This is how Alethia B. Starke introduced herself to a high school student whom she has decided to push, prod, cajole — and move heaven and earth for — until the girl enrolls in college: “God loves you and has given you something inside of you to help you decide what you want to contribute to this world,” Starke, 83, began, peering down through her glasses at a teen who suddenly finds herself sitting straighter in her chair. “You have got a lot to offer, starting with that smile you are going to give me right now.
Then we are going to talk about how you would like to help people.” Over more than four decades as a high school guidance counselor, Starke obtained a total of $2.5 million in college scholarships for more than 1,200 students in the Baltimore City Public Schools, primarily at Patterson High School and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, though not exclusively.
That’s 1,200 people who, thanks in part to Starke, are now doctors, plumbers, lawyers, teachers, mechanics and musicians. If everyone Starke has helped obtain an education got together to form their own town, it would be larger than 40% of the municipalities in Maryland. Starke gets those scholarships through a combination of hard work and intuition, and by systematically overcoming the obstacles to each student’s success.
If a promising senior needs to improve her vocabulary, Starke will buy her a dictionary. If a kid is distracted because he doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from, Star.
