Developing La Escuela, sus Hijos y Usted: Empowering Latino Parents to Support Student Success at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School

Help OSI Fellow Dinorah Olmos establish communications with the parents of some students at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School to participate in her fellowship project.

Through a series of educational workshops and parent engagement, Dinorah Olmos will establish La Escuela, sus Hijos y Usted: Empowering Latino Parents to Support Student Success as an initiative designed to educate, empower, and inspire Spanish speaking Latino parents to effectively engage in the parent-school community at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School. 

• Olmos will offer five (5) sessions of the six-week workshops (all conducted in Spanish) for parents at the school.

• Each workshop will have ten (10) parent participants and they will be required to sign a contract committing to attending all six classes in the series.

• Dinorah’s goal is to reduce any socio-cultural barriers that exist and to:
• Build trust within parent-principal relationships;
• Increase parents’ knowledge; and
• Empower parents to be agents of change in their own lives, their children’s lives, and the larger school community. 

She hopes that in the long term, this reduces the dropout rates among Latino students, increases their graduation rates, and fosters greater post-secondary school success.

“I want to help new immigrant parents, so they are better prepared to help their children succeed,” says Olmos. “This has been a lifetime project.”