What’s Good?

Sta nd & Deliver

March 1st
Volume 2

Stand & Deliver MCAS Scores Keep Rising Inside this issue of
When Ben Franklin said, “The proof of the pudding near the level of more affluent, suburban districts. “What’s Good?”:
is in the eating” he probably didn’t have MCAS test The Math pass rate of 66% indicates we still have
Pfizer Gift 2
scores in mind, but this timely piece of advice a long way to go, but compared to the 2007 pass
Brings Science
applies. Although the mission of Stand and Deliver rate of 44%, we are headed in the right direction.
to Life
has expanded over the years, our core goal is to The 66% rate is 14% higher than the overall
help Lawrence Public School students pass the district.
Volunteer 2
MCAS Exam. As the charts below clearly show, we
All the credit for this fine performance goes to our Spotlight
are succeeding.
dedicated and talented mentors and the students
The pass rates of students in the program are who choose study over fun after school hours to Match of the 3
increasing year over year in both Math and meet this challenge. The state recently raised the Month
Language Arts and our students are consistently out graduation bar from passing to proficient and we
performing the district as a whole. In 2009, the pass are making great strides there as well. We’ll Stand & Deliver: 4
rate on the English Language Arts (ELA) exam is publish those details in the next issue of “What’s Where Are They
97%, 13 points higher than the overall district and Good?” Now?

“Thank You”
Corner:

• Thank you to all

of our wonderful
mentors in
honor of “Thank
Your Mentor”
day in January!

• Thank you to
Pfizer for the
generous
donation of
tickets to the
Museum of
Science!

• Thank you to GE
for your
dedication
A special recognition to the Stand & Deliver students who scored Advanced and Proficient on the 10th through the past
grade MCAS tests in ELA and Math and received the John & Abigail Adams Scholarship Award: three years!
Dery Aldeano, Erick Aponte, Yencie Aquino-Polanco, Adriel Bencosme, Jairo Camilo, Alysha Carrasquillo,
Kenia Estevez, Ramon Estevez, Marmeny Infante, Nornita Lemorin, Vincent Long, Bang Luu, Joshua
Maldonado, Joanne Ngo Trinh, Samuel Paulino, Joel Perez, Kimberly Pham, Elody Ramirez, Johanna Reyes,
Alicia Rodriguez, and Ruth Tejada.

1
 Pfizer Gift Brings Science to Life for Stand and Deliver Students

Pfizer Corporation in Andover donated 200
tickets to the Boston Museum of Science to
Stand and Deliver and the result was plenty
of fun and lots of learning for students and
their mentors. Separate trips were made to
the MOS by students from The Guilmette
School and The Oliver and Frost Schools and
their mentors from New Balance and
Raytheon respectively.
Boxed lunches were provided for the trip
down to Boston and since the trips were
made in December, there was spirited
caroling on the ride home. While at the
museum, students and their mentors spread
out to experience the many exhibits,
demonstrations, and hands-on exhibits the
museum has to offer.
The dinosaur exhibit, the live animal exhibit
and the electricity demonstration were the
biggest hits. At the live animal exhibit,
students and mentors alike were thrilled to
witness the birth of a little chickadee.
Everyone was astounded to see how much
work it took for that little fuzz ball to break
out of its incubator shell. During an
electricity demonstration, Fabiola Paredes
from the Guilmette School volunteered to
participate and the crowd roared as an
electric wave sent her hair flying in all
directions. Exhibits on models of things as
small as a doll house and as huge as Mt.
Everest stirred interest and expanded
imaginations.
This is what bonding is all about and Stand
and Deliver is grateful for the opportunity.
Donations like this from area companies like
Pfizer bring science to life for Lawrence
Public School students and are a great help
to teachers and mentors as they prepare
students to succeed in the new century. Henry Lopez from The Guilmette
School waits patiently for a baby
chick to hatch.

Volunteer Spotlight: Deborah Sahrbeck

“Rewarding” is a word our volunteer Deb uses
to describe her time with Stand and Deliver.
Deborah Sahrbeck, the Navigation Lead Service
Integrator and Senior Technical Support
Engineer for GE Healthcare, has volunteered
with Stand and Deliver for the past three years
as both a dedicated coordinator and a trusted
mentor.
In today’s chaotic society it seems too stressful
to fit in a 40 hour + work week and also
volunteer. What motivates Deb to volunteer? “I
am a person who feels it’s important to give
back and share the good fortune that I have
been granted in my life. The Stand and Deliver
program allows me the opportunity to share
that wealth via experience and knowledge with
someone else, and that is such a rewarding gift
“There is no for all of us. Being a volunteer is such a small
better reward thing to give when you can help someone else
than to be able and bring success to them as well”.
to help someone
else be the best
that they can
be.”
-Deb
Deb has many great memories with Stand and
Deliver but she recalls a specific memory that
will stay with her forever: “When a student
returns the following week to show you that
he/she has scored a 100% on a project that you
helped them work on the week before, it makes
you feel so proud to know that you are helping
to make a difference. I love the partnership of
sharing and the rewards you receive from
knowing that you can make a difference in
someone’s life.” The lucky student that Deb has
mentored for the past three years is Scott
Fadden in the MST school at LHS.
Although this is the last year of GE being a
corporate campus partner, Deb’s hard work
and dedication will continue to affect our
students in a positive way as they prepare for
their bright and hopeful futures. Stand and
Deliver was certainly rewarded with a great
volunteer when Deb decided to jump on board
three years ago.

2
 Match of the Month:
Yaritza Perez - Samantha Mason - Anabella Perez

Samantha Mason, the mentor who works as a
Mechanical Engineer for Raytheon, does not
have a typical one-on-one mentoring
relationship. Instead, she has been matched
with a set of 10th grade Lawrence High School
twins, Anabella Perez and Yaritza Perez, for
the past two years. The twins seem inseparable
from the way they finish each others sentences
to the way they compliment each other’s style,
but from the interview it is clear that
Samantha has no problem fitting right in…
Q: What do you like most about having a
mentor?
Anabella: We get to learn a lot of new things
and we like to ask lots of questions.
Yaritza: It’s nice to talk to Samantha not only
“We have a about academics but about what’s going on in
great school, at track, and other things.
connection.”
Q: Samantha, what do you like most about
having mentees?
Samantha: I like to listen to them chat and
hear what’s going on in their lives. It’s been
really great; I look forward to every mentoring
session.
Q: Why/How did you join Stand & Deliver?
Anabella: I knew my sister was in it and she
said it was a lot of fun so I wanted to join too!
Yaritza: I had been in Stand & Deliver since
the 8th grade at the Oliver School and I really
enjoyed it. I wanted to keep improving my
grades so I decided to stick with it.
Samantha: I really wanted to get involved. I
met Yaritza during a mentoring session when
her mentor and my student didn’t show
up….We clicked from the beginning and she
told me that Anabella was interested in the
program so I decided to become a mentor to “I look
both of the girls and we have been matched forward to
ever since. every
mentoring
Q: How has your relationship changed
session.”
throughout the past two years?
Anabella: We have always been comfortable
with each other, we have a great connection.
Yaritza: Yes, we have a great connection and
we have become closer. We will be hanging
out more once Samantha becomes our “big”!
Samantha: That’s right. I applied to be their
“big” with the Big Friends/Little Friends
Program at Lawrence Family Services Inc. I am
going through the process right now and
hopefully will be accepted into the program
and be their official “big” soon. This will allow
us to spend more time together, which I am
looking forward to.
Anabella, Yaritza, and Samantha have a great
mentoring relationship both academically and
socially. Samantha is a great role model to
these girls and Anabella and Yaritza certainly
admire and look up to her in return.

3
 Stand and Deliver is a one-on-one mentoring program founded in 2001 by Ed Warnshuis to help students in
Stand & Deliver Lawrence pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam required for high school
255 Essex Street graduation in the State of Massachusetts. Our first mission is to help the district bring test scores in the
4th Floor Lawrence Public Schools up to the levels of the top schools in the state. Once students have crossed The MCAS
Lawrence, MA
hurdle, they are encouraged to continue in our college-bound programs for help with Advanced Placement
subjects and a variety of core subjects aimed at college preparedness and test preparation on The SAT and other
Become a fan of AP placement tests.
Stand & Deliver on Facebook!
Using a model called Corporate Campus, partner companies are matched with a Lawrence Public School.
For More Information or Comments,
Volunteers from the company are matched with Lawrence Public School students who are transported by Stand
Please Contact:
and Deliver to the partner company once a week where the mentoring takes place.
Jessica Silva
jesilva@lawrence.k12.ma.us We are funded by foundation grants and individual donations. If you are interested in becoming a corporate
partner, making a donation, referring a foundation, or learning more about Stand and Deliver please contact us.
www.mcasmentors.org

Past Stand & Deliver Students: Where Are They Now?

Alezdaliza (Ally) Gonzalez was in the
8th grade at The Oliver School in
Spring of 2001 when she first met
Anna Marie Ventura at the first Stand
and Deliver kick-off breakfast. There
were 62 8th graders and 62 adults
trying to find each other and chaos
reigned. Everyone had a name badge
with their name and the name of their
match on the badge. Ally saw her
name on Anna Marie’s badge, and
that started a friendship that still lives
on.
Ally passed the 8th grade MCAS, but
the two continued to meet and she
also passed the 10th grade MCAS on
the first try. They then shifted gears
to the SATs and college prep. Ally
went on to Merrimack College and
graduated in May, 2009 with a
double major in Business
Administration and Spanish. While
in college, she was the assistant
business manager for Esperanza
Academy and was involved in many
youth-based community activities.
The pair continued to meet while
Ally was in college, but the focus was
on fun. They visited several colleges
before Ally decided on Merrimack,
Anna Marie taught Ally how to canoe
on The Merrimack River, and they
visited the textile mill museums in
Lowell.
Today, Anna Marie takes the
commuter train to her job at Lawyers
Clearinghouse in Boston every day and
Ally is in the job market. If you’re
looking for a bright, poised, pleasant,
highly organized, college educated, bi-
lingual woman to help run your
business or organization, contact us at
978-975-5905 ext. 329, and we’ll let her
know.