Guadalupe School has been busy, busy, busy this Spring season, with all sorts of fun learning activities and events. Our organization holds the firm belief that it is of immense value to the individuals and families we serve, that they are exposed to the greater community, where they can become inspired and connected to the opportunities around them. 

Charter students have recently benefited by learning from our community partners. Last month, Junior Achievement opened the doors of JA City to Guadalupe School, where 5th graders participated in the highly acclaimed Biz Town Program. Biz Town, "combines in-class learning with a day-long visit to this fully-interactive simulated learning facility." Guadalupe students were able to become employees and managers of various real-life Salt Lake City businesses for a day. One lucky girl even got to act as the Biz Town mayor, and give a speech! Students loved this hands-on experience, and learned a lot about how a community works, and what types of professions they can aspire to fulfill. 

Guadalupe families and staff feel so grateful for the community partnerships that allow our students amazing opportunities of learning and growth. Through our programs and the collaborations of trusted supporters, we are truly transforming lives through education! ​

This month, Guadalupe School had the honor of welcoming Lt. Governor Spencer J. Cox and representatives of the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah Education Policy Center to tour our campus, hear from parents of Charter School students, and see our After School program in full swing. 

Trisha Perry, Guadalupe School's After School Director, and her assistant Jamie Jensen, have worked tirelessly to create an experience that provides quality learning opportunities in many forms to After School students. Their willingness and effectiveness in collaborating with community volunteers and partners has allowed for things like science experimentation labs, music lessons, arts and crafts, and literacy camps to be included in After School education. Due to Trisha's hard work and enormous talent, Lt. Governor Cox was not disappointed with what he observed at Guadalupe School. 

To begin the occasion, Executive Director of Guadalupe School, Richard Pater, welcomed the Lt. Governor and crowd by talking about how appreciative our organization is for the state funding that has allowed us to provide a high quality after school program to about half of our Charter students. He explained that especially for the population served at Guadalupe School, this is a huge benefit. Many Guadalupe School parents do not speak fluent English, and are unable to assist their children in the ways they would like to on homework that is in English. Additionally, many of them work long hours, sometimes at multiple jobs just to make ends meet for the family, and unfortunately do not have the luxury of being home with children after school in order to help. 

The After School program provides Guadalupe students with an hour of homework assistance, followed up by an hour of extracurricular activities. Lt. Governor Cox was able to see a few of those activities, including a choir class, a violin class, and a tennis class. Guadalupe School is proud to be supported by community partners who have offered such services in order to better serve and stimulate Guadalupe School students. 

Lt. Governor Cox and the other representatives who visited were very impressed with the good work Guadalupe School is doing. They especially enjoyed hearing from several parents who shared how fortunate they felt to have their children enrolled in various programs of Guadalupe, and even for some of them to be enrolled in the Adult Education program simultaneously. 

Guadalupe School thanks Lt. Governor Cox and all of the other visitors for stopping in to see Guadalupe School programs in action, and to better understand our mission and services. ​

The night of our THRIVE Benefit Dinner was a grand fundraising success for Guadalupe School! Thanks to the support of nearly 200 community members, our organization was able to raise a large sum of funds that will go directly into the continued operation of Guadalupe's five academic programs. 

The night featured fun silent and live auction items, jazz music by the extremely talented Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin Trio, and the very entertaining and warm emcee skills of KUTV 2News' Sterling Poulson. 

Guadalupe School is so appreciative of the major support of the sponsors who were present that night, including the title sponsor, UBS Bank USA. Corporate sponsor groups and individual ticket purchasers alike supported our cause through their attendance, opportunity drawing purchases, and auction item purchases. It was incredibly fun for us to enjoy a night of celebration and entertainment, while providing an opportunity for friends of Guadalupe to change lives through their donations.

​We at Guadalupe would like to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all those who supported us the night of our THRIVE Benefit Dinner, to those who have supported in the past in any way, and to those who continue to support through donations of time, talent, and money. Without you, we would not be able to proudly declare that we are transforming lives through education. ​