PARENT OF GIOVANA ESPEJO
COLLEGE SCHOLARS PROGRAM ’05 | UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA – CHAPEL HILL ’13

Prior to SEEDS, my daughter Giovana was a third-grade student enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Program at School #1 in Passaic, NJ. From the beginning, she was a very responsible and curious child.

When she was in the seventh grade, she came home with a small card about SEEDS. We immediately called the office and made the necessary appointments to get Giovana enrolled. It was at that point that I was introduced to the most amazing woman, Jamie McClintock, who guided me and encouraged me to join the SEEDS Parents Committee. I was so excited about the program that I decided to help spread awareness about the program by promoting it to the public schools in Passaic since I was a parent liaison at School #1 at the time.

Applying to SEEDS was such an important decision for us because of the access it provided to private schools. As a single parent without much money, it would have been impossible for Giovana to have attended a private school without SEEDS.

As a parent, I wanted my daughter to be able to achieve and have more than I did. Her participation in the SEEDS program coupled with her perseverance, and the commitment of myself and her siblings, she went on to more wonderful things than I could have imagined.

Giovana’s life changed tremendously because of SEEDS. She was given the access and opportunity to attend The Taft School, a boarding school in Connecticut, where she graduated in 2009. While at Taft, she gave back to not only her community but those overseas by participating in a community service trip in the Dominican Republic where she spent time working in an orphanage.

After graduating from The Taft School, Giovana attended the University of North Carolina, graduating in 2013. She is now completing her master’s degree and will be graduating from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy this May. So much of what she has achieved was made possible by the access and opportunity she was given by SEEDS.

It’s important for me to share with other parents that SEEDS works! It works if you are completely committed to the process and do your job of supporting your child while giving back to the program, whether it is financially or with time. My only regret is not knowing of SEEDS sooner so that my two older children could have had the same opportunity as Giovana (but thank God they are both doing very well).

Today, SEEDS is still a part of our lives. I have been a member of the SEEDS Parent Committee since 2004, and work to promote the program however way I can. I speak to parents, present the program in schools and churches, and serve as a translator for Spanish-speaking families. It’s the least I can do for everything that SEEDS has done for our family.