Cabrini partners with local Latino community in after-school program

Hope. That is the word that describes the emotion on the faces of some Hispanic parents in the Norristown Area School District as they celebrated their high school students’ new after-school program offered by an Engagement with the Common Good class at Cabrini.

The success of the program was evident at the Christmas party that was held at the Norristown Public Library back in December. While few were expected, over 30 people were in attendance including the Norristown Area School District Curriculum and Instruction Supervisor Patricia Demnisky.

The college’s new Justice Matters curriculum consists of courses that give students the opportunity to work with community partners on common projects. Spanish majors and minors work with the Norristown Area School District and mentor young high school students of Hispanic descent through a program called “Our Interconnected Hemisphere.”

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic students have a very low college graduation rate in comparison to other students of a different ethnic

background. This fact also holds true on the high school level, which is where the Spanish ECG class is trying to make a difference.

“We would like somehow to contribute to that and help in ways that we think we can to improve the futures of many Latino students by community organizing, advocating for them, working closely with them, believing in them and by ultimately helping them to secure funding sources for grants and scholarships,” Dr. Cynthia Halpern, chair of the romance languages and literatures department and the ECG 200 professor, said.

The Cabrini students’ ultimate goal with the high school students is to see them graduate and receive scholarship money for college.

In the fall of 2009, the students began with an ECG 100 class taught by Dr. Nicholas Uliano, associate professor of the romance languages, who introduced the students to many of the challenges faced by Latino immigrants. After ECG 100, the students continue with the program for four years, concluding with a senior-level course.

Cabrini students who are participating in this program travel to the Norristown Area High School certain days during the week after school to meet with Spanish-speaking high school students.

“Our ECG 200 class talks about Mexican immigration and their struggle when they come over to the United States,” Jess Merone, sophomore psychology and social work major and student mentor, said. Merone, along with her parents and siblings, are immigrants from Italy.

According to Merone, the main issues facing immigrants are language barriers, feeling accepted in school and discrimination. These factors most likely contribute to the low graduation rates.

“We’re helping them with schoolwork and providing opportunities for them to continue on with their schoolwork,” Merone said.

Dr. Raquel Green, assistant professor of romance languages and the ECG 300 professor, explained that some Hispanic students start falling behind academically during the third or fourth grade because of the language barrier. As the students move to the higher grades that gap widens.

“That’s when they begin to feel ‘I am never going to catch up’ and that is when behavioral issues may emerge,” Green said. “They feel more isolated.”

“I at least want to see one student graduate,” Lisa Gomez, junior exercise science major and ECG class student leader, said.

Gomez was chosen to serve as the intern of the mentorship program because of her Puerto Rican family background. Gomez stated that her family is her biggest inspiration.

“Where I live there’s not a lot of graduates. There are a lot of drop-outs and I know people personally that dropped out,” Gomez said.

This program is new for the Norristown Area High School in that it is the first one geared toward working specifically with Spanish-speaking students.

“As a district we are charged with ensuring that students are successful and when there are students who are speakers of other languages, I think we are responsible for doing whatever it takes to ensure that students feel supported and know they are supported,” Dr. Janet Samuels, superintendent of Norristown Area School District, said.

Halpern explained that the program also benefits each Cabrini student enrolled in the ECG 200 class at an intermediate level in their Spanish language studies and they get to practice their language skills with the high school students.

Halpern explained how she felt the parents of the high school children were nothing but grateful for the time, care and dedication of the Cabrini students.

“There are no words. There are just no words to tell you how emotional I felt,” Halpern said. “To me, it was a precious moment in time. That will personally give me the energy to keep going because this is the beginning of something that’s going to be extraordinary.”