Visibly nervous, a young woman slowly approaches a podium. Linda Chavez starts to speak, her voice trembling with a combination of anxiety and elation, as she explains her life story to a crowd including former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Bill Bennett and more than 600 of Denver's elite businessmen and women.
An abusive father. A broken home. Two younger siblings to whom she is the primary caretaker. Chavez pauses, overwhelmed by emotion, as she recounts having to take on a tiring after-school job just to make ends meet for her family. She wipes away a single tear, apologizes softly, and continues, her voice gaining strength and confidence as she begins to talk about her education and her future.
"I had no control in my life, but I had control over school and my grades," Chavez explains. "No one in my family has graduated from high school, but I want to live a different life."
Thanks to the Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), which funded half of her private education at La Academia, Chavez
will live a different life. This Fall, she will enroll in the Colorado School of Mines to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering-a future, she notes, that would not have been possible without ACE.
The Colorado-based non-profit recently held its annual spring luncheon to promote school choice amongst local business, political and community leaders. The highlight of the luncheon was the keynote remarks provided by Dr. Bennett, who identified with Linda Chavez's story as he, too, grew up in a poor, five-time broken family in Brooklyn. In hindsight, Dr. Bennett cites three contributing factors to his success-hard work, the opportunity of America, and most importantly, the generosity of others in the form of financial aid and scholarships. This sentiment directly reflects the very philosophy at the core of the ACE mission, and he encouraged the private sector to pledge continued support to ACE and other organizations that promote and expand choice in education.
Dr. Bennett's remarks elicited growing interest and support from an influential audience which included the likes of former Gov. Bill Owens; Dan Ritchie, businessman and former Chancellor of the University of Denver; Ron Tilton, President of FirstBank;
Kristin Richardson, board of director's chairperson of the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Foundation; and Ed McVaney, ACE's chairman of the board of trustees and retired president and founder of J.D. Edwards.
"The business community has a substantial and influential role to play in preparing future generations of children to be ready to succeed in the global economy," said Dan R
itchie.
"As a Colorado business person, the education of our future workforce is a paramount issue for me and all of those at the ACE luncheon," added Ed McVaney. "Expansion of school choice and programs like ACE set an example of success and provide meaningful solutions toward school reform."
Success stories like that of Linda Chavez and the other 1,800 students ACE has helped over the last 8 years suggest that, not only is educational choice possible, but expanded school choice has the potential to yield benefits for both individual students and the Denver community as a whole.
http://www.acescholarships.org/