Up the ‘Ladder:’ Student makes every step count - Fall 2007 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

HOME > Up the ‘Ladder:’ Student makes every step count

Up the ‘Ladder:’ Student makes every step count


Jarret Williams

It started as nothing—passion and an idea.

The idea was to make a positive difference in the city of Chicago. Two individuals joined that idea with the passion to turn a dream into a reality.

Jarrett Williams ’10, of Chicago, and his friend, Kyle Kenan, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., developed Ladders Organization to connect talented college students with children in Chicago.

“Once the seed was planted, it began to germinate inside me to the point where I had to make a move,” said Williams.

Williams developed the program and recruited five of his high school classmates to assist with the program.

“(Ladders) is 100 percent student–run, organized and planned,” said Williams. “We did everything you would do to run a business; we contacted individuals, advertised, collected receipts and money and bought supplies.”
Staffers hope to help children discover their potential. They also want to be positive role models for Ladders participants. For example, Williams is a member of the Wartburg men’s basketball team and a resident assistant, nationally ranked chess player and vice president of Black Student Union.

“We would like to share some of our privileges we had in our individual lives with the next generation of children,” said Williams.
On average, 10 children participated in the program during summer 2007 on a weekly basis, continuously drawing new children. The ratio of staff to participants averaged one to two.

Ladders Summer Enrichment Program is organized like a high school, and English, creative writing, math, science and public speaking are taught. The program ran nine weeks on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. last summer. It is open to students in third through ninth grades.

In addition, Ladders focuses on a variety of topics, such as handling social issues/conflicts; becoming more outgoing; flexibility with students and parents; helping students catch up or get ahead in their academic work; problem solving; and working with students at their level, not age or grade.

Becker is an English major from Jesup, Iowa.