Maria Reyes’ son was in the sixth grade at Moore Middle School outside Lawrenceville, earning grades that she described as “a little low,” when he brought home an invitation to Gwinnett County Public Schools’ mentoring program for Hispanic students in spring 2019.
Reyes, who immigrated 14 years ago from Mexico, signed her son up. He began participating in the program’s science camps, reading sessions and Saturday life lessons. The program gave tips to parents too. Reyes’ son started getting better grades.
“I’m also learning how to motivate him to make an effort and study,” Reyes said in Spanish.
Mentoring programs for African-American and Hispanic students, each making up one third of the Gwinnett school district, have gone virtual but are still growing in spite of the pandemic — or perhaps because of it.
“It’s exploding because of word of mouth,” said Nury Crawford, director of Gwinnett schools’ Hispanic Mentoring Priority. “The need became higher.”
The school district began the programs to help close achievement gaps between Black and Hispanic students and their peers, by providing resources and connecting students with mentors who serve as role models.
The Hispanic student program began in the middle schools that feed into Meadowcreek and Berkmar High Schools, but it has expanded to serve about 200 middle-schoolers in 15 high school feeder patterns. Schools invite students who need academic or social support into the program, but as word spreads, parents have started calling Crawford directly for help.
In addition to the program’s events and monthly activities, volunteers from across metro Atlanta mentor the students one on one or in small groups. Through community donations, the program gives out school supplies, and during the pandemic, the program helped families get computers for at-home digital learning.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
In Gwinnett, Hispanic students have the lowest high school graduation rate of any racial or ethnic subgroup, at 72 percent, according to state data. Hispanic students also graduate at below-average rates nationally, according to federal statistics
This year, 33 percent of Gwinnett students are Hispanic, 32 percent are Black, 20 percent are white, 11 percent are Asian or Pacific islanders and 4 percent are multiracial, according to the school district. Many Hispanic families in Gwinnett are first or second-generation immigrants adjusting to a new language and a public education system very different from those in Latin America. Many work long hours for low pay and don’t have the time or resources to find help for their children.
Crawford, who immigrated from Peru with her family when she was 10, can relate.
“I am the kids that I serve,” she said. “I have extra love for the parents because those are my parents.”
The Hispanic mentoring program begins in middle school to lay the foundation for high school. It’s an age when students develop an aversion to seeking help, for reasons Crawford remembers from her childhood.
“You become very cognizant of the struggles your family is having and you don’t want to add to it,” she said.
Crawford and two other workers set up a table at lunchtime Wednesday in the central court of Plaza Las Americas near Berkmar High. They gave out materials for science experiments to complete at home, snacks and Christmas presents, including stuffed animals from the Atlanta Gladiators minor league hockey team. The program has also given away food vouchers and Walmart gift cards to help with holiday dinners.
Eloisa Garcia was one of the first to arrive. She picked up a bag for her eighth-grade daughter, who had not been much interested in school but is now participating in a coding boot camp that the mentoring program signed up to give through Nickelodeon and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
“She loves it, she loves it,” Garcia said in Spanish. “Thank God for this.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The Gwinnett school district’s Community-Based Mentoring Program began in 2009 with an initiative for 57 African-American boys. Now more than 600 African-American boys are in the program, said its director, James Rayford, to the school board in an October presentation. The district has also added a program for African-American girls.
In the 2018-2019 school year, 94 percent of the students in the African-American Boys Priority were promoted to the next grade level and 65 percent had two or fewer disciplinary incidents. The program is conducting many of the same virtual activities as the Hispanic priority and its students this year will research Black history leaders, Rayford said.
Both programs are in need of more volunteer mentors.
“Our mentoring program is changing the direction of many of our students’ lives and we’re real proud of that,” Rayford said. “We still have some ways to go. We know how large our district is.”
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