PACOIMA : Tutor Program Helps Young Moms Graduate

There were plenty of times in the last two years that Araceli Mercado wanted to give in to the pressures of raising her son alone and drop her education and dreams of going to college and becoming a newscaster.

But tutors that she met weekly at the El Nido Family Center in Pacoima, would not let her give up.

“I would say ‘I can’t go on,’ but they would support me,” said Mercado, 19, beaming as her 3-year-old son, Juan, played at her feet.

A small celebration was held Wednesday at the El Nido center for Mercado and Claudia Venegas, 19, both of Pacoima, who have earned their high school diplomas and are graduating next week.

“When I found out I was pregnant, that’s when I wanted to do this,” said Venegas, who dropped out of Chatsworth High School to get married. “I wanted to do this for him.”

“I didn’t like school,” Venegas added.

But her attitude toward education has changed, especially because she wanted to offer a future for her 1-year-old son, also named Juan. She said she did not want to give him a reason to quit school when he is older.

The tutoring program for teen-age mothers is run with volunteers from the National Council of Jewish Women, who meet with the mothers each Wednesday to help them graduate through an independent study program with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The program is in need of more volunteer tutors, said Liz Herrera, regional program director with El Nido Family Centers.

This is the third year of the tutoring program, which has helped 89 teen-age mothers. Mercado and Venegas are only the second and third to get high school diplomas, said Bea Levin, one of the tutors who has been with the program since it started.

“When we first started, these kids didn’t even lift up their heads; they didn’t even talk to each other,” Levin said.

Not only has the program helped them to learn, but Levin said she has watched as the students grew in self-esteem. Levin and the other tutors also take the young women on field trips to museums and cultural opportunities.

“I think we’ve opened up their eyes a little bit,” Levin said.

Getting a high school diploma has already helped Mercado, who last week obtained a full-time job as a cashier at a Target store. She plans to eventually attend a community college and perhaps become a television newscaster.

“It’s the happiest day of my life,” Mercado said.