|
 Three
years ago Tony Hopson ’77, at the age of 45, finally took
his first real vacation. The three-week break was something this
Portland community leader had certainly earned after years of pouring
his time, energy and dreams into creating Self Enhancement, Inc.
(SEI) – one of the most successful youth organizations in
the nation.
Taking breaks is an altogether foreign concept to Hopson. By the
age of 10, he was picking beans and berries in the Willamette Valley
alongside his family. Among his three sisters and two brothers,
Hopson’s particular determination made him stand out and his
father recruited him to help with the family custodian business.
It was not until Hopson was a sophomore in high school that he got
paid for his work and the price for a paying job was more than he
expected.
“When I got my first paying job, I had to pay rent in my
own home,” said Hopson, as he laughed while recalling his
youth. “I hated paying rent, but I learned some great lessons
from my father about work and work ethic.”
But Hopson also learned the downside to working too hard. “My
father worked himself to death to take care of his family. I learned
some strong lessons of what it means to be responsible and what
it means to take care of my family. I’m just trying to do
it a little differently, so it doesn’t kill me.”
 Even
as a teenager, Hopson preferred using his summer breaks to give
back to his community rather than to relax. At the age of 13, he
organized his first summer program at Boise Elementary School in
inner city Portland. “As I got older, I did programming for
Jefferson High School and ran their summer program.”
A star athlete who helped lead Jefferson High School to the state
basketball championship, Hopson’s athletic skill was his ticket
to college and perhaps, he hoped, a chance to play professionally.
“I always knew I was going to go to college because I was
an athlete and had to go in order to continue to play ball.”
He received a full scholarship to play basketball at Morehead State
University in Kentucky, but after realizing the NBA was not going
to be part of his future, he transferred to Willamette to be closer
to home and to continue to play ball. “My coming to Willamette
had everything to do with basketball. I might have made a different
decision had I known how difficult Willamette was going to be academically.”
Hopson adjusted to the rigors of Willamette by learning how to
prioritize and by incorporating study time into his daily routine.
“I cherish my experience at Willamette and feel it was one
of the smartest moves I made in life to come back home and complete
my academic career at Willamette.”
Following graduation, Hopson taught, counseled and coached for
Portland public schools for eight years. As a teacher, Hopson was
making a difference in the lives of students, but he had a personal
commitment to the larger Portland community.
A Dream for Youth
“I grew up in the ‘60s when there was a real awareness
of community. Thinking about community was not uncommon at that
time. It was almost expected,” said Hopson.
ut his contributions have far exceeded all expectations. What began
as a one-week summer camp for 80 students in 1981 has turned into
a 360-day comprehensive program that serves 1,500 students per year.
“From a spiritual perspective, I have always felt connected
to this kind of work. This was my calling. There are very few people
who, at an early age, know what direction they should be going.
Some of us spend a lifetime trying to figure it out.”
With SEI, Hopson has created an organization that gives inner-city
youth a safe refuge and positive options so they can achieve their
dreams. “Kids need to learn how to become adults who can take
care of themselves so the rest of us don’t have to take care
of them. Our number one hope is that all the kids who come through
our program end up leaving our program to become positive, contributing
citizens.”
While SEI continues to run summer camps, it has a core of 800
students from North and Northeast Portland, ages 8 to 25, who are
part of the 360-day program. “There is a full program developed
for these kids. They are managed by our staff. We are dealing with
kids who have been identified as having problems in school and we
work with them to keep them in school, to keep them from dropping
out.”
 In
order for students to be admitted into the core program, they must
be referred by a teacher in one of 11 Portland public schools served
by SEI – four elementary schools, three middle schools and
two high schools. Over the years, Hopson and the SEI staff have
created a formula for the class: 85 percent African American, 5
percent Caucasian, 5 percent Latino and 5 percent other. Within
the class, 10 percent are leadership students doing well in school
and 30 percent are intense students who are gang and drug affected
and come from severely dysfunctional homes. Hopson calls the largest
group of 60 percent “the greatest impact group,” kids
who are on the fence and are the most under served in America. It
is in this group where Hopson says they do their best work. Because
of SEI, many of these students stay in school and rise to become
leaders themselves.
Siblings are automatically accepted into the core program, as
SEI firmly believes that it should be servicing an entire family,
including the parents. “We work with the entire family. Most
at-risk kids go home to at-risk parents. If you’re not providing
direct services to the parents, you may miss the boat.”
SEI’s results speak for themselves. Over two-thirds of SEI’s
participants improve their school attendance, grades and behavior.
Ninety percent of SEI high school students graduate from high school
and 85 percent go on to college. These results have given Tony Hopson
and SEI national recognition including SEI being named a “Point
of Light” by President George Bush Sr.
Staying on Top
“Sometimes it’s much easier to get to the top than
to stay on top,” said Hopson as he talked about his number
one challenge, fundraising. “For a social service agency,
the number one challenge is always raising the money. It is a song
being sung over and over again.”
Judging by his results, Hopson is good at carrying a tune. In
1989, SEI began a capital campaign to raise $10 million. The campaign
culminated in 1997 when the 62,000 square-foot Center for Self Enhancement
opened its doors. The center has quickly become the hub of activity
for youth and families in inner-Portland. But fundraising is a never-ending
process.
“I believe we have reached the top in terms of programming,
but staying on top is much, much harder. In part, people begin to
view you as successful, so they think they need to put their money
somewhere else. Our success at times has been a problem because
people have decided they need to support someone else.”
Hopson now spends the majority of his time traveling to bring
in funds to keep SEI in top form. As president and CEO of SEI, the
rest of Hopson’s time is spent managing the operation and
representing the organization in the community. In his position,
he continues to move further away from the work that created SEI.
“For me, it was a huge loss when I got off the front lines
of the work that we do. It’s much more difficult to get your
cup refilled when you don’t have direct access to kids.”
Perhaps Hopson’s cup gets refilled by former SEI students
who return from college to make up one-third of SEI’s full-time
staff. Or perhaps it’s two members of what Hopson refers to
as his “dream team” who are following in his footsteps
as Willamette students. Or perhaps it’s the numerous recognitions
Hopson has received over the years, including the Gold Schmidty
Award from the State of Oregon, the Urban League of Portland’s
Equal Opportunity Award, an honorary doctorate from Willamette University
or his most recent First Citizen Award from the Portland Metropolitan
Association of Realtors. Hopson’s tireless efforts have reaped
great benefits for Hopson personally and professionally, but he
shares his greatest achievement with those who contributed to his
dream.
“I personally can take a certain amount of credit for SEI
and what it has become, but by no means do I feel that the success
of SEI was a Tony Hopson thing built just by myself. Another 30
to 40 people had direct input. The biggest role that I have played
is being the keeper of the dream. I have been the one who has stayed
here and stayed focused and been able to move the process.”
Hopson’s next step is to share his vision and success with
other communities across the nation. SEI is viewed as a model program
and is being replicated in other inner-city areas such as Overtown
in Miami, Fla. “I keep telling folks we have the best youth
program in America. It’s not because of our budget or the
number of kids we service but because of the outcomes.”
With the work he has put into placing SEI on the national scene,
Hopson confesses that he has not been able to break away for another
real vacation in the last three years. “In this kind of work,
it is very easy to get inundated and never have time, but you have
to make time. You need to find a way to rest. Longevity is the key
to this kind of work.”
The community has come to rely on Hopson’s commitment and
time, something he is more than willing to share.
– Michelle Maynard |
