The Gold Medal-A Diploma

By Nicole Waite

President of Haiti Scholars

You might remember from last year this image of Sophia Lodge, a sophomore at Naperville North High School who ran a sports drive for our school, Centre D’Etudes Lumiere. We packed barrels and barrels, stuffed to the brim with sports equipment, water bottles, and gym shoes. Then we had the waiting game for the 17 barrels to arrive safely to the school. Oh yeah, put in the fact that these barrels are in transit when the president of Haiti is assassinated, there is an epidemic of gang violence and kidnappings, inflation is at its highest, a devastating earthquake hits the country, and Covid 19 is rampant (with no vaccinations). So when we recently received pictures of our students playing baseball on a dusty cement playground, one couldn’t help but smile. 

This morning, I listened to stories of Olympians who fight the inordinate challenges to reach their dreams of participating in the greatest games of all time, the Olympics. In my opinion, there is a parallel to these determined Olympians to the children in Haiti who forge ahead enduring a life of poverty, political unrest, and lack the basic needs of medicine, food, and school supplies to succeed in school. 

Haiti Scholars' mission is to provide support and help to students in Mariani, Haiti, in hopes for a better life. We still haven't participated in our Olympics yet, for our oldest students are now in the 10th grade. In Haiti, students graduate high school in the 13th grade. Our dream is that we will have a few Olympians of our own in a few years. They might not be playing on a baseball team or sledding down a mountain, but we have high hopes they will have earned a diploma. Who knows what doors will open when they have won their most crucial game, a high school degree. We can only wait and see. But dreams can become a reality as we repeatedly see with talented Olympians. So in four years, our vision is to see students taking their victory lap of a high school degree. What a day that will be!!! Maybe at that time it will be safe for us to be there to witness them receiving their gold medal, a diploma.

• The enrollment rate for primary school in Haiti is 57%, and fewer than 30% of the students reach 6th grade.

• Secondary schools enroll 20% of eligible-age children.

• Haiti’s literacy rate is 52.9%.

• Haiti ranks 177th out of 186 in the world for national spending on education.