Bernard Clay, 74, Has Helped 78,000 Kids Get to College — He Started Out on His Living Room Floor 

Bernard Clay, 74, the founder of Introspect Youth Services, Inc., and Mary Nelson, 84, a retired educator who was part of the group that founded the nonprofit Bethel New Life, were in a rich conversation at History Harvest on Oct. 11. While they were talking, Clay shared the story of how Introspect got started. The nonprofit, which has helped around 78,000 young people go to college, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. 

On Nov. 22, 6-10 p.m., at the Hilton Oak Lawn Midway Airport Hotel, 9333 S. Cicero Ave., Introspect will hold a Golden Anniversary celebration and fundraiser. General admission is $75. Sponsorships range from $1,500 to $10,000. The deadline to submit a sponsorship is Oct. 31. Visit introspectyouth.org/ for more info on the organization. 

I got involved with Bethel New Life in 1966. 

We used to take young people to colleges in Minnesota. Help them get scholarships. Back then, we were at the Austin Street Club. We weren’t Introspect yet — just a Scout unit and an Explorer post.

When they became part of the YMCA, we couldn’t stay there anymore. So we moved to the Garfield Park Mental Health Center. Stayed about three years.

CAM (Christian Action Ministry) had one of the first Upward Bound programs in the country. They got funded in 1967. When they lost funding, we just kept going — doing college trips under the Explorer post. 

After 1974, we placed our first student in college after talking to Silas Purnell (a Chicago trailblazer in preparing young people for, and sending them to, college). That’s when we decided to incorporate.

Introspect was originally supposed to be a crisis intervention hotline for the Garfield Park Comprehensive Mental Health Center. We stayed there until 1977, when the city decided to close it.

I thought that was it — that we’d have to shut down too. But between 1974 and 1977, we’d already put 1,000 kids in college.

When the center closed, I took all our college catalogs and applications and brought them to my house. That was the fall of 1977.

I had kids sitting on my living room floor, filling out applications. I remember thinking, we can’t keep doing this here.

So we got a little money together — just enough for a deposit and first month’s rent. Then we threw a disco. That paid for the next three months.

We moved into the Religious Council on Urban Affairs in the old St. Thomas building at 127 N. Leamington.

On Easter, we did another fundraiser. That carried us through June. And by July of 1978, we got our first grant from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

We’ve been rocking and rolling ever since.