When Camila Chavarria-Delgado started the fifth grade four years ago, after recently immigrating from Nicaragua with her family, she spent her first day of school silent. At 10 years old, she remembers roaming the halls aimlessly, not knowing where to go. She had to communicate using Google Translate on her laptop to type the words “Help me, I don’t speak English.”
For a lot of recently immigrated children and families, her story is a familiar one.
Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence (MFEE) Navegadores program is helping to change that story by providing recently immigrated families the resources and support they need to make assimilation easier.
Masiel Rodriquez-Vars is executive director of MFEE, a non-profit organization with a 30-year track record of supporting Montclair’s public school children. Rodriquez-Vars, who has been in the role since 2015, developed Navegadores (Navigators) program, along with the help of Rachell Arteaga, MFEE’s director of learning design and others.
MFEE, at a Board of Education meeting in 2021, shared information on a peer mentoring program known as PEEPS, formed during the pandemic to support the social and emotional wellbeing of children. At this meeting, it was brought to MFEE’s attention by an administrator, that there were neglected multilingual learners trying to navigate school online.
Through that initial program, MFEE started to connect with more families, and it became apparent that these immigrant families needed more support. This prompted MFEE to start the Navegadores Escolares program in June of 2021.
“We became aware of all the barriers students and families who recently immigrated to the United States can face,” said Rodriquez-Vars. “We realized they had other issues like food insecurity and employment issues. There were families without a car, making it difficult to drive to a back-to-school night event, things many of us with privilege take for granted.”
For some, the barriers are evident immediately when trying to complete Montclair Public School’s online registration for students. Many immigrant parents do not have the literacy skills needed or access to a computer, Rodriquez-Vars said, remembering meeting one father who first tried to register his child for school in June.
Rodriquez-Vars learned the father had spent four months “asking for help in broken English, but he kept getting sent back with a URL to the website.”
With many parents dealing with similar issues, MFEE created Navegadores to not only help recently immigrated families navigate the Montclair Public School system but to also support students and parents to ultimately self-advocate.
Navegadores started with 15 kids and about 10 families. As of 2023, the program serves over 115 kids and close to 80 families, with help from 92 tutors. The growth of Navegadores happened quickly through word of mouth and because of the great need for assistance among immigrant families.
At first, the Navegadores program assigned recently immigrated families to a volunteer who spoke Spanish or Portuguese and could help guide the family through the public school system. Today, the program has evolved to provide a bilingual support program, with tutoring and after-school programs.
Oruguiitas, a program for elementary school children, and Entrenadores, a program for middle school and high school students, both provide after-school bilingual tutoring and social support for multilingual students in a safe space.
Chavarria-Delgado, who is now in ninth grade, has been a member of Entrenadores since it began.
“If I didn’t have Entrenadores back then, I would not have any friends,” said Chavarria-Delgado. “It’s just hard trying to make friends when you are also trying to be good in school academically. When you don’t understand, you stop thinking about ‘I have to make friends and I have to socialize,’ you are just thinking about how you are going to make it.”
As a result of her experience with Entrenadores, Chavarria-Delgado, along with her sister, has become an advocate for her community in school by starting a newcomers club to support newly immigrated students.
Navegadores has an array of volunteer tutors, retired teachers, high school students, as well as volunteers who do not speak Spanish but want to help. All are welcome.
Navegadores Escolares’ program coordinator, Anyily Agueldo, connects with families and works with them to find a volunteer to help them get the resources they need.
As a result of the pandemic, many students are entering middle school and high school with interrupted learning. They need more academic help, but many do not receive it because of their inability to communicate with their teachers.
Yovani Reyes, a mother with two students in the Montclair Public Schools, shared how Navegadores assists her family.
“When my son had a hard time in Math, Masiel [Rodriquez-Vars ] helped a lot,” Reyes said, speaking in Spanish. “She helped him understand math. The teacher didn’t understand him because she only speaks English. She didn’t know how to help him.”
Currently, there is a waiting list to be part of the after-school program, prioritizing students who have newly arrived and have very limited proficiency, as well as students whose parents do not have enough resources to support them.
MFEE also has partnerships with Montclair United Soccer, Montclair Film Festival and Montclair Art Museum, which provide scholarships to Navegadores students, further connecting them to community.
“It’s not just [about] making sure a kid is doing their homework,” said Rodriquez-Vars. “Are they happy? Are they healthy? Are they mentally healthy? Are their families supported?”
You can support MFEE with their delicious upcoming event, Sabor Montclair, on October 28. Your ticket for a takeout dinner includes a tasting platter for one and will help fund Navegadores Escolares, Entrenadores Escolares, and Oruguitas. For more information, , visit mfee.org.