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As a success mentor at Brooklyn’s A-Tech High School, Keiron Darnley helps students at risk of being chronically absent.
A big reason he clicks so well with them: He was in their shoes less than a decade ago.
Darnley, who graduated from Brooklyn Collegiate in 2018, had a complicated relationship with school. Though he was passing his classes, he didn’t really see the point in showing up, he said. He typically stayed home one or two times a week, watching TV, playing video games, or sleeping. When he did attend, he’d often arrive late.
“The idea of going to school was like a fulfillment to make sure my parents don’t have any issues,” he said, “or that it’s just a placeholder in my day.”
After a school counselor’s check-ins with Darnley fell flat, he connected Darnley with a colleague who changed his trajectory. This staffer, from Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that provides counselors to dozens of New York City public schools, made Darnley feel that school was “worth it.” She would greet him at the school’s front door. He’d go to her office during lunch to do schoolwork.
Eventually, the counselor got him a high school internship that put him on his current path as a Counseling in Schools success mentor at A-Tech, where he’s worked the past five years.
As the school, formerly known as Automotive, has been transforming in various ways, moving beyond car mechanics into digital design and business, its gender balance is slowly shifting. This year’s freshman class enrolled the most girls it’s ever had, Darnley said. The school was 89% male last year.
That shift is changing the school’s vibe — and possibly helping boost attendance as well, Darnely believes.
At the end of Darnley’s first year at A-Tech, the chronic absenteeism rate was 49%. This school year to date, it’s about 15%, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. The school has leaned heavily on data to pinpoint whether students are on the cusp of being chronically absent — defined as missing at least 10% of the school year — enabling staffers to target interventions, including credit recovery programs and mentors, like Darnley.
“It takes time, but it’s definitely worth it to build that relationship, because some of them very well need it, and kind of just need to know there’s somebody here who cares,” said Darnely, who is also studying to be a nurse.
Chalkbeat spoke recently with Darnley.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How did you decide to become a success mentor?
It’s always so funny how life works out. I was never really like a ‘school person.’ I never saw myself working at a school working with kids, but when I was in high school, I interned for my counselor and mentor, and she got me an internship with Counseling in Schools, so I’ve kind of been on and off with them. One day, she reached out to me after I graduated and was like, “Hey, I have a job opportunity.”
Are there any anecdotes you can tell me about a particular student who, like yourself, didn’t want to come to school, and how you got that student to come to school?
I work with the idea of, hey, I’m trying to get them not to be like me.
Last year, when one of my old students graduated, he was telling how much it really meant to him and how much of a difference it really made. All I really did was the same thing somebody did for me. I was there when he was in the building. First thing he saw in the morning was a ”good morning,” a good smile. Like, “Hey, how are you doing?” When he was late, I would text him like, “Hey, what’s up?” or “Where are you at? Are you coming to school today?”
[When he was absent], I would get his work for him. I’d make sure he was staying on top of what he has to do, even though he’s not in the building, because being online now, more than ever, things are a lot more accessible, so they can still do their work.
I even went to the extreme because he loved to tell me that he slept through his alarm. So I used to take his phone, set all his alarms for him, and know when they go off, so I used to call him after his alarm goes off, because I know kids love to hit their snooze button. So their 8 a.m. alarm turns into a 10 a.m. alarm.
For some students, if they’re not going to school, the further behind they fall. That makes them even less likely to want to go to school because there’s the stress of having to catch up. How do you address that?
I’ve had a lot of students who felt like there was no point in even coming anymore, because they’re like, “I’m missing credits, I’m failing the class. I don’t have the motivation to do it. It’s too much work.” And I’m just like, “It’s too much work, but you can have help doing the work.”
What I’ve noticed, specifically in this school, is that they have so many methods to catch up, whether it’s through after-school tutoring, somebody like me, or even just the teachers themselves willing to stay back past their hours. Even over the breaks, they’ll all log in, and they’ll do online work together. The teachers will push back some of the due dates.
It sounds like you’re really able to connect with the students. Can you tell me more about that?
They very well see me as a student myself.
Maybe it’s because of the dialect, or how young they think I look. And the same issues they went through, I went through. So it’s easy to connect to them and understand, “Hey, I’ve been there. I know what’s going on. So let me just help you.” And I think, when they see you from the first minute they walk into the building to their lunch period to the end of the day, they’re like, “Hey, this is somebody I can trust and talk to.”
And we have a wellness room where they come and they do their work at lunch, or if they just want to come and hang out. One of their key moments of the day is their lunch period because this is their decompress period. They get to come here, [and] they don’t have to worry about the pressure of education, or their grades, or their teachers.
And I think just being able to relate to somebody like me who can talk to them outside of their teacher [makes them] feel comfortable opening up about their problems, about their education issues, or just how school in general makes them feel.
I know you’re also working toward a nursing degree. Why nursing?
My goal has kind of always been to help people. I think that’s why I clicked so well with this job — kind of helping people who are like me. At first, I wanted to be a doctor, but being how much I don’t like school, I can’t see myself doing all those years in school, medical and residency, so I’d rather start with nursing and kind of work my way through. As long as I’m in a profession where I’m giving more than I’m getting, I think I’ll be happy,
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
