March 04, 2016
KEVIN C. SHELLY//PHILLYVOICE
Dishea Lightfoot sees a challenging education as his way out of Camden. He will hear on March 10 how his dreams unfold.
Lisette Lightfoot is hoping for a better education for her 14-year-old son, Dishea, through A Better Chance.
In Dishea’s case, that could mean attending one the country’s best private high schools, rather than the neighborhood school in his hometown of Camden.
He already knows there is a seat for him somewhere beside Woodrow Wilson High School in East Camden. On March 10, he’ll find out where he’ll go – and how much financial support he’ll get.
A Better Chance, which began in 1963, aims to increase the highest educational opportunities for minority high school students. It pairs up students with schools offering a higher level of education than is available through local schools.
Dishea knows with certainty his top choice is the prestigious and selective Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., where tuition and board exceeds $50,000 annually.
That’s 50 miles – and a world away – from his neighborhood. The same neighborhood where a 17-year-old girl allegedly murdered a Camden classmate of Dishea’s, a classmate with whom he played basketball.
“It’s all kind of sad. I’d spoken to him just the day before,” Dishea recalled.
“No one talked about it afterwards,” he recalled during an interview Thursday at the Catto Family School, the K-8 school he attends about four blocks from his home.
Lisette Lightfoot, who keeps her first-born son close to keep him safe, said her son has been self-motivated about gaining the knowledge to carry him straight out of Camden since before he was two years old.
“Being smart in the city is probably not a good thing. People hate on you.” – Dishea Lightfoot, 14.
He told her way back then he was going to do just that.
Verbally precocious, she knew her son was unique from a young age: he'd started talking when he was just eight months old.
By the time he was 18 months old, he was reading a newspaper along with his grandfather. He especially liked reading international news.
Soon, his mother was buying him books, then more challenging books, and ever more challenging books.
“I was self-motivated,” he said.
“It was mind-blowing,” said his mother.
Leaving Camden is a huge part of his motivation.
“Being smart in the city is probably not a good thing. People hate on you,” he said.
“Being smart in the city is probably not a good thing. People hate on you,” he said.
As a student, Dishea said he is often unchallenged, sitting bored in class as teachers “waste a lot of time” repeating basic material to students who don't grasp fundamentals.
“My teachers were telling me to slow down,” he said.
As a result, he’s taken to “self-teaching,” exploring topics – especially politics, technology, the economy, as well as math and science, by reading deeply from online sources.
He even taught his older nephew to read – something the schools and his nephew's family had not managed.
One day in the future, he’d like to study neurology – a subject that interests him because the grandfather who read with him developed Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
And that’s where A Better Chance and a caring 7th grade teacher at Catto come in. The teacher told Dishea he should apply to the organization.
A Better Chance has already given him a list of 15 high-quality schools that have shown an interest in him. He’s gone to several, and Skyped with others.
Now he’s holding his breath and crossing his fingers that the Peddie School likes him as much as he liked them during a visit.
He doubts he’ll get any sleep on March 9, the day before he learns if he was picked by Peddie – and how much financial assistance he’ll get if it is a final match.
If things work out, he’ll be leaving the city “not by going to jail,” like some of his classmates, but by going to board at a top-flight high school.
Brendan Lowe, a spokesman for the state-run Camden schools, said while improvements have been made in the district, such as adding more challenging advanced classes at Wilson, the district is pleased to support the Lightfoots.
Lowe said Camden has frequently sent gifted students to a private school in Moorestown, but he was unaware of ever placing a student through the A Better Chance program.
“It’s a true blessing,” Dishea's mother says. “I’ve held back the tears, but they’ll come.”
Keith Wilkerson, the regional contact for A Better Chance, called Dishea “a cool kid,” though he added he cannot disclose how the organization’s matching will play out.
Lissette Lightfoot remains a bundle of nerves.
“This is what every parent hopes and dreams for,” she said.
But Dishea has remained steady.
“Mom, I got this,” he assured her.
