This is a wonderful story, all schools should do this. They all need volunteers and this program helps the volunteers as much as the kids. - - Donna Poisl
When immigrant mothers break out of their isolation and become parent mentors, they are transformed, and so are their schools.
By Pam DeFiglio | Special to the Tribune
Monica Espinoza was 17 when she left Mexico to work 11 hours a day, six days a week at a Chicago factory, continuing that grueling schedule even after marrying and having a baby. Feeling overwhelmed and isolated, she says, she sank into depression.
"There was a time in my life when everything was so pitch black," she said. "I was like, 'My life doesn't have a purpose.' "
But then Espinoza, a 9th-grade dropout, became a parent mentor at her son's school, McAuliffe Elementary in Logan Square. She began helping 1st graders learn to read and in the processdiscovered a passion for teaching.
"In the parent mentor program, you learn you have a leader within yourself," said Espinoza, 30. "You have to look at where you're coming from, become stronger, make peace with the past and move on."
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
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