Academy Gives Youths ‘New Direction’ (1988)

“I thought it might be nice to establish a college scholarship program for kids who fall into these cracks,“ he said. Hemmerling talked to his superiors, who suggested St. Vincent as an ideal place to start such a program. Hemmerling, who would never heard of St. Vincent or Latrobe, drove to the college with $35 and the idea. He said St. Vincent was receptive to the idea.

Academy Gives Youths ‘New Direction’

In 1970, a seminary student from Washington, D.C., stood outside the former St. Cecelia Church convent in Whitney, Unity Township, considering an offer of one month’s free rent if he cleaned up the vacant structure.

“There was not much of a choice because at that point I had only $17 in my pocket,” said David James Hemmerling, the founder and executive director of the New Direction Inc. of Whitney.

For 18 years, New Direction has quietly, but efficiently, enabled 88 men and women from 40 states to graduate from college. New Direction is a non-profit organization which provides full scholarships including room and board to average high school students from families of low and middle income who otherwise could not afford to continue their education.

This week, Hemmerling’s academy will begin its 19th year of sending students to nearby St. Vincent College. As part of his seminary studies, Hemmerling was a teacher at St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Washington and later in Phenix City, Ala. One of his assignments was helping students obtain scholarships.

“You’ve got to understand the Washington parochial system. Depending on how well you did academically, St. Anthony’s was the end of the line… A very average academic student body, with kids coming in whose parents did everything they could do to live in the suburbs,“ Hemmerling said.

“These were kids who said they wanted to go to college, but they couldn’t dribble a basketball from here to the end of the hallway, had average grades and couldn’t attract a college scholarship. “I thought it might be nice to establish a college scholarship program for kids who fall into these cracks,“ he said. Hemmerling talked to his superiors, who suggested St. Vincent as an ideal place to start such a program. Hemmerling, who would never heard of St. Vincent or Latrobe, drove to the college with $35 and the idea. He said St. Vincent was receptive to the idea.

“This was 1970, and it was difficult to talk about starting an academy structured on regimen and discipline in that period. I don’t know if they knew what it actually was, but I explained that the type of students I had in mind would not survive living in a college dorm,” he said.

“It would be a marine boot camp if they joined New Direction. I required C students to make the dean’s list in the first semester. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to seek support for someone with a full scholarship if they did not deliver,” he said. St. Vincent directed him to the St. Cecelia convent, which was built in 1906 to house six nuns but had sat unused for many years until Hemmerling’s inquiry. Hemmerling set aside his plans for the priesthood and started of the academy next to the Whitney church with five students from Bowie, MD., and little money.

“That first year we had no furnishings and no money to buy groceries. We scraped nickles and dimes together to buy hot dogs and macaroni. We had two cars loan to us, but no money to buy gas,” he said. But the disciplined daily schedule turned average students into scholars.

“All the average kids not only made the dean’s list, but 4.0 or very close,“ he said.

Among its graduates include Dr. Carrick Talmadge, a nationally recognized physicist and researcher at Purdue University; Dr. Ronald Slepitza, associate vice president of student affairs at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.; Major Bradley Yoder, M.D., a pediatrician in the U.S. Air Force; Daniel Williams, “Hostess” products manager for Continental Baking Co. in St. Louis, Mo.; and Andy Anderson, vice president of the Rosewood Hotel chain, headquartered in Texas.

Today, New Direction maintains the strict disciplinary system. All students are required to maintain a 3.0 average. Students are not only required to attend all classes and labs but must account for a minimum of five additional hours of daily out-of-class study six days per week while doing their own cooking, house cleaning and maintenance. In all it adds up to a 17 1/2 hour daily routine for 45 weeks per year. The men and women must maintain a professional appearance at all campus functions. Today the former convent can accommodate up to 17 students, but as of early last week it had money for only 10.

New Direction has survived on private donations from corporations, labor unions and private citizens, as well as the help of its Whitney neighbors. “The people in Whitney have just rallied around us. And the people at St. Vincent couldn’t be more understanding,” Hemmerling said.

“The hardest thing to do is to say no to a kid when he or she is telling you that you can’t turn him down because it’s his last chance. The only thing you can do is tell him you’ll keep them on top of the pile on your desk,” he said.

A group of woman who have helped the academy over the years to various community projects recently formed the New Direction Institute Guild on Church Street in Whitney to raise funds. I’ve gotten to know those children. I am like a mother to them and they’re all top students,” said Mrs. John Mormack Sr., the guild chairman.

“One hundred percent of the contributions will be used directly for student support,” she said.

Academy Gives Youths ‘New Direction’
Monday, August 29, 1988
Page B-1
Paul Pierce
Tribune-Review