Chris Shannon is the third child in his family to be accepted into the Memphis Challenge, a local nonprofit program that seeks talented minority high school juniors and seniors and provides them with opportunities to prepare for college and the working world.

Chris' brother, Charles, was in the MC Class of 2007, and his sister, Victoria, was in the MC Class of 1997. Both his siblings went on to Harvard; Victoria also graduated from Harvard Law School.

These are the types of stories MC administrators love to see.

The organization was founded in 1989 and piloted by a group of students from East High School. In 1990, the program expanded to include students from all Memphis City Schools as well as Shelby County Schools, private, parochial and charter schools.

The goal of the program, MC administrators said, is to "provide academic advisement to students and their families regarding scholarship opportunities and exposure to top colleges and universities; to maintain contact throughout college to ensure continued academic success; to identify summer internship opportunities and to assist students with career prospects."

The application process

MC currently is accepting applications from juniors and seniors; the deadline is Monday.

The program currently has 60 active students; 29 are seniors and 31 are juniors. About 100 MC alumni are in college, and around 400 alumni have graduated from college and are out in the working world.

MC has a program for both high school juniors - the Junior MC, which began in 2003 -and seniors. The organization has stringent guidelines: Students must have a 3.5 grade point average, exhibit community service skills and leadership abilities, and seniors must also have achieved a score of 1500 on the SAT test or a 25 on the ACT test.

Juniors who are accepted into the program must reapply for their senior year.

"Even if they do not matriculate into the senior program, they have had a wonderful year of experience and exposure," Webster said.

Seniors have monthly workshops with topics such as interview skills, which was this month's topic. MC students also have optional workshops and seminars they can attend if their school schedules don't conflict with them.

For example, a group of students The Daily News recently met with had just returned from a Building Owners and Managers Association meeting, where self-help guru Stephen Covey, CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide and author of "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," gave a presentation about trust in the workplace.

All of the students in attendance had positive things to say about the seminar.

"A lot of people now are bringing more trust into the workplace, because it's all fine and dandy to have great abilities, but trust, without it, people tend to not want to work with you," said Ural Grant, a junior in the MC program.

Yolanda Dozier, the MC's program manager, said that, according to Covey, "convicts scored higher on a minimum ethics exam than a group of MBAs did."

Networking really working

Webster said each student is entered into a database according to what their interests are and what majors they expect to declare in college. The majority of the MC students are interested in the health sciences, while others fall into categories such as law, journalism and communications, technical and other areas.

The MC partners with other organizations to help place students in internships. That way, the students not only have an internship under their belt, but a possible job opportunity on graduating from college, as well as the networking connections and skills they need in today's working world.

"We have about 12 (high school) seniors who will be rising (college) freshmen, so we have partnered with the UTHSC (University of Tennessee Health Science Center), and so whatever their field of interest is, depending on the scope and the focus, we'll have internships available," Webster said.

"For those students interested in law, we're partnering with the American Bar Association, and those students are completing applications now for their summer internships. In addition (we are working with) FedEx, AutoZone (and) several nonprofits in the community. So we look to find a position for them to hone their skills and find out what their interests are all about."

Positive effects

Several students said they learned valuable lessons being part of MC.

"My experience with MC has been a great one," Grant said. "I've learned so much about colleges and I think I'm very well much prepared for next year - writing essays, different workshops they have monthly."

Aeron Glover, a senior in MC, talked about how well-prepared he was for his college interview processes.

"I applied to a lot of schools and I was accepted into all of them, but I'm going to the University of Tennessee," Glover said. "The program really helped me develop leadership and skills I'll need in college life and life in general. Another thing was the ACT workshops; they helped me raise my score. I feel that if I wasn't in either one (Junior MC and Senior MC), I don't know how things would have turned out."

Glover also received a Haslam Scholarship through UT, which only 15 freshmen qualify for each year. He mentioned the stringent interview process he went through, but said it was "an opportunity he couldn't pass up."

Chris Shannon, the third-generation Memphis Challenger, said the workshops really helped him.

"The workshops really help prepare you for the world, mentally and socially," he said. "You'd think they'd be boring - just something you have to go to - but they actually are quite interesting and you are willing to go, and you become associated with the teachers and build relationships."

When asked if he was also going to attend Harvard, he laughed and said, "I might."

What the future holds

MC staff are excited about a new part of their program: the intensive summer course. Beginning June 2 and running through Aug. 1, the eight-week intensive course is designed for students ages 14 to 17 and focuses on the same topics MC does, although in an intensive setting: public speaking skills, organizational habits, time and money management, professional appearance, speech and dress and other requirements for success in today's business world.

The summer program aims to build even stronger and better skills in the MC students.

Danielle Mitchell, an MC alumna, said that the program "acted as a polisher" for herself and her friends who graduated from the program in 1999.

"We had the raw talent, we had the grades, we had the brains, we had the capacity to make it, but we needed help molding to get there, and MC did that," Mitchell said. "I don't think there's an interview I've done where I wasn't complimented on my interviewing skills. You can't help but support what (MC) does."