Soccer Games and the Lady in the Pink Dress

Last week I traveled to Ohio for a national conference to speak about the research I did with ECU for my doctorate. Many of you know that my research involved finding pathways to college for undocumented Hispanic students in Greene County. I'll quickly admit that until I came to work in Greene County ten years ago, I was unfamiliar with the problem. It wasn't until I met the students and learned of their stories that I decided to try to do something to change the situation locally. In my presentation last week, I was joined by two other colleagues that also focused their efforts on supporting Hispanic students. Our message was mostly well-received with the exception of one participant in the crowd, a lady in a pink dress. This participant was critical that we had not done more to push political activism, and even went as far as to criticize us for not directing our staff on how to vote. It initially bothered me a little but I brushed it off at the thought that she just wasn't aware of the restrictions of K-12 schools versus her own world in higher education. 

The thought of the lady in the pink dress came back to me this week as our soccer team celebrated on Tuesday night. If only she could see just how far our community has come in embracing our Hispanic students and families. Teachers volunteered roles and stepped up in a major way to help run various functions of the game and so many unseen functions before and after. Our stands were filled with a mix of English and Spanish-speaking families, all there to support the same group of students. While the soccer game gave us a reason to all be in the same place at the same time, these are the same people that are always supporting this community. They know the students, their stories, and their goals for life after high school. Our staff supports these students in ways far beyond what is asked and long after the bell rings. When we are called upon to celebrate or help students of any background, we know how to step up and we do, time after time. 

The lady in the pink dress does not know our school or our community. My presentation talked about fancy research methods and didn't fully convey the stories of the human beings that love one another enough to give their time, money, and energy to see others that may not look or speak like them celebrate. Effort and care for others are very hard things to quantify. They don't fit into neat little paragraphs in a dissertation and even less into PowerPoint presentation slides. But if the lady in the pink dress could have been with us on Tuesday night, she would have felt it. If she could see the work of the new Juntos program that Mrs. Galue has been leading, should would have to be impressed. If she can see the relationships that happen in our classes and hear the discussions in our hallways, she would understand. Thanks for embracing this community and for all that you do to support students whose background is different from your own. What you do is much bigger than any dissertation that I can write.