Take Stock in Children
As Osceola County families gear up for the upcoming school year, a powerful local initiative is looking for community heroes to step up.
Take Stock in Children is a statewide nonprofit.
“We’ve been working for 30 years to disrupt the cycles of poverty in the state of Florida by working with students who come from low-income backgrounds and providing them with mentoring and college readiness,” said Take Stock in Children CEO Bethany Lacey. “These are often first-generation students who maybe no one in their family has ever gone to college before. These are students who are coming from low-income households, so maybe would not have ever dreamed of going to college, and we are trying to help those dreams become a reality.”
UCF junior biomedical science major and Take Stock ambassador Berline Civil said she immigrated from Haiti to the U.S. when she was four to live a new life.
“College was always something on my mind, but I came from a low-income family, so I didn’t have anyone in my immediate family who went to college,” said Civil. “So that process was daunting because I didn’t really have someone who I could ask, ‘Hey, how do I apply to college? What is FAFSA? How do I get a good SAT score?’ All these kinds of things.”
Civil said she didn’t have a roadmap to pursue those goals.
“Take Stock really helped me in setting up those goals and steps that I could achieve to get me where I am now,” said Civil. Lacey said that when a student like Berline gets matched with a mentor, they receive a lot of support and resources throughout middle and high school to prepare them for college admission, to stay in college, and to persist.
Civil said that when she was accepted into the program in ninth grade and met with her mentor, Miss Gigi, she felt very welcome. She continues to talk with her to this day.
“She was always such an advocate on my behalf and believed in me when I didn’t quite believe in myself,” said Civil. “She would send over a lot of resources my way, whether I was getting ready to apply for my SAT, how to prepare for that, how to apply to FAFSA (the federal financial aid program) and scholarships.”
Civil said one thing that changed the trajectory of her life was when she was told about the Inspire Scholarship Program, a partnership between Take Stock and the Burnett Honors College at UCF, which covers four years of tuition and boarding with a $5,000 stipend available for experiential learning, such as studying abroad or using it for application fees when applying for medical school.
“It was just everything I wanted and more,” said Civil. “Last summer, I got the opportunity to study abroad for free in Barcelona because of the Inspired Scholar stipend and was awarded the Gilman Scholarship, which is a national scholarship here in the U.S.
“I never thought I’d be able to study abroad because growing up, I was always stuck in my zip code,” said Civil. “So, going international was mind-blowing.”
Civil said one of the things Miss Gigi really helped her with was budgeting.
“Before I came to college, she would sit down with me and organize these little budget sheets,” said Civil. “And at the time I didn’t understand the importance of it because I was like, ‘I don’t have my refund yet, but okay, I guess we start sectioning out what I’m allowed for each month.’” Civil said both of her mentors, Miss Gigi and Miss Castelli, have helped her not only academically, but also to be a well-rounded person.
“A caring adult in a child’s life makes all the difference,” said Lacey, who noted 99% of students participating in the program graduate from high school, 91% go on to enroll in college and 73% get a degree.
“To put that into perspective, that is 2.5 times higher than the average of their same peers that also grew up in low-income homes but did not participate in the Take Stock program,” she said. “I’m really trying to break that cycle for the students, their families, and generationally break some cycles.”
To help continue to do that, the organization launched a license plate campaign called Mentoring Changes Lives, in order to create long-term financial support to keep supporting its students—and the mission.
“That is one of the ways we’re trying to cope with some of the challenges we have, which is that when you’re in the nonprofit space, you’re always having to depend on the gracious and incredibly supportive donors that we are so grateful to have,” said Lacey.
Sign up for the license plate at: https://www.
Lacey said the alumni who graduated came back to become mentors and donate to the mission.
“They keep coming back to support the mission because they feel like they benefited so much from it and want to give it back, which is really exciting for us,” said Lacey.
And, part of that mission is to recruit more mentors over the summer because more students join in August when school starts. If you are interested in becoming a Take Stock Mentor, go to https://www.takestockinchildren.org/mparms/.
“Anyone can be a mentor,” Lacey said. “It’s a one hour a week commitment, and we ask our mentors to meet with their students at least twice a month, either in the office or virtual.”
Civil said she feels very grateful to be someone who has walked through the Take Stock in Children to Take Stock in College.
“Take Stock helped me to dream beyond my wildest dreams,” said Civil. “It has helped to unlock my love and passion that I think would not have been able to explore if I didn’t have that support or was financially, emotionally, and academically having a team rooting for me, even on days where I don’t believe in myself.”
