Not even Homelessness Deterred 9 yr old's Devotion to her School

March 16, 2007

Massachusetts, USA
Boston Globe

Brenda Tejeda Baez has endured a lot of chaos in her short life. By the time she was in third grade, she had lived in five different friends' apartments and two homeless shelters. Her mother is unemployed, and she rarely sees her father, who lives in the Dominican Republic. When she started kindergarten, she knew only Spanish. Yet, the 9-year-old girl, now a third grader, has refused to budge on the one constant in her life: attending the Louis Agassiz Elementary School in Jamaica Plain.Even when her family had to live for three months in a homeless shelter in Worcester, Brenda, her mother, and her little brother traveled more than an hour each way on public transportation from Worcester to Jamaica Plain to get to the Agassiz.

"In her mind, she started at this school, and in her mind, she needed to finish here," said her 27-year-old mother, Dolores Baez .

In her four years at the school, Brenda's determination has earned her top grades, second place in her school spelling bee and, yesterday, the first-ever Boston public schools "Absolutely Incredible Kid" prize.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and school officials surprised the third-grader with the award, which honors students with unusual personal success stories. Nearly 100 students were nominated by Boston teachers, parents, and community leaders for the award, which was part of a national event sponsored by Camp Fire USA.

"She deserves so much for what she faces every day," her third-grade teacher, Barbara Feeney , wrote in her award nomination for Brenda.

Brenda, wearing a bright pink shirt and blue jeans, was characteristically composed as she accepted the honor in a school assembly, posed for pictures with the mayor, and received a gift bag of prizes, including a $200 gift card . Her mother greeted her daughter as she stepped onto the stage. As others made speeches about her, Brenda sat between the mayor and the School Committee chairwoman, crossed her ankles, and swung her legs back and forth.

"I'm really proud of the fact that despite the obstacles she's had to overcome, she's here. She's here every day and, from what I hear, a good student," said Michael G. Contompasis , superintendent of schools.

Speaking directly to Brenda, Contompasis said, "We're expecting big things out of you."

Brenda's mother, Dolores Baez , came to the Boston area in 2001 to join her daughter's father and brought then 4-year-old Brenda from the Dominican Republic to join them a year later. Baez and Brenda's father separated 3 1/2 years ago, and he returned to the Dominican Republic. Baez began shuffling her children from one friend's apartment to another.

When she first started school, Brenda struggled with English. But as her language skills progressed, she grew to love school.

"School is about learning, and learning is a special way to know what you're supposed to do," Brenda said yesterday. "And this is why I like school: You know lots of lessons and different things. You get to see . . . your friends. You go to special places, like school trips."

She would refuse to stay home when she was sick -- even one day when she had a dreadful cough.

"I said, 'Lie down, and stay in bed,' " her mother said, speaking as the school's principal, Alfredo Nuñez, translated. "She said, 'No, I'm going to school, and if I feel sick, that's why we have a nurse at school.' "

In January 2006, after roughly five years in five friends' apartments, the family was left homeless when the friend they were staying with gave up her apartment. Baez decided it was time to stop living with friends.

"I said, 'I can't keep doing this to my children,' " she said.

Baez applied for a room in a Boston shelter, but was assigned to one in Worcester. They could not refuse; they had nowhere else to go. Brenda insisted she would move to Worcester only if she could come back to the Agassiz each day.

"She would do everything I told her," her mother said. "That was the one thing she would not accept."

So every weekday morning for three months, the family woke at 5 a.m. in the single bedroom they shared, took a taxi to the train station, caught the 6 a.m. train to the Back Bay station, then took the subway and a bus to school, a trip lasting more than an hour. After Brenda got to school, Baez took her son to day care, then went to her English classes.

On the train home, Brenda would do her homework, always without being asked, her mother said. They arrived back at the shelter each night at 7 p.m.

When her mother complained that she was tired, that it would be much easier if she went to school in Worcester, Brenda balked.

"I guess it's because I have so many friends here," Brenda said in an interview in the principal's office yesterday, as she sat on her mother's lap. "I couldn't stay away."

To her mother's relief, the family was placed in a shelter in Dorchester last spring. Just a few weeks after relocating, Brenda's mother rushed her to the hospital with severe stomach pains. Soon, she had an emergency appendectomy.

But it happened right near school vacation, so she missed only two days of school.

"Wednesday and Thursday," Brenda said.

As hard as the last few years have been for Brenda and her family, their perseverance seems to be paying off.

Last year, Brenda was moved into a regular classroom with native English speakers. She reads above grade level, her teacher said. And Brenda said that last year, she began dreaming in English.

She adores reading, especially Cam Jansen mysteries (chapter books, of course). She has collected so many books -- free books from the shelters, books her mother has bought her -- that her mother says she is going to have to build Brenda her own bookcase.

But math is her favorite subject, and she has already learned the multiplication tables.

Feeney, her teacher, said Brenda is an all-around strong student and always ready to help others.

"If there's a student in the class who doesn't understand something, she's the first to volunteer to help," Feeney said.

Last December, a week before Christmas, Brenda and her family moved out of the shelter and into a publicly subsidized apartment -- right across the street from the Agassiz.

She is adamant about how she gets to school now: by herself.

"She's the best thing that's happened in my life," her mother said. "I ask God that she doesn't change."