally found a place where I belonged. My tenth and eleventh grade years I moved and played football for Shelbyville Central High School. I returned to Cascade for my senior year and again joined the team that I loved so much. In one of our regular season games, one of my teammates got injured and Coach Kenny gave me the opportunity to play his position. I was really scared of failing but I knew that my team needed me. During the McEwen game I got a lot of playing time and believe that my efforts helped win that ball game. I was even in the newspaper. We won the region title this year and I received an Honorable Mention at the Regional Awards Sports Banquet.

In November 2008, I moved in with the Craig family. They offered to give me a place to stay after learning about my situation at home. This has been a great opportunity for me. At the Craig’s I have experienced unconditional love and have seen how family members truly care about one another. I have also realized that my past does not determine my future. I determine that. I recently made the high school baseball team but have decided not to play so that I can focus on my grades. “Momma,” Mrs. Craig, helps me with my schoolwork and “Pops,” Mr. Craig, has been tutoring me in math so that I can pass my Gateway exam and take my ACT. My goal is to obtain a regular diploma and attend the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, to study Criminal Justice in the fall. This is a goal that I now believe that I can achieve.

There are many directions that my life could have taken over the years. I am not proud of my past, but it has made me appreciate my future. With every choice you choose a consequence. I had to make a choice between gangs and family. I chose family and have not looked back. Family is not just my mom. It is all the people in my life who have helped mold me and guide me in the right direction. It is the Craigs, my football coaches and my teammates. All of these people combine have given me the chance to change my life. I am choosing to take that chance and run for the ultimate touchdown.

Future plans

Je’Vour is not proud of his troubled past, but it has made him appreciate his future. Je’Vour has been accepted to Columbia University, where he plans to pursue a degree in criminal justice. He will be available for photos after the luncheon. He writes:

When I was growing up I never really had plans for the future. I lived one day at a time and it wasn’t until recently that I have started to dream. I quite honestly didn’t think I would ever make it through high school, but now I dream about attending college. I plan to purse a degree in something that will help others in my community. I would like to become a police officer.

I know that I could be that role model to a teenager who is fatherless. As a police officer I will be able to work with teens that are in gangs. I can share my story with them. I know I can relate to them because I have been in their shoes.

I also hope to volunteer with the Junior Pro football teams. Maybe I can inspire a hungry, lonely child to do more with his life. I was at a local convenience store and a boy walked up to me and said, “Are you Je’Vour Taylor? I saw you at the football game.” At that moment I knew I could not be at those parties anymore or in the car with those gang members. I will be forever accountable to those who look up to me. I accept that challenge and look forward to my future.

America’s Youth: Stepping Forward to Change the Beat of America

By Julia Burd, 2009 National Youth of the Year

Her name is Claire. She lives in the projects at 55th and Pearl Streets in Philadelphia. She is about four years old, and for one swelteringly hot afternoon this summer, my job was to play with her. How did I, a middle-class student from Hunterdon County, New Jersey, wind up here? It is part of a trip that I take every year with the other members of Trinity Youth Group called Mission Philadelphia. We spend a week taking abandoned lots and turning them into beautiful community gardens; gardens where girls like Claire can run and play.

I first walked onto the lot at 55th and Pearl when I was 12 years old. It was a complete disaster. There were weeds double my height and garbage everywhere. This was not a plot of land you would want to walk through, let alone allow your child to play in. It was a lot fit for drug deals and gang meetings, not one fit for little girls who just wanted to play tag. For six summers, we worked here. Little by little, we reclaimed the lot. We started in the front, making a few flowerbeds. We moved towards the back, creating compost bins and a giant labyrinth of old tree trunks to play on. We cleaned that lot and moved to the adjacent one, where we made a community garden, complete with every variety of vegetable that would grow in the shallow soil.

My first year there, it was just me and the other members of the group working. It was tiring and it was frustrating, but it was fulfilling to see what we had accomplished at the end of the day. Every year after, more and more people from the community would join our efforts. Dads would come out, shovel in hand, ready to dig a hole for a tree. Mothers would make sure that we were all staying hydrated and then would send their children out to join us. This was the most important part of the entire project. They would come out in the blistering heat of a late June day in Philadelphia, and beg to play with hand trowels. To learn about plants. To eat lunch with us. For a piggy back ride around the lot. For someone to blow bubbles with. These kids were learning. They were learning in a garden that I had helped to create. They were growing in a space that was safe, a space that was clean, a space that was beautiful.

Two years into this project, one of my friends found a gun on our lot. That night at evening prayer, we started to try to digest this incident. There was violence in the world. And yet, we had gotten rid of that gun. The police had taken it away, and that gun would never harm anyone ever again. It seems silly, really, to make gardens. How are gardens going to change the world? They are going to change the world because, instead of going out and finding a gun in that lot, Claire is going to find a tomato plant. Instead of Claire learning about drugs in that lot, she is learning the difference between a weed and a plant. My little summer service project had changed Claire’s life.

This is how American youth will change the beat of America; by changing the other youth. America is a land of great beauty, of great possibility, of incredible opportunities. Anything is possible in this land. Every gate is open. Sometimes, however, people need help clearing the weeds away from their gates. It is our responsibility as citizens to break out the hedge trimmers and clear away the metaphorical weeds for the children. We will change America one child at a time, by taking abandoned lots and turning them into backyards fit for brilliant futures. It takes opportunity to do something great, and it is by providing opportunities that America’s youth can help to change the future.

That is what we do with Mission Philadelphia. We take a week out of our summers to sweat. We come home at the end of a day, covered in dirt and whatever fertilizer we could get for free that day. We put flowers into the ground and we pull up weeds. But more importantly, we play with kids. I want to change the world, and I know that the best way to do this is person by person, child by child. Take away a little bit of danger; help a child to grow a little bit stronger. Educate them. I am a member of America’s youth, and we are doing great things. Watch us change, America.

About Julia Burd

Julia Burd is the 2009 National Youth of the Year. She is sponsored by the Exchange Club of Flemington, N.J., and the New Jersey-New York District. Her scholastic achievements and community involvement exemplify the objectives of Exchange’s youth program.

Julia attended South Hunterdon School, where she was very active in many school activities, including student government, school publications, music, stage and debate. She was also active in school clubs. As we have come to expect from our National Youths of the Year, Julia is actively involved in community service—in her case, this includes the Lambertville Office of Emergency Management, Trinity Church, and Mission Philadelphia.

Her scholastic and volunteer work have earned Julia a number of awards, including the National Merit Commended Student, National Honor Society, NJ FBLA Member of the Year, Wellesley College Book Award, Leaders of Tomorrow Nominee, and others. As a Peer Leader in 10th grade, Julia worked with 6th graders as they prepared to enter high school.

Julia was accepted into the honors program at Fordham University in New York.

Download the Youth of the Year application

Read the 2007 A.C.E. and Youth of the Year essays.

Read the 2008 A.C.E. and Youth of the Year essays.