Literacy Heroes

Loretta Perna is passionate about helping Hispanic students in our community. For the past eight years, as a student-support specialist for the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program, she has gone far beyond her job requirements to help them identify and achieve lofty educational goals. She stresses the importance of early attention to college preparation, admissions applications, and securing financing for post-secondary education.

Loretta helps 130-plus culturally diverse students in Kennett High School and Kennett Middle School deal with a broad range of issues that can affect educational success, such as interpersonal communication, health concerns, and family support. She has initiated the Migrant Student Support Fund, aimed at aiding those students to afford education beyond high school. She is the high-school coordinator of Las Hermanitas, a program that encourages Hispanic adolescent girls to stay in school and pursue academic objectives.

To increase the resources available to migrant students, Loretta has developed innovative partnerships with the local business community, including Exelon and the American Mushroom Institute's Community Awareness Committee. These focus on students who are at risk of dropping out of school or becoming underemployed.

The results of Loretta's efforts have been stunning. Over the last five years, both the number and the percentage of Kennett High School migrant or former migrant students admitted to college have more than quadrupled. A particularly sweet success story: Last year, three of the Migrant Education Program's alumni earned degrees from Penn State University and returned to work in the community. One has even followed in her footsteps and has become a student-support specialist in the program.

Her dedication to assisting current and former migrant students both value academic excellence and have the resources to attain that excellence has earned her the title of 2008 Educational Hero.