Archive for the ‘Success Stories’ Category

As the President of Solano Community College and a leader in our community, Dr. Laguerre sponsors multiple children through The Harvest Society. Even with the crisis in his native country, he is intentionally investing in the lives of the children who live in his own community. Dr. Laguerre said, “The heart of the world is pouring into Haiti, and we need to remember to use our personal resources close to home as well. We need to help each other, any way we can, as often as we can.”

Dr. Laguerre, now the President of Solano Community College, is native to the country of Haiti. Born and raised there, he attended schooling all the way through his years in the university. His heart for education led him to the field of teaching, and he continued his career in the United States in 1982. As you might imagine, Dr. Laguerre’s heart has been torn over the destruction of his home.

Every afternoon, when students fill the tutoring centers of The Leaven, they come with an expectancy to learn, to belong, and to feel loved, and the adults at The Leaven don’t let them down. Martha Lacy is a principal at David Wier Elementary School, and she can personally attest to the powerful impact of The Leaven. After all, they are reaching her toughest students.

What is very striking about The Leaven is the overwhelming feeling of how much the children want to be there—that you get the sense they need to be there. These children are getting things here that they aren’t getting at home, and these are critical things to a young child’s development—things like compassion, nurturing, love, and safety.

We tend to measure the success of our tutoring program on how much better our students perform in school. But sometimes we can measure success on a much more basic and critical level: teaching a student to simply like school.

Antonio is a fifth-grader—a bit older than most of the students that attend our program center at the Groves Apartments. Living within one of the most crime-ridden and violent neighborhoods in Solano County, Antonio is at a very critical age when gangs begin to recruit new members and influences such as drugs, alcohol, crime, and peer pressure can lead a child like Antonio down a very destructive path in his early life.

Reading is a critical part of each student’s afternoon at The Leaven. And while we see our students’ reading levels increase—sometimes by as many as four levels—reading time can have a tremendous, and sometimes unrealized impact on each child’s life.