Mentoring program aims to reduce drop-out rates

More than 25 percent of the nation's high schoolers fail to graduate. One organization is trying to change that by reaching out to kids while they're still in middle school and asking them one simple question. NBC’s Rehema Ellis reports.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: It's a disturbing number. More than 25 percent of this nation's high school students now don't graduate. There are a lot of ways to try to reverse the number. One of them , to help kids make the connection between school and the rest of their lives. Our chief education correspondent Rehema Ellis reports tonight on an organization helping to reach young kids with a simple question. What's your dream job ? By doing so, they're MAKING A DIFFERENCE .

REHEMA ELLIS reporting: Devontre Brown loves to play video games.

Unidentified Man #1: That right there.

ELLIS: Now he's learning to design them.

Mr. DEVONTRE BROWN: I would love this job.

ELLIS: By eighth grade Devontre showed all the signs of a kid heading for trouble, low test scores and little interest in his subjects.

Mr. BROWN: Oh, I did this.

ELLIS: But that's all changed. He's one of several hundred middle schoolers involved in Spark , a mentoring program that aims to reduce dropout rates through one on one apprenticeships. After deciding on their dream job , students are paired up with professionals, painters, photographers, even firefighters.

Mr. CHRIS BALME (Spark Program Executive Director): For so many kids they don't see the connection between school and the real world. And for a lot of kids that relevance gap is the difference between staying in school or dropping out.

ELLIS: Kids like Javier Madrono , who through his apprenticeship with an architectural firm, saw blueprints...

Ms. PATTI HARBURG-PETRICH (Mentor): Now you can really see the good stuff.

ELLIS: ...turn into buildings.

Ms. HARBURG-PETRICH: It's made me a lot more passionate about the work I do seeing his interest in what we do.

ELLIS: In just seven years Spark has placed more than 1,000 teens in apprenticeships with impressive results. Nationwide the high school graduation rate is 72 percent. For kids in Spark , it's 98 percent. Sonya Chaudry apprenticed with a social worker in 2006 . Now she's a full scholarship student at Stanford , on track to graduate in 2013 with a degree in social work .

Ms. SONYA CHAUDRY: It was definitely really helpful because I felt like I knew the direction I want to go to, and I just needed to explore the different opportunities within that.

ELLIS: Sparking new dreams...

Unidentified Man #2: Think about the cameras on all three sides.

ELLIS: ...by turning the work place...

Unidentified Woman: D equals...

ELLIS: ...into a classroom.

Woman: There we go.

ELLIS: Rehema Ellis, NBC News, New