The young people involved in this year’s Summer Youth Employee Program (SYEP) experienced a bit of a change this year from last year during “Education Week”, and it was very well received. This year, the youth divided into two groups and were given the opportunity to take part in a basketball clinic or an art studio atmosphere. Each SYEP worker was able to choose the activity he/she preferred. There were a total of 19 youth who decided to take part in the basketball clinic. The remaining 21 participated in the art studio activity.
The purpose of education week is to encourage students to start thinking about looking into their future in different ways rather than just sitting in a classroom. Sarah Thomaschefsky, FCP education guidance counselor, said, “We want the youth to understand that there are lots of options out there for them.” She also mentioned, “I love seeing the SYEP students’ positive interactions with themselves, staff, and the people brought in from the outside. It makes me very excited for the future of these students!”
During the basketball clinic, the youth were coached by someone who lives for the game of basketball and for his family. His name is Brady Fairbanks, the head coach for men’s basketball at Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) in Cass Lake, Minn. What an incredible role model for these youth to look up to! Not only does he love teaching them about the game, but he also brings in the importance of his heritage and family.
Fairbanks is well known around his community…you just say that name and people immediately know whom you are talking about. He played for Cass Lake-Bena High School where he graduated in 2007. During his career at Cass Lake-Bena, he led the team to a 30-2 overall record, a perfect 14-0 Northland Conference title, and then led them to their first ever trip to the Minnesota High School State Championship game. Even though they missed the state championship by a few seconds and a three-point shot, Fairbanks amazed the crowd! He also received the All-Northland Conference Most Valuable Player, earned Second Team All-State honors, and was nominated as a McDonald’s All-American. While playing for Cass Lake-Bena, he set the school’s all-time scoring mark at nearly 2,000 points! He also received the National High School Player of the Year award during the Native Elite Sports basketball camp in July 2007. He then went on to play for Bemidji State University for three seasons and was chosen for the Northern Sun Inter- Collegiate Conference (NSIC) All- Freshman Team. He then went on to play for Haskell Indian Nations University. There, he was the leader in scoring and rebounds, and for his efforts was chosen as Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) Newcomer of the Year and was voted First Team All-Conference. He finished playing for Haskell and was chosen to be National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All- American.
As head coach at LLTC, he plays a major part in young men’s lives while he coaches them in the game of basketball.
He led the team to the 2013-14 NIAC regular season Conference Championship and took a third place finish in the year-end tournament. The LLTC Lakers also placed three players on the All-Conference Team plus one player taking NIAC Player of the Year.
All that being said, do you think this would be a great coach choice to lead the youth during education week? In addition to being there to coach, Fairbanks also brought along two of his former players to help him with the process. One was Brandon Masten and the other was Martin Wind. Wind really showed the youth some unique techniques in the fine art of dribbling. Masten also added, “Brady is extremely intellectual about the game of basketball— he’s a fanatic about it.”
The students were drilled just like they were on a college team or were trying out for one. Each day they ran through a series of drills including everything from dribbling, lay-ups and endurance. While PTT was there watching, not one youth player seemed to complain. They listened attentively and took away everything they could from these coaches. When questioned, the majority of the students made it clear they had learned a lot from these three men and appreciated that they took the time to teach them.
Betsy Popp was the artist who was able to come in for the art studio portion of education week. Popp is a locally- renowned Northwoods artist who resides in Townsend, Wis. Her education includes a BS Art Education- Broad Field Art Major from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and an MFA-Fine Art, Painting from Academy of Art University, San Francisco, Calif. Her major fields of study are Art Education K-12 and a Masters of Fine Art in painting. She specializes in landscapes, nature, wildlife, wood sculpture, and oil. She is an extremely talented artist – to have her come in to teach these students for a week was a great honor! She worked with the students on basic sketching, some painting, and also some work with wood burning, which most of the students had some initial difficulty with. But once they played with it enough, by the end of the day they got the hang of it. They also were able to do a bit of wood carving with her. Autry Johnson commented, “The class was very informative for a beginner artist, and Betsy was a really nice lady to learn from.”
Not only were the youth able to work with either of these two talented people previously mentioned, but in addition, Jason Bertrand, FCP college recruiter, was able to have five different Wisconsin-based colleges come in to talk with the students. The five colleges were: UW-Stevens Point, UWGreen Bay, UW-Oshkosh, Nicolet Area Technical College, and Ottawa University (out of the Milwaukee campus). These colleges introduced themselves, told the youth about the areas of study they promote, and made printed material available to them. Several students had more in-depth questions for certain colleges. Bertrand commented on behalf of the schools by saying, “All five of the institutions were grateful for the opportunity to speak to our youth.” He also mentioned, “The students were excited to hear about the academic programs and the extracurricular activities each college held.”
The youth had a great time learning from the teachers who came in and also from the colleges that were present. Education week is extremely busy and filled with a week of non-stop activities. It seemed well worth the effort invested by FCP Education Department staff and students alike to demonstrate to the youth the opportunities they have for their futures.
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