Photo by Jonah Dycus/Herald
A Sacred Heart Network student and a child from Ninfa R. Laurenzo Early Childhood Center enjoy the hands-on experience of a petting zoo, June 13. More than 20 students from Duchesne Academy and other Sacred Heart Network high schools participated in the week-long summer service project, Serving Immigrant Children, at the Pre-K school in east Houston.

Duchesne, Sacred Heart students learn from Serving Immigrant Children
Local service project brings together schools from all over nation

By JONAH DYCUS
Herald Staff Writer

HOUSTON – Bypassing the temptation to soak in the beach-side sun, teenagers from Duchesne Academy welcomed students from sister schools in the Network of Sacred Heart for a summer project, Serving Immigrant Children, June 7-14.
The Ninfa R. Laurenzo Early Childhood Center in east Houston hosted 21 Sacred Heart students – six from the local Duchesne – for a week filled with activities and enrichment, according to Sister Sharon Karam, R.S.C.J., a social awareness coordinator at Duchesne. Sister Sharon said the service project was one of the most in-demand of all the Sacred Heart programs this summer, with young people (grades 10-12) coming from Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey and New York.
The early childhood center and Duchesne are no strangers. For the past three academic years, Duchesne senior students worked with the
Pre-K (ages 3-4) students at Laurenzo as tutors and reading buddies.
“It is important for our students to have someone read stories to them and ask them questions about those stories. It also allows our children the opportunity to have regular one-on-one contact and interaction with another person,” Laurenzo Principal Carmen Rogina said of the collaboration. “For the high school girls, it provides them an opportunity to see how they can give to others and how their contribution makes a difference for the community. They learn how to integrate into our school community and they become very knowledgeable on how to work with the children – it is very beneficial for them, too.”
Approximately 120 Pre-K students were part of this year’s summer enrichment program at Laurenzo. The center’s regular enrollment of almost 200 children is predominantly Mexican or of Mexican descent.
On one of the weekday evenings during Serving Immigrant Children, learning center parents, their children and Sacred Heart students had dinner together and discussed “what it was like living in this neighborhood, what it’s like being an immigrant and what (immigrants) have gone through,” Rogina recalled.
“The (Sacred Heart) students are here to get the exposure of working with children who are immigrants, or children and grandchildren of immigrants in an inner city school setting. Many of them get to practice their Spanish when they work in the classroom, and they have been able to provide a wonderful learning experience for the children,” the principal observed. “And for those kids in our Spanish class, it is an excellent opportunity for them to have English language role models.”
Rogina referred to the program as “win-win” for the volunteers and the learning center students. “Our children are definitely benefiting from the language experience, the reading of stories, the interaction, the social skills provided for them – just having someone to show that caring touch that these high school girls can give them,” she added. “The PreK kids are so cute and so little, and (the volunteers) have just showed them so much love. And that is one of the best parts of this program – the love that they provide for the children.”
Elena Nickerson, a faculty member from Stuart Country Day School in Princeton, N.J., enjoyed witnessing that interaction and compassion firsthand. The teacher is a Cuban immigrant and was drawn to the project because of her heritage. “Coming here really opened my eyes – once you connect with a person, whether it is a child or adult, it just takes away all of the barriers. Language, borders…all of that doesn’t matter anymore,” Nickerson said. “I think the children have had a great impact on (the high school students), maybe more than they realize. It is going to be a trip that comes back to them in situations they least expect. And hopefully, they are going to take some of what they learn and apply it to people that they meet every day.”
Those opportunities may materialize in their own neighborhood and communities, Nickerson noted. “There are other people out there in the same exact situation but they may be invisible to (the Sacred Heart students), and maybe now, they won’t be invisible.”
Sister Sharon said helping people of all ages in similar circumstances is something the staff reinforced late in the week during discussion and reflection sessions. “It is fun working with kids, but there are a lot of adults in the inner cities who are desperate to learn ESL (English as a Second Language) and have been here for a long time,” she said. “It is not as glamorous, but it is essential for them to learn English. And that is something our students can do a couple hours out of the week, even during the summer.”
Several students have expressed a strong desire to apply such lessons back home, including Elizabeth Erker, a sophomore from Duchesne in Omaha, Neb.
“Before this week, I didn’t really know much about immigrants…but I have learned so much about them,” she stated. “This experience has really helped me to understand their lives and their cultures more. And it has been really fun.”
Erker said she enjoyed watching the young children read and prepare story-related food and treats – a popular activity during the week. “Just to see how much that meant to them was cool,” Erker noted.
She added she plans to be more involved with the immigrant population upon her return. “I just want to do what I can to help make a difference,” Erker said.
Tessa Pulaski, a Sacred Heart student from Newton Country Day School in Massachusetts, brought a lot of experience to the service project. Both of her parents have been active in mission work in Latin America, and she had participated in a border awareness trip to El Paso and Juarez. In addition, the junior visited Nicaragua last summer.
“I love interacting with kids and I am really interested in immigration, so this trip seemed like a perfect idea,” Pulaski said, as she held the hand of one of the young pupils from Laurenzo. “I enjoy learning about their experiences and making that connection with them.”
Carmen Craig, a senior at Newton Country Day School, said she was eager to take part in the Houston-based summer program. Fluent in Spanish, she frequently served as a translator during the daily gatherings.
Her top highlight from the week was “the look on the kids’ faces” when the volunteers helped operate a petting zoo for the children. “When I asked one of the kids if he wanted to get on the horse, he gave me this ‘Are you kidding me?’ look. Then he saw his friend get on the horse and said ‘Yeah!’” Craig laughed. “It was so cute. Just having the kids open up to me was great. At first they were a little bit shy, having someone new in class, but they warmed up pretty quickly.”
Craig also said she appreciated the time she spent with others from her school’s network, where service work and implementing Catholic social teaching is a hallmark of the Sacred Heart tradition. “Service projects really bring us together with the common goal of doing things for other people. It is something really special that you don’t find everywhere. And I am really grateful for that,” she said.
Serving Immigrant Children was a life-changing experience for Franchesca Alamo, a sophomore at Duchesne in Houston. She hosted two of the visiting students during their stay in Texas, and quickly bonded with all of her Sacred Heart sisters.
“When I came to Duchesne, I said there is something about the Sacred Heart community that you cannot describe – I just knew I loved being a part of it,” she said. “I have been with these girls for a week, but I know them as if I have known them for seven years instead of just seven days. It is such a tight community and it is a wonderful experience to come here and share a common bond.”
Alamo added, “We want to help and love these children as their friends, their allies – be their teachers, be guidance counselors, because that is what they deserve. They deserve just as much as we do. And we all work together to achieve that goal.”
Alamo signed up for the project because she wanted to gain a humanitarian perspective on the issue of immigration. “I feel I have gained a deeper understanding of children and how they react to personal attention,” she commented. “I feel like these kids are my little cousins, because they are like family to me. Being a part of this means the world to me because I love children.”
She continued, “I think they have affected me more than I have affected them, even though we have done so much together during the week.
“They have given me insight so I can work for a better world.”