Dickinson High School junior Mary Maisonet knows firsthand the transformative power of self-esteem.
When she was an eighth-grader at School 25 three years ago, Maisonet says, she was miserable and unmotivated, a social pariah with poor grades and little hope for future success. Suffering from dyslexia, slow motor skills in her hands and cerebral palsy in her calves and ankles, Maisonet never felt connected to her school environment or her peers.
She was essentially on the path to failure, until an innovative school program called “Fifteen Together” partnered her directly with mentors who showed her that success was possible.
Now an exceptional student with a long résumé of extra-curricular achievements, Maisonet was honored Tuesday as a 2003 Overcoming Obstacles Achievement Award winner by the Community for Education Foundation, the non-profit organization that developed the curriculum responsible for her turnaround.
Before her Tuesday trip to Manhattan, however, County Executive Tom DeGise gave her a proclamation for her accomplishments.
In DeGise’s office Monday, Maisonet chatted with DeGise about her experiences with the program, which DeGise described as serving an indispensable function for the city’s special needs students.
“Sometimes kids need a little special attention,” DeGise said. “It gets the kids at an early stage and they form friendships and bonds.”
The bonds Maisonet formed with her peer mentors can easily be considered her saving grace, and now Maisonet is returning the favor by passing on what she learned to a new crop of at-risk freshmen and sophomores.
“I see a lot of them improving,” Maisonet said Wednesday. “All we need is time, cooperation and patience. Nothing can happen overnight without them trying. It took a while to get through to them, but once I gave them examples of my own experience, they started getting better.”
Awkward beginnings
The way “Fifteen Together” works in Jersey City is that grammar school teachers identify students they think are at-risk for not completing high school. After referring them to “Fifteen Together” administrators, those students are put in touch with a teacher/counselor and two peer mentors who then work with them on subjects like goal-setting, conflict resolution, financial management and communications.
Novel approaches to standard curricula are also employed, and “Fifteen Together” students are treated to field trips and icebreaker events that make learning more enjoyable, Maisonet said.
“It’s changed my life dramatically,” she said. “It makes education seem more fun because it’s not all written work. It makes it interesting as well as educational.”
Maisonet’s attitude toward schoolwork, however, wasn’t always that positive. In fact, her strained relationship with school started as early as first grade. Because her early grammar school teachers didn’t perceive the fact that she was dyslexic, Maisonet said, she was held back and consistently denied the special instruction she required.
“My teachers in elementary school didn’t pay as much attention to me as I needed,” Maisonet said. “Everybody is supposed to love the first grade, but I hated it. It’s weird that I didn’t like it, but it was because of [the lack of special attention] that it was so hard for me.”
Maisonet proceeded along the same route, sinking deeper and deeper, until the eighth grade, when she was recommended to the “Fifteen Together” program. After being put in touch with her mentors, she experienced a sea change.
Path to success
“In grammar school, I didn’t fit into my own environment,” Maisonet said. “I didn’t want to go to high school because I thought ‘Why would I want to go to an even bigger environment and still not fit in?’ I didn’t dress like the other girls, [and] I didn’t go out with boys like the other girls. I didn’t flaunt that stuff. I wasn’t up to their lifestyle. But then I realized that there were students around my age who did care about me.”
Maisonet’s first peer mentors were Fynthea Whipple and Jasmine Jiminez, two “Fifteen Together” graduates who have since gone on to college.
Maisonet soon became involved with the Family Career and Community Leaders of America, a program at Dickinson focusing on family and community services. Maisonet is now the president of the student organization, which also donates food and money to local battered women’s shelters.
Her love of cooking has also led her to become involved in a culinary arts magnet program at Dickinson, and Maisonet said she hopes to pursue a career in culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I. The world is indeed spread out before her, and Maisonet is taking advantage of her opportunities. The fact that doors are opening left and right for her is illustrated by last week’s trip to New York for the awards dinner, which she said was her first time ever in the Big Apple.
“I loved it,” she said. “I can’t wait to go back again.”