"This isn’t a master plan... it’s a mindset"

The numbers are impressive.

Nine of 10 at-risk seniors enrolled in a Simon Youth Foundation Education Resource Center program graduate with a high school diploma — and a majority of those graduates go on to college.

And they do it all in shopping malls.  

“People say, these are kids who were written off — how in the world to you graduate so many?” the foundation’s Chris Chalker said at the National Dropout Prevention Conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday. “Three words: Relationships. Relationships. Relationships.”

Chalker said that teachers and administrators at the resource centers — located at Simon Malls throughout the nation — aren’t content to let their students sit in front of a computer to belt out Web-based courses.

Teachers and administrators are taught to make “frequent deposits” in a student’s self-confidence, by expressing appreciation for humor, assisting with goal-setting and understanding the importance of personal freedom, speech and individual personality.

“This isn’t a master plan... it’s a mindset,” Chalker said. “When things happen, it’s how you approach them.”