Helping students spring forward in March
This March, the FE Coalition and NHCLC stand ready to help our students and churches spring forward!
Spring is just around the corner, and though things all around us are poised to bloom and blossom, we take special note that this season students will also be challenged with state-wide tests, finishing college applications, applying for FAFSA, or just trying to pick up their grades before the end of the year.
Of course, it seems as if everything has become that much more complicated with the COVID-19. Nonetheless, in addition to praying over the health of students and schools and for wisdom for our state and national leaders, our responsibility remains the same: to advance Hispanic student achievement.
Two ways you can promote student achievement in your church this Spring is through the NHCLC’s Bibles and Becas initiative and Learning Heroes’ Spring Forward.
Bibles and Becas encourages churches to give Hispanic children a Bible and “seed money” for a college scholarship during their baby dedication, christening, or baptism ceremony. In other words: churches sow in order that students may reap.
For many Hispanic families the challenges of college enrollment and completion are significant. Some wrestle with issues related to immigration, legal status, deportation, and single-parent households which may mean that students drop out of school in order to contribute to the household income or that students have never had a family member who has graduated from high school to model the path forward for them.
We believe that churches can come alongside Hispanic families to encourage them to keep their kids thriving in school from pre-K through college graduation with a small ofrenda. One way to start a college scholarship fund is through a small $25 or $50 ofrenda given to the student’s parents or guardian so that they can open an education savings account or start a college fund in another type of savings account. Another way is for the church to invest that ofrenda into their own created account or fund that will appreciate over time. We are convinced that two tools that will surely help our students spring forward are a Bible and a Beca.
The purpose of Learning Heroes is to inspire, equip, and inform parents as “Learning Heroes” to best support their children’s educational and developmental success. They connect you to useful information and simple actions you can take to help your child thrive in school and life. Parents can use Spring Forward for free tips, tools, and resources to support learning at home, understand your child’s grades, state test results, and school’s report card, help ease your child’s test nerves, and see in what areas your child may need more support.
Each of these components are important pieces to understanding the bigger picture of your child’s progress in the classroom and will empower parents to contribute more in their child’s education.
May the church take the lead in investing in our children’s education and setting them up for a prosperous future.
Thank you pastores y padres, thank you university leaders, for all you do in the ministry of advancing Hispanic student achievement.
Forward and higher in Christ,
Rev. Girien R. Salazar
Executive Director, FE Coalition
