I attended an early morning breakfast yesterday at the Salt Palace Convention Center to share Guadalupe School's vision and hope for its students through education. As I listened to the keynote speaker, Salt Lake Mayor, Ralph Becker, the stories of former Guadalupe School students, and the story of a young Hispanic couple participating in Guadalupe's ESL (English As A Second Language) Program, I was reminded how foolish we are to try and reinvent the wheel when we have a success story within our midst to teach us what works---Guadalupe School students continually score in the 90th percentile on state mandated tests.
Guadalupe's Mission is: To teach economically disadvantaged children and non-English speaking adults the vision and skills needed to live productive, rewarding lives-- through learning, literacy, and living.
This mission isn't just a written statement tucked away in a drawer, but it plays a vital role in directing what Guadalupe does to make it a reality through the following:
- Providing door-to door bussing for preschoolers through third grade.
- Providing a continuum of services from birth through third grade some of which are bilingual because the value of first language is recognized.
- Maximizing the support of its volunteers who log over 2,000 hours each school year.
- Providing free breakfast, lunch and healthy snacks to students.
- Offering a community learning center model so that an entire family can find educational services.
This "gold nugget" in our midst began when Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, with leadership from Father Jerald Merrill and Suzanne Weiss, founded The Guadalupe Center on Salt Lake City’s west side in 1966. Four over four decades, disadvantaged children and families, about 95% of whom are Hispanic, have been served by this gold nugget.
In spite of Guadalupe's great success, it doesn't rest on its laurels. It continues to be a vibrant and growing organization by continually learning and adopting new approaches that will help them to be even more effective for the families they serve.
Guadalupe must not only be a shining light for Utah, it must also be an example that is replicated so that even more Utah families can benefit. This will require a willingness on the part of policy makers to step out of comfort zones and be committed to a vision like Guadalupe's and a willingness to do whatever it takes to make that vision a reality.
Thank you, Guadalupe, for charting unknown paths to provide an ideal for others to follow.
