Saif Y. Ishoof is fanatical about students. Those close to his heart are students who skip school, who can’t handle English and math, and who come from poverty-stricken homes.
Mr. Ishoof lives to help them, along with volunteers he calls his “core members” – 17 to 24 year olds from South Florida and across the nation – who take a year off from their lives to mentor and tutor students in Miami-Dade public schools.
Mr. Ishoof is the executive director of City Year, an organization that partners with Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho, and school teachers and parents, in taking on the system’s toughest task – keeping students on the path to graduation.
City Year volunteers are known in the communities by their red jackets with the organization’s logo.
“Some people said when they see the red jacket it’s like a life jacket that’s able to reach into the ocean of impossibilities that lies out there,” he said. “We want to invest and be able to unlock the potential of those students and get them back on track. So they can graduate on track with their peers.”
City Year’s 2012 group of 134 volunteers served more than 3,000 students. But Mr. Ishoof wants to do more during the 2012-13 school year. With 200 volunteers, “We’d be able to serve an additional 2,000 students in Miami-Dade County.”
Mr. Ishoof talked about City Year, a national organization founded in Boston, and the work his young cadre of volunteers are doing in the public school system here.