"Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick, But a Longing Fulfilled is a Tree of Life." ~ Proverbs 13:12

Two very important things happened at Pomona Hope this week.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” –Proverbs 22:6

We've had so many volunteers lately that we've been able to have almost a 1:1 ratio of student to volunteers almost every day!  I LOVE it!  And I'm so grateful for all our dedicated volunteers who love our kids too!

Last Tuesday, we had a similar ratio, until the optional homework hour at the end of the day.  Our normal volunteers all had to go somewhere else that night (TOTALLY understandable!  This is not their job!), so for the first few minutes, I was alone with 5 or 6 students, who all needed help on different homework assignments at different levels.  (Don't worry, Jeff joined me later, but at that time he was making sure the kids were getting home safely.)

One of our 3rd graders, Dalia*, stayed for extra help on her math homework.  Unfortunately, it was in Spanish, and I'm terrible at Spanish.  She understands Spanish (as it is the primary language in her household), but she can't read it.  I can read it, without understanding it, but the kids laugh at me.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm butchering the language or because it just sounds weird coming out of me.  :-P  In addition to this language barrier, Dalia also has learning disabilities.  She has improved A LOT over the course of the year, but she's still very slow to understand many concepts, and may completely forget them shortly after learning them.  So it's a slow process, but she's also very patient.  I've never seen her give up.

So here's the scene: Me, alone in a room with 6 students who all desperately need help with their homework, reading out loud, in Spanish, math problems that I could do/teach in a heartbeat if they were written in English, but only understanding about 30% of what's actually written on the page.  All of the students are listening to me reading it and then arguing with each other over the proper translation to English.

And then this happened:

Isabel*, a 6th grade student with some very similar learning issues to Dalia (slow to understand, not confident in her ability to do the work alone even after she has shown she can do the problem without help, very patient, never complains), stepped in and took over helping her with her math!  She was explaining the problem to her and teaching her what she needed to do to find the answer!  It was so cute (and I was relatively useless at this moment) that I had to take a picture.

This is what we're doing it for, right?  Not just to help them with their homework, but to help them grow into human beings that want to help.  The important things that happened this week showed me that we're doing a good job.

Jelitza wins Miss Pomona

Miss Pomona Scholarship Pageant Honors 2013 Winner!

Jelitza Herrera, Pomona High School senior, is crowned the 2013 Miss Pomona Scholarship Pageant Queen. (Micah Escamilla/Correspondent)

Ladies and gentlemen, this year's Miss Pomona is one of our star students!  Jelitza (whom I've mentioned in the blog before, but changed her name) has been coming to Pomona Hope since 2006.  She was one of the first students I befriended when I started volunteering that same year.  And she was definitely a handful.  But she has since grown into a beautiful, committed, concerned young woman who is very involved in school, band, Bright Prospects, AVID, and of course, Pomona Hope. 

She was a Pomona Princess last year, and this year decided to run again, for the chance at more scholarship money.  Going into the pageant on Sunday night, she was already guaranteed a position as Princess again, but she is going to make a wonderful queen.

Her speech answered what she would do as the new Miss Pomona this year, and she brought in her experiences with many of the places she volunteers and leads to explain what her next steps would be.  She was amazing and she won!  And I couldn't be more excited for her!  She is a great example of Pomona Hope's work and a wonderful representative of the city of Pomona.

And then we went out for boba!

Showing off her dress.

Now I'm just showing off.

*Names were changed.