It’s National Mentoring Month, and in Louisville, Adelante Hispanic Achievers has worked to support Hispanic and Latino families for more than 20 years. Their focus is on one of the fastest-growing student populations in Jefferson County.
The organization partners with students and parents to support academic growth, career readiness and long-term success.
LPM’s Ayisha Jaffer spoke with Adelante Hispanic Achievers Executive Director Juliana Rodriguez about the organization’s mission and how mentoring is shaping outcomes for students in our community.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Ayisha Jaffer: What is Adelante Hispanic Achievers?
Juliana Rodriguez: Adelante is a local nonprofit that has been serving Hispanic and Latino students. The main focus and mission is to support the students on figuring out what they want to do after high school. We start in middle school and continue through graduation. And through all of our educational programs, we give academic support, but also family engagement support, and a network of all forms of resources and services.
AJ: How did this organization get started here in Louisville?
JR: The [former] chair of the board of JCPS, Stephen Imhoff started seeing a growth of Hispanic students, and was noticing that there was really not that much support for them. So he gathered Latino and Hispanic professionals, and just started putting this Saturday program on, and [has since grown] to now be yearlong programming. We meet every Saturday. We do programming especially online programming through the week, but it came from just the necessity of having a program that was fully supporting this population.
AJ: Can you walk us through some of those core programs that you provide?
JR: Our main program, it's called Saber. Saber means “to know” or “to learn” in Spanish. This program has five pillars that are essential for every workshop and field trip we do. These are social-emotional development, career awareness, college readiness, mental health and community service.
This program is more about experiential learning activities. They're mostly based on workshops that happen every Saturday, where we bring different partners and facilitators. And on that specific Saturday, we work on either one pillar or just a subject. What is amazing about this program is that our students can sit in a room with a college professor, or they can go into a place that normally would not be open to the public and learn firsthand from professionals that do this every day.
AJ: What does mentoring look like in practice at your organization?
JR: When we talk about mentors, we pair seniors with college access mentors to just be that support right there, focusing them and keeping them on track of what's needed. Of course, I think the college process starts way earlier than just senior year. So we start with this college readiness program in ninth grade, but the mentors are just the more one-on-one check in.
They're so important in this process, and when you survey [students] at the end of their senior year, the thing that stays with them most — it's the mentor support they have. And they just build relationships, too,
AJ: For anyone who's listening who wants to support this work, how can they get involved?
JR: Go to our website, adelanteky.org. There you will see opportunities to volunteer. You can reach out to contact@adelanteky.org if you have any ideas for partnerships with us. Please stay connected.
