Project Village families aim for bright future

By Maria Draper
Special to the Coastal Point

	Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT The Lopez family, from left, Fermin, Isabella and Wendy, are working together to get Wendy the best education possible.

One by one, they each discussed the tender beginnings (learning the alphabet, colors and numbers, among others) of their child’s educational journey.

And after they met with Reinke, they sat down with the Coastal Point.

In sharp contrast to their children’s schooling, the parents shared the difficult adult experiences that have reinforced how much the VILLAGE program — a comprehensive pre-kindergarten education program for economically disadvantaged children in the Selbyville, Frankford, Millsboro and Georgetown areas — is helping their children and families in the long run.

The Jacobs family

Jermicka Jacobs and his wife, Sydatris, have spent every summer buying grade-level workbooks from Wal-Mart and steadfastly preparing their children, Desmonee, 7, and Jermicka Jacobs Jr., 4, for the upcoming school year.

“I didn’t want my kids to struggle like us,” he explained, referring to his own 11th-grade education and how it has limited his job prospects.

Jermicka said he dropped out of high school after getting involved with the wrong crowd. As a result, his first job was an entry-level position at Allen Family Foods.

His wife learned the same difficult lesson.

Sydatris said she left high school after 10th grade, to support her first child and family. Her first job was at a local McDonald’s.

She has since gotten her nursing-assistant certification and now works for the CHEER center. Her husband now works for Thoroughgood’s Concrete, and they are both pursuing their GEDs.

They both described the VILLAGE program as producing amazing results that have laid an early foundation with their children for an educational career that will surpass their own.

“We definitely saw a difference because of the program,” he added.

His now 7-year-old daughter, Desmonee, knew the letters A through E and the numbers 1 through 5, among other basic skills, before entering the pre-K program, he said. But, by graduation, she’d learned to speak Spanish and could read at the level of a typical 4-year-old.

“Now, as a second-grader, she is reading at the fourth-grade level,” his wife added.

Their 4-year-old son, Jermicka Jr., who has only been in the program a few weeks, also surprised his parents recently by reciting the entire alphabet and by having already learned how to write his name.

At the end of the day, the elder Jermicka said he was grateful for one thing: “I’m proud that we got our lives straightened out before the kids got too old. I want my kids to go to college.”

He said that with a look of hope that a self-described flawed father could only feel after taking steps to ensure that, for his kids, history does not repeat itself.

The Lopez family

The next family’s economic struggle was borne not out of decisions, but out of circumstance.

Attending their parent-teacher conference, Fermin and Isabella Lopez of Frankford were a neatly-dressed, soft-spoken couple with one child, named Wendy.

However, until this year, Wendy’s mother said she had never herself stepped foot inside a classroom.

“My parents were poor and couldn’t afford to send me to school,” she said, in her native Spanish.

Instead, at 8 years old, Isabella went to work in Guatemalan coffee and cotton plantations. Child labor was a difficult, but common necessity for poor families there, she explained.

Her husband, Fermin, also from Guatemala, had to leave school in the fourth grade because his parents could no longer afford the uniforms, books and school supplies. He, too, at age 12, went to work in the plantations.

They both said they came to the United States so their children could escape that fate.

Today, Fermin has transported that early work ethic into employment at Mountaire for the past three years. He said the additional barrier of language has not prevented him from supporting his family.

“Wendy will be the first in our family to speak English,” Fermin said, proudly, in Spanish, referring to the program’s extensive bilingual visual cues and instruction.

Wendy can already recite some letters of the English alphabet, count to 10 in English and recognize her written name, her mother also pointed out.

“W is her favorite letter, because it’s part of her name,” she added, smiling.

In an unexpected and poignant moment, the mother whispered something to her shy daughter, and within moments Wendy searched her 4-year-old memory and began translating her mother’s random words — into perfect English.

She ended with the word “sun” and smiled.

The Serba family

A third family, Daniel and Courtney Serba of Dagsboro, came up with a plan after they were both laid off unexpectedly and they stuck to it.

With only unemployment checks in their pockets, Daniel said he and his then-fiancée left Pennsylvania and moved into their parents’ trailer in Delaware.

“We had lots of mac-and-cheese and hotdogs,“ Daniel said, referring to the lean times they endured until they both found work and eventually scrounged up enough savings to purchase the first of several investment properties.

Daniel said he also put his wife through college, so she could get her degree as a registered nurse. Afterward, he put himself through college while working full-time at Vlasic Foods in Millsboro.

The process took years — but it paid off. Their income improved and they gained more educational resources for their children.

They used computerized educational Disney games, lots of books and, like the Jacobs, grade-level workbooks, to prepare their children (Alicia, 8, and Daniel Jr., 4) for school.

“We did the same things with Daniel that we did with Alicia. But for some reason he wasn’t picking anything up,” said the elder Daniel.

“There also weren’t any kids his age in the neighborhood, so he spent many days kinda lonely and bored,” his wife, Courtney, added. “He would cry sometimes when his sister left to play with her friends.”

They both said the program dramatically changed all that.

“We’re just amazed at the difference,” the elder Daniel said. They both described their son as going from temper tantrums and disobeying, to learning self-control and adherence to rules.

“Now, he thinks before reacting,” his father added, “saying things like ‘now that wasn’t a wise decision.’”

They were also impressed with the pre-K program’s curriculum.

“His sister’s pre-K experience was mostly arts and crafts kinds of activities,” young Daniel’s mother explained, “so we were surprised to hear Daniel recite the entire alphabet the other day, in addition to learning his numbers and colors.”

The VILLAGE program’s ability to break through to their son means he will have an easier time following his parents’ example.

But the fact that the family’s plan is coming to fruition after years of sacrifice and dedication also resonated with a message to the other two families and all at-risk families still struggling in their pursuit of the American dream:

Never give up.