Philadelphia Soul player now in starring role as Program Director with Camelot’s Camden school for troubled Youth Melik Brown brings his on-field passion to the classroom to help students change their lives

(Camden, NJ – October 16, 2012)

When Camden native Melik Brown learned that Camelot Schools was bringing its alternative education program to Camden he wanted in.

The just-retired member of the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football League team says, “Camden is personal to me because I wouldn’t have made it without people helping us out when we were struggling. There are good people in this city and I want to make sure that the kids I work with know that somebody cares about them.”

Brown is program director at Camelot’s transitional program within Camden High School, one of three alternative education programs Camelot operates for the Camden School District for students with behavioral and academic problems.

The purpose of the Camelot Camden programs is to do what they have done in the Philadelphia school district, decrease the drop-out rate and increase the graduation rate – and most important, give students a second chance to earn a diploma and acquire the skills to advance to post-secondary endeavors.

Brown is the oldest of six children. One of his brothers was killed, so he tragically knows the dangers and challenges for young people growing up in Camden.

“I stress to my kids that my job is to help them build and experience success. We are a support system to help them prepare for life. I tell them there is something other than a four-block radius and violence. Most important, I want to be a positive role model,” Brown says.

“I went to the University of North Carolina on a football scholarship. I majored in sociology. My mother told me I’d better not come home without a degree. There was no way I was not going to earn that degree.”

In his two years with the Soul, Brown showed he would do just about anything on the field to win, playing several different positions on offense and defense, from running back to linebacker. The Soul went 15-3 in his second season and won the American Conference championship. But the victories he is most proud of now are won in the classroom.

“I have a student named Ebony Wilson who was dropped from school for absenteeism. She came back with determination this year and has done a complete 180,” he says. “I put her on the spot during townhouse where all students gather in the morning. There were tears in her and other students’ eyes because maybe for the first time in their lives they know somebody cares about them.”

Brown says what drives the staff at Camelot is the fact that these kids are used to people giving up on them. He says that is not going to happen at his school because “we know these kids can succeed. We see it every day.”

Aside from the transitional school at Camden High, Camelot operates a stand-alone program called Camden City Transitional Academy and an accelerated high school to help students who have dropped out or are in danger of dropping out catch up and graduate.