SEA GIRT — Leadership responsibility of St. Mark’s student-organized mentoring program, Lograré, will soon be passed down to a fellow Manasquan High School student in order to keep the program up and running as its founder prepares to leave for college this fall.
The Lograré program, which translates to “I Will Achieve” in Spanish, was first created in 2017 by Sofia and Christian Wall, siblings who were only in middle school at the time but were looking to make a positive impact in their community through the parish they had attended their entire lives.
Sofia Wall, who is a senior at Manasquan High School and current leader of the program, says that she and her brother were inspired by the stories their mother would tell them about the struggles of moving to the United States at a young age with parents who didn’t speak English. “We wanted to help out any children going through something similar, to act as a mentor or just someone to hang out with,” Sofia said. “We wanted to be the person my mom needed when she was 8 years old.”
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Sofia says that her family deeply understands the importance of a strong support system. “This program reminds us how valuable that help can be,” she said. “Sometimes, it can be life changing.”
St. Mark’s Spanish Ministry has grown over the years to include more than 150 families, according to their website, and offers both bilingual and Spanish services for the community every week. By working with the Spanish Ministry’s coordinator for religious education, Diana Zuna-Nieves, the siblings found a way to bring their program together on select Sundays before Spanish mass.
The program offers an opportunity to children who may come from Spanish-only speaking households to better navigate school taught in a language that differs from what’s spoken at home, which Ms. Wall says will hopefully inspire some students to continue their studies and one day become the firsts in their families to graduate college.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
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