Immokalee tutor helps pay forward generosity

From working on a farm during the day to being a mother at night, this mom had no idea how she was going to make it. That’s when the Guadalupe Center stepped in to lend a helping hand.

Now, her son is paying the generosity forward.

As for Rosalinda Turrubiates Gonzales, a farmworker in Immokalee, she said that at times, she didn’t know how she was going to do it with three small children at the time, all by herself while trying to make ends meet.

Rosalinda said she relied on the help of her oldest daughter to play the role of “‘mom” while she filled the role of “dad.”

But there was also someone else stepping in to help.

“I think that Lupe has been a big impact in our life for my brother, for my mom, and for me as a sister,” said Lucero Loredo, Rosalinda’s daughter.

The Guadalupe Center has been helping bridge the gap between poverty and education in low-income families in Immokalee.

“I didn’t have my father to look up to; I had my mother, but she was very busy with work, and you know, Guadalupe is overall just giving me that, that guidance to keep going, keep pushing that even though my mom didn’t have a degree or anything, they still let me know that I could continue,” said Alejandro Loredo, Rosalind’s son.

Alejandro went through the program as a kid and is now paying it forward as a tutor at the Guadalupe Center.

“It shows me leadership. They show us to have that leadership and help other people know that guidance,” he said.

“The beautiful part about it is we have an early learning program, where we serve about 520 children,” said Jim Ragusa, senior director for school-age programs for Guadalupe Center, “and then we have a Tutor Corps program with about 130 high school students to 225, and they serve our elementary students in each of our five elementary schools, so we’re reaching almost 60% of all the children. They’re being tutored by our high school students.”

Paving the way for future generations…

“You can be whatever you want to be regardless of what your racial background is or what income you are, and you can be whatever you want, and they help you fall back, and you have your after school you have your employees to lean on, and you have your directors your everybody,” Lucero said.

And changing lives through education.

Alejandro said thanks to his mentorship from the program he plans to attend FGCU and study accounting.

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