Headline Aug17,2012/"Giving Back Like Andre Agassi"

"GIVING BACK LIKE ANDRE AGASSI"

He is a legend! Maybe one of the all time great stars of Tennis. But Andre Agassi is now one of the most focused 'philanthropist' in Sports. And no one has given back quite like Andre Agassi. Through millions by millions raised by 'Agassi Foundation' the Tennis Star funded many works:

"A Boys And Girls Club, an Education Center for abused kids. But it's at Agassi Prep that his ambition Social Change is most evident, "When people leave this school, I want them to ask what they can do to help", Agassi says. Andre Agassi has totally devouted his life to this great, noble and humanitarian work. And he always has time to make high profile coverts, whether it is actress Barbra Streisand, of singer Janet Jackson. Other than the occasional reference to the human spirit.

Its hard not to get affected by his sublime approach. The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, is a beautifully build functional architecture with cutting edge computers in every class room .

In fact this is the only school among the three hundred plus in the Las Vegas area "deemed" exemplary under federal guidelines. It is a great accomplishment by any measure that all this is happening in a public charter school located in one of the city's worst possible neighbourhoods with a student body that's mostly minorities, mostly from one parent homes, mostly and severly disadvantaged.

Agassi is utterly earnest about changing people. But he and his team are shrewd about it. Raising a ton of money - more than $50million in ten years, isn't enough. It's how you give. At Agassi Prep, students, teachers, and parents all sign codes of conduct. Parents promise to read to their kids, do volunteer work at school ; teachers agree to be held accountable. Sounds mildly draconian until you realize that they are just codifying behaviour that should be the norm.

Now one can imagine a kid who goes through thirteen years of that. Opened in 2001, Agassi Prep has overcome bouts of every imaginable turmoil - a teacher exodus , even a revolt by parents against a previous principal. Strikingly modern, the campus is helping force the city to confront its urban neglect.

Agassi hopes that the school can change educational practice and by setting his experiment in Las Vegas, where the school system is stretched taut from years of booming growth, where the stats on drop outs, teen pregnancy, and suicide are scary, well as Agassi puts it as an insight, "If it can work here, it can work anywhere."

This is truly something to ponder. For the wisdom is that if you affect a child's life, you never know whose life they'll affect. You never know who benefits. But we all do, really!
Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless