Princetonians help launch foundation

Four years ago, armed with nothing more than a table and a phone, Justine Stamen set out to fulfill her dream. Working alone in the basement of a Lower Manhattan office building, she sought to establish a youth program worthy of the memory of two young people she had lost along the way in life.

Today Stamen's dream is reality. Now based in the renovated penthouse of an Upper East Side mansion, the TEAK foundation is a successful high school and college preparatory program geared toward economically disadvantaged children in grades seven through 12. This year, the foundation served 68 students, and it looks to add 25 additional students each year for the foreseeable future. From a staff of one, the organization has grown to include 68 mentors, 10 board members, 16 staff members, 100 volunteers and 500 donors.

And among the people who have worked at TEAK in one way or another in the past three years are about 84 Princetonians — including three Class of 1969 Community Service Fund interns, who Stamen adamantly believes have been an integral part of the foundation.

"Kids need much more than fancy scholarships," Stamen noted. "They need support."

Perhaps more than anybody else, Stamen knows what today's urban children need. Before founding TEAK, Stamen worked as assistant director at The Tiger Foundation and as director of Summerbridge at Riverdale, an enrichment program for Bronx youth.

But it was personal tragedies that prompted Stamen to start her own organization. In 1998, on the cusp of their high school graduation, Stamen's best friend since first grade Teak Dyer was slain in Los Angeles. Then nine years later, DeWitt White, a prized student of Stamen's — a certified teacher and alumnus of Brown University — was murdered in New York City. Though he was only 17, White was a gifted piano player who had played in Carnegie Hall.

Struck by their losses, Stamen envisioned a program that would provide disadvantaged children with opportunities Dyer and White did not have. The program would place low-income students, regardless of color, into the top private and public high schools within their reach, and eventually into the top colleges of their choice. It would have high school preparation classes, summer internships, job opportunities and exposure to the arts.

From this vision arose the TEAK foundation, named after her best friend. "I founded TEAK in February 1998 because I basically feel academic disadvantage can permanently affect the course of our lives, regardless of our abilities," Stamen said, intimating the tragedy of the untapped potential of Dyer and White. "I hate the idea of this limiting our contribution to the community."

At Princeton, the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund strives to remove financial barriers preventing students from devoting summers to service. Last year it placed 27 Princetonians in paying internships with non-profit organizations around the nation.

One of the organizations the fund has provided interns to the past three years is TEAK. William Wong '02 worked for TEAK in the summers of 1999 and 2000, and Joyce Lin '02 and Fernando Delgado '04 completed internships there this past summer.

For Stamen, having the Class of 1969 interns has been a blessing. "Friends from Princeton told me about it," she said, explaining her gratitude, "William Wong changed my life. He was the first person to work for me."

Wong helped launch TEAK's summer institute, the centerpiece program for the foundation, she explained. Students enter the program during the summer of their seventh grade to prepare for applying to high schools. Stamen proudly noted that the students of the first two classes — from the summers of 1999 and 2000 — have all been accepted to one of their top high school choices and have secured a total of three million dollars in financial aid for four years. According to the foundation's information packet, students will be attending schools like Collegiate, Dalton, Fordham Prep, Horace Mann, Phillips Academy Andover, Spence, Stuyvesant and Trinity. When they reach their last years at these institutions, the program at TEAK will be geared toward acceptance to elite universities.

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These opportunities the foundation is now able to provide, but when Wong arrived in 1999, TEAK consisted only of Stamen, a table and a phone. In a short period of time, he had to assist Stamen in opening the summer institute for 25 new students.

"We doubled our productivity when he came," Stamen said jokingly, adding, "We pride ourselves on being an organized, helpful community and it was about to become impossible to carry all of it by myself. Thankfully he jumped in and helped me to accept our first group of kids for our summer institute."

As Lin and Delgado would do two summers later, Wong provided invaluable assistance both teaching classes and completing tasks like sending out proposals for funding and leading field trips. "I was doing whatever I could," Wong noted.

But Wong's contributions consisted of more than just tangible tasks. He served as a big brother of sort, helping to expand the students' horizons.

"For some students, I was the only college connection. I was like an older brother – interns were persons they could relate to," he explained. "I'm from New York City and grew up with a similar background as these students. A lot of the kids reminded me how I was [when I was their age]."

Working closely together, Stamen and Wong succeeded that first summer in fulfilling the goals of TEAK. Students were challenged and exposed to opportunities through classes and activities at TEAK.

"On the first day, when I saw it was only me and her, I was like, 'this probably isn't a good organization,' " Wong said. "Of course experience has really changed that. She's an extraordinary person. It's now a very established organization, and I was definitely shown that my first impression was totally wrong."

Stamen and Wong worked so well together the first summer that Stamen asked him to come back for a second summer. Seeing the same intern around for the second summer would be very comforting to the returning students — the eighth graders — and the new seventh graders.

"I begged him to come back," she said, with a tone of gratefulness noticeable in her voice. "He kindly agreed."

And though Wong could not return for a third time, Stamen was able to convince the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund to provide two interns this past summer, Lin and Delgado, to be program assistants for TEAK's summer institute.

"This year we had equally impressive interns. Fernando started up the first real sports program and a current events club. Joyce ran the literary journal and many other things. They invented the Word of the Day and Joke of the Day," Stamen noted.

"They brought in much needed spirit for the kids to go to school each day [this summer]," she said.

By the time Delgado and Lin arrived at the entrance of TEAK, the foundation had grown by leaps and bounds. Not only did it boast a new home in the Upper East Side, but it now served three classes – grades seven through nine. In three years, it will include classes for students up until the 12th grade.

"I was impressed right from the start," Delgado said. "TEAK has managed, through hard work, a worthy mission and a bit of luck to become a well-established and successful charity."

With an endowment currently of about three million dollars, TEAK has full-time and part-time staff members. Melissa Wu '99, the program coordinator and Princeton Project 55 fellow, supervised Delgado and Lin. Delgado, for one, was impressed with his supervisor's work ethic and said it carried over to his enthusiasm for the program.

"She is thorough and particular with her work and oversees all aspects of TEAK," he explained. "Sometimes a perfectionist, though often a pragmatist, she is passionate about things that will affect the students."

Stamen may be grateful for the opportunity to work with the likes of Wong, Delgado and Lin, but the Princeton interns are also appreciative of their summer experiences.

"I had such varied tasks that I cannot point to a single heartfelt contribution," Delgado said.

He described one thoroughly fulfilling experience, "I helped teach dance to the boys group, and seeing their performance at the end of the summer was satsifying," said Delgado, a dancer himself. "Every day [the students] bring life to the program and a reminder of what the work is all about. Their intelligence, energy, friendliness and creativity is inspiring."

Wong remembered an incident during his first week of work that has left an enduring mark in his mind. "My first week I remember I had to go around to the students to help find their subway stops," he said. "One student lived near Yankee Stadium. She was like 'I love the Yankees.'

"I asked her, 'Have you ever been to a game?' " Wong continued. "And she said, 'No, but I can hear them all the time.'

"That reminded me of why I was there. I wanted them to be able to experience things. And I think they really have with this program." he said.

One could have easily doubted TEAK's success in the beginning, when its office included only a table and a phone. But with a big heart, a belief in people, and the help of several Princetonians, Stamen has built a viable and worthy foundation in only a few years.

Delgado described best Stamen's TEAK foundation: "It's hard to do the program justice," he said.