Eyewitness News reporter Chauncy Glover honored with award for his mentor program

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KTRK) -- Eyewitness News reporter and anchor Chauncy Glover will receive an award this weekend from the National Association of Black Journalists for his work changing young lives.

His mentor program, The Chauncy Glover Project, began when Glover was a reporter covering breaking news in Detroit.

"I was getting ready for my live shot and I got mic'd up and I was walking around and this young man was lying in the median," recalled Glover. "He had been shot and he was bleeding and I watched that young man take his last breath and it nearly took the life out of me."

Hoping to help the young men from the rough neighborhoods he so often ended up covering on the news, Glover hand-picked 15 boys from three inner-city Detroit schools. Now, traveling back and forth from Houston to Detroit, Glover teaches the 10 high schoolers and five middle schoolers how to study, dress and everything in between.

"He was like my light in the darkness to stay away from all the bad influences around me," said high school senior Symian Jenkins. "My mother wasn't there at the time, so I really appreciate him for that."

The stories of the young men he mentored are those of struggle.

Jaysin Cherry struggled with family issues.

"I lost my dad when I was 10 years old," said Cherry. Looking at her son after his time in the Glover Project, Cherry's mother Clarice couldn't keep from crying.

"I can see that he's grown so much and I'm so proud of him," said Cherry's mother.

Others struggled with self-esteem. Born with a rare, disfiguring skin condition, high schooler Victor Lewis had built up a tough exterior, but inside he felt he was lacking.

"Chauncy himself told me to be proud of who I am," said Lewis. "Go big or go home, whatever I do, I have to own it."

Glover's father Robert not only credits his son for the successful transformations of the young men, but also gives credit to a higher calling following a tragic accident in the Glover family. Four years ago, Chauncy's only brother was killed in a car wreck when he was just 24 years old.

"After everything that happened, I told Chauncy to pray, son and God will turn on the light, God's will is going to be done," Robert Glover recalled. "And it looks like he's come up with a lot of other little brothers."

With Chauncy living full-time in Houston, other mentors help with the program while he is at work covering the news, though he travels back to Detroit regularly. All 10 of the high school seniors in the Chauncy Glover Project have college scholarships.