School News: Dominion High School's "Men on a Mission" Program Inducted Newest Members

(Nov. 12, 2009) It was a special night Wednesday at Dominion High School as the Titans inducted the newest members of its Men on A Mission program.


This program, which began in 2005, is part of the school's efforts to close the achievement gap. The program's components include goal-setting, silent sustained reading and development of life skills. Students wear a required uniform each Wednesday, participate in breakfast success forums, attend quarterly college visits and have the option of participating in a community-led leadership academy on Saturdays.

This year's induction will honor 14 young men. The guest speaker will be Wilfred Kirkaldy. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Kirkaldy was honored as a Nike and Street and Smith All-American while leading his high school basketball team, Philadelphia's Simon Gratz, to a national championship.

After a promising freshman year that included the academic honor roll and playing on West Virginia University's NCAA tournament men's basketball team, Kirkaldy was involved in a tragic, career-ending car accident on Easter Sunday 1992 that left him an amputee. Once he was able, Kirkaldy finished four scholarship years at WVU and returned to New York to attend St. John's University. Through its sports management program, he landed an internship with the National Basketball Association. His work there propelled him to a 13-year career as the league's Player Relations Coordinator.

Dominion High School's Men on a Mission program has supported its participants' accomplishment of a 97 percent attendance rate and a 65 percent drop in failing grades since 2005-2006.

This year's inductees include:

Kareem Abu-Ghannam
Jordan Chinn
Joshua Dickerson
Ter-Zahn Fenner
Foster Jones
Jefferson Mendoza
Anthony Muse
Garrett Robinson
Robert Silva III
Jerson Solano
Damon Toppin
Connor Wells
Alfred Wormi
Alex Young