MOUNT VERNON — For four hours, Antowaine Richardson tried to engage a room full of seemingly disinterested incoming freshmen at the Mount Vernon High School campus.

Some students talked with friends. One looked asleep. Others stared at their hands, their desks or the wall — anywhere but at Richardson and toward the dreams he tried to show them.

Richardson’s presentation is one of the first steps toward improving the graduation rate in the Mount Vernon School District. The district earned a $257,500 grant from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to reduce the chances of students dropping out of school. In the 2005-2006 school year, 8 percent of students dropped out and 65 percent graduated on time.

The program, held for four half-days last week, is called “En La Via,” Spanish for “On Track.” District officials picked about 70 students of mostly Hispanic descent to attend a workshop with Richardson and co-facilitator Jahmad Canley. Both hail from the Pacific Institute, a Seattle-based education and consulting company.

Superintendent Carl Bruner said these students are in the class because they are the most in danger of dropping out of high school.

Dropping out is a symptom of something larger, Richardson said.

“Some of the students have stopped dreaming,” he said.

As students wrote their goals on a work sheet, Richardson said students in their situation often do not have supportive family members around them. He aims to teach them how to be their own support network. In essence, the workshop’s goal is to reprogram a student’s thinking process, from one who lets minor obstacles get in the way to a self-sustaining, problem-solving student.

But first, they have to realize that their goals — from graduating high school to attending college to improving relationships — are attainable.

During a classroom exercise, Richardson asked students what they would ask for if they could have anything without worrying how to get it.

The room fell silent. At first, no one raised a hand. Many avoided eye contact. But slowly, quietly, students started to volunteer. Money. A hundred dollars. Richardson paced back and forth, and goaded the students into a response.

“A taco,” one boy said. The class laughed.

Richardson stopped, then turned.

“A taco?” Richardson said with a disgusted scowl on his face.

He raised his voice to the classroom: “If you’re not expecting much, you won’t get much.”

A Spanish-language translator in the back of the room tried to keep up with Richardson’s furious pace.

“Do you not think about what your lives will equate to when you get older?” he asked.

Veronica Yell, 14, had thought about it. She thought about how she really likes forensic science and wants to go to college someday.

Her timid voice could barely be heard.

“I would like to not worry about college,” she said.

One student laughed in the back, but quickly stopped when Richardson turned his way.

“That’s good,” Richardson said. “Which one?”

Yell didn’t know.

“How would it feel to go to the college of your choice?” he asked.

“Awesome,” she said.

He told students they can choose their attitude, and that choice helps determine the outcome. For instance, if a student says he or she is bad at math, then poor grades will follow.

Richardson told students to see themselves as they would like to be, not as they are. If they want a high-paying job, they have to be a successful student, graduate high school and go to college. It’s not hard, he said. People have done it before.

But Richardson said it’s difficult to imagine success “when you come from a culture that doesn’t hold education as an important aspect of who you are.”

With all of the other issues students face — shyness, poor English skills, low math scores, gangs and sometimes a rough family life — getting students to focus on themselves and their future is “challenging.”

How students navigate the transition from eighth- to ninth-grade determines their future academic success, Bruner said. Often a freshman can fall behind and get discouraged and later quit school.

The workshop also gives the students half a credit as they enter their freshman year.

Though the funding ends next summer, Bruner hopes to continue the program with other grants to help more students. Several teachers have been trained to help students through their incoming freshman year, he said.

• Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or at .