Jenkins, George 1973-

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Jenkins, George 1973-

PERSONAL:

Born February 6, 1973, in SC; son of George, Sr. Education: Attended Seton Hall University; University of Medicine and Dentistry, D.D.S.

ADDRESSES:

Office—The Three Doctors Foundation, Inc., 65 Hazelwood Ave., Newark, NJ 07106. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Dentist, educator, and author. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, faculty member in community health; Columbia University, New York, NY, assistant clinical professor of dentistry. Three Doctors Foundation, Newark, cofounder.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Essence Award (with Rameck Hunt and Sampson Davis), 2000.

WRITINGS:

(With Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and Lisa Frazier Page) The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and Sharon M. Draper) We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed, Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and Margaret Bernstein) The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Pact was adapted as a sound recording, HighBridge (St. Paul, MN), 2002; The Pact was also adapted as a sound recording on six CDs, High Bridge, 2002. The Pact was adapted as a movie, Spark Media, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

A successful dentist, as well as motivational writer, George Jenkins grew up on the tough streets of Newark, New Jersey. He was born in South Carolina, but after his parents divorced his mother took him to live in Newark. Here, he could have easily gone the route of many young men from poor, single-parent homes and joined a gang. Instead, he found inspiration in two areas that helped put him on the right path. One was, amazingly, a trip to the dentist when he was thirteen years old. As a biographer on the Three Doctors Foundation Web site related: "Always an inquisitive child, he was fascinated by the tools in his dentist's office. Sensing Dr. Jenkins' curiosity, that dentist spent a little extra time with him, explaining each tool and what it was used for. These few minutes became the catalyst for the young boy's ambition."

Jenkins decided to focus on schooling, and, with strong grades, he was admitted to University High School, a New Jersey magnet school. Here he met two other teens who would share his dreams: Sampson Davis and Rameck Hunt. Davis had been born in Newark and his father had abandoned the family, while Hunt was the son of drug-addicted parents. The boys resolved to support each other like brothers in their goal to break the cycle of poverty and become doctors. They all worked hard in school, taking summer courses so that they could get up to speed with college expectations, and appreciating the considerable help from a program recruiter named Carla Dickson, who initially recognized Jenkins's talent and then the potential of his two friends. They applied for financial aid, took on jobs to fill in the gaps not covered by financial assistance, and attended the same colleges, often sharing living quarters. By supporting each other, they all managed to graduate in 1999 from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Today, Davis and Hunt are physicians, while Jenkins made his dream come true of becoming a dentist; he also became a clinical professor of dentistry. Continuing with their partnership, they formed the Three Doctors Foundation to support and inspire children who come from similar backgrounds with scholarship funds. To appeal to kids, too, they have created the "Pact Power Kids," cartoon characters who help serve as role models to whom young children can relate. Jenkins, with Hunt and Davis, is the author of several inspirational books, as well, including The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed, and The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers.

"Although The Pact is an inspiring story, no matter what age or race, it especially serves as real-life motivation for young men of color. Today, all three have fulfilled their dream of becoming doctors," commented Mondella S. Jones in the Black Issues Book Review.

While The Pact was targeted toward general readers, Hunt, Jenkins, and Davis recognized that they needed to appeal to younger audiences who would be most affected and influenced by their story. They therefore wrote We Beat the Street for kids in grades seven and up. Again using their own voices to tell the story, this shorter version will still appeal to older readers, as well, according to Gillian Engberg in Booklist, who felt that "all readers will be riveted by the profoundly inspirational stories and personal, intimate voices" in We Beat the Street. "The writing here … is simple and accessible and there is plenty of action for reluctant readers," reported Francisca Goldsmith in School Library Journal. And a Publishers Weekly writer concluded: "Readers searching for role models should find much to cheer and emulate here."

It is unfortunately very common in poor urban areas for children to grow up with only one parent to support them. In African American families, it is often the father who is absent. Hunt and Jenkins did not even enjoy a father in the household for that short a time; Davis's father left the family when he was twelve. In The Bond all three doctors talk about how this had a profound effect on them. Interestingly, the authors tracked down their fathers and got them to contribute to the book as well, offering their own voices to the crisis of fatherless households. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the fathers, "refreshingly, do not make excuses for their shortcomings but give insights into their failures." For example, all three fathers also grew up without their fathers to support them, thus illustrating how a cycle can be created and perpetuated from generation to generation.

The Bond also includes more positive stories about children and their fathers to balance the book. The Publishers Weekly critic remarked that while the writers "offer little new information about growing up without a father" what they do say "bear[s] repeating." Bush, writing again for Booklist, called The Bond a "heartfelt examination of the effect of fatherlessness on young men and a plea for change."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Jenkins, George, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, Lisa Frazier Page, The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Jenkins, George, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, Sharon M. Draper, We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed, Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Jenkins, George, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, Margaret Bernstein, The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

American Medical News, September 23, 2002, "3 Doctors Vowed as Teens to Stay in School, out of Trouble," p. 9.

Black Enterprise, June 1, 2003, "Word Is Bond: Davis, Jenkins, and Hunt Made a Pact to Survive the 'hood and Become Doctors," p. 9.

Black Issues Book Review, July 1, 2002, Mondella S. Jones, review of The Pact.

Booklist, April 1, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of We Beat the Street, p. 1352; September 15, 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of The Bond, p. 6.

Detroit Free Press, June 21, 2002, review of The Pact, October 12, 2007, "Building Bonds: Authors of The Pact Return with a Book about How It Feels to Need a Dad and What It Takes to Be a Good One."

Ebony, June 1, 2005, review of We Beat the Street, p. 32.

Essence, May 1, 2000, "The Essence Awards 2000," p. 105.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 25, 2002, review of The Pact.

New Crisis, July 1, 2002, review of The Pact.

News & Notes, October 22, 2007, "Three Doctors Form Lasting ‘Bond’."

Newsweek, August 15, 2005, "Documentaries: Sticking to a Promise," p. 9.

O, the Oprah Magazine, May 1, 2002, Martha Southgate, review of The Pact, p. 250.

People, June 3, 2002, "Triple Triumph: Defying the Odds, Rameck Hunt, Sampson Davis and George Jenkins Vowed to Become Doctors—Together," p. 153.

Publishers Weekly, April 22, 2002, review of The Pact, p. 63; October 7, 2002, review of The Pact, p. 37; April 4, 2005, review of We Beat the Street, p. 61; August 27, 2007, review of The Bond, p. 78.

Reader's Digest, March 1, 2002, "Boys to Men," p. 120.

School Library Journal, January 1, 2003, Joyce Fay Fletcher, review of The Pact, p. 175; May 1, 2005, Francisca Goldsmith, review of We Beat the Street, p. 146.

Talk of the Nation, October 8, 2007, "Doctors Find ‘The Bond’ through Medicine, Life."

UMDNJ Magazine, spring, 2005, Jill Spotz, "Strength in Numbers."

USA Today, October 3, 2007, "‘The Three Doctors’ Bond with Fathers," p. 01.