Carver's 50th Annual College Tour Begins!

Carver students say their goodbyes to their families before embarking on their adventure

This year’s Spring College Tour began yesterday. The college-bound students traveled to Philadelphia first and will remain there tonight as well.

Today, the tour begins with Temple University. The tour will include visits to Liberty Bell and the Rocky Statue and Steps!

On Tuesday the tour will move on to Delaware State University in Dover, DE https://www.desu.edu and then the tour proceeds to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD https://wwwcp.umes.edu. Then the group travels to the next hotel.

Stay tuned for further updates here!

Graduation Capstone Project Presents Unique Opportunity For Students To Showcase Interests

The State of Connecticut has updated graduation requirements for 2023 to include a Capstone requirement. Capstone is a student-designed project based on a topic of their choosing including sports, music, cooking, drama or robotics. The project is a chance for students to demonstrate important skills such as communication, collaboration and problem-solving. Once complete, students will have a portfolio which can be shared with colleges or employers to showcase skills. Click the video above to learn more.

The Ellen Show celebrates the awesomeness of Tremain and Fritzsa Gilmore!

Carver’s beloved Tremain and Fritzsa Gilmore appeared on the Ellen Show yesterday with guest host Tiffany Haddish and regular cohost Stephen Laurel "tWitch" Boss.

The finale of Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk series will air on May 26. Ellen DeGeneres is pulling out all the celebrity stops for the final episodes of her daytime talk series. Who better to invite to the show than Fritzsa and Gil?! How did the Ellen Show find our Norwalk heroes?

The Carver community enthusiastically nominated them.

As shown in The Hour: For more information, to donate or to stay updated on "What's Next?", please follow @ejsheartinc on Instagram anytime and @EJs H.E.A.R.T Inc on Facebook. Tremain Gilmore and Fritzsa Gilmore

Of course, no one in the Carver community would be surprised by this. We write often here about Tremain’s many roles and accomplishments and the couple’s EJ’s H.E.A.R.T. charity.

"We do an annual walk for EJ around his birthday in July. It's called 'Walk for Elijah,'" Fritzsa said on the Ellen Show. "I'm just grateful for the community, how they come together and just help support us because we want to give back to the community and the children," Tremain (“Gil”) said.

During the show, the Gilmores shared their experience co-directing their charity named after their son who died of a sudden illness at the age of 4 in 2016. Haddish announced that The Ellen Show would be donating $15,000 to their cause, which supports children's education. This gift is made possible by TisBest Philanthropy which maintains a partnership with “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to highlight extraordinary people, organizations, and charities.

The Hour shared this:

“‘Tremain was a vital member of the Carver community when I arrived in 2004. He remains a guiding light and dear friend to me and to the ever-growing Carver community whose alumni are now lifetime achievers in every profession. Tremain’s national recognition will surely be met by everyone in Norwalk and Carver alumni everywhere with a knowing nod and smile, if not a shout for joy,’ said Novelette Peterkin, CEO of The Carver.”

A glance at the YouTube video comments adds much love to the entire experience. Here are just a few of the many shout-outs there:

Tremain and Fritzsa Gilmore and their daughter Madeline

Ashley HW writes, “I love how when the wife noticed her husband was having trouble talking about their late son, she covered him and finished talking. That’s a true partnership. ❤️

Vanessa Liles writes, “I love Tremain and Fritza! EJ's Heart is a special and wonderful organization.”

Norwalk High School students commented: Ale Mar, “Omg he is my security guard!! He is soo niceee and helpful. I’m proud of them.” Bre, “Omg he’s my security guard!!!!! He’s the sweetest.”

And others: BOLTBADBLADES, “HE’S AN ICON.” msjdolly, “MY GIRL FRITZAAAAAAAA!!!!” Christline Edward, “GIL omg congrats!!!”

We can’t say it better. Our hearts are bursting with pride and gratitude!

Thanks for Moffly Media and our other early Sponsors for supporting our upcoming Child of America Gala

Join us for our 2022 Child of America Gala on Friday, May 20th, at Shorehaven Golf Club, when we will be honoring Jerry Craft, a longtime Carver friend and advocate.

Individual in-person tickets will not be available until the end of April, as this cherished event mostly sells out early with event sponsors.

We are so grateful to Moffly Media for being our exclusive media sponsor again this year.

We also thank Dalio Philanthropies and the Richard and Barbara Whitcomb Foundation for returning this year as Presenting Sponsors.

Our virtual guests will enjoy the gala as if they are there, as was the case last year when we honored Josè Feliciano.

We are returning this year to our traditional gala, such as the year we honored Sean “Diddy” Combs (and here).

All the joyful gala elements will return this year, including inspiring fellowship, the reception, the auction, and so much more!

See our 2021 Gala sponsors here and the special videos created for each sponsor by clicking on their interactive logos.

Whether you attend the 2022 Child of America Gala in person or virtually, there will be many engaging features you won’t want to miss.

There will be many updates here while preparing for our celebration of “Decades of Impact!”

Carver scholars are lifetime achievers!

Carver student Maria Fe Luque is going to Harvard in the fall with a full scholarship!

Norwalk High School senior Maria Fe Luque (top left in the Zoom meeting with Secretary Cardona) is going to Harvard University in the fall with a full-ride scholarship! She will be a first-generation college student.

Here is a Facebook video capturing the moment Maria first looked upon her online acceptance notification from Harvard yesterday morning.

Here is the video clip of Maria’s interview yesterday on News12 in which Maria speaks about her passion for American history.

"This is our country. That's amazing that people from so long ago established a foundation for today, and what everything's based on today," she said. Luque is taking that passion to Harvard on a full scholarship this fall. She says the language barrier never stopped her parents from being her biggest cheerleaders.

"They pushed me so much, in Spanish...all the way," said Luque.

Many of our students dream of going to Ivy League schools. Even if a student is special enough to be accepted, the steep costs that come with attending elite schools can end the dream right there. A full-ride scholarship makes this dream come true.

Of course, Maria has been special since she arrived in Norwalk from Peru in the first grade. And just not in academics. Maria is also an athlete, among other sports she has been on the Bears volleyball team for all four of her high school years.

On Friday, January 28 at 10 am, US Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardona, met virtually with a panel of middle and high school students from Norwalk Public Schools, including Maria.

Recently Maria represented Norwalk High School in a panel of students speaking with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. All Norwalk Public Schools students and staff tuned into the live stream of the discussion. The education secretary spent a half-hour answering questions about his journey as a young student in Connecticut. The eight students chosen for the panel were first-generation Americans or those whose first language was not English. Maria had to learn English when she entered primary school, much like Cardona, who entered kindergarten speaking only Spanish. Norwalk Public Schools students speak 59 languages and come from 70 different countries.

As reported by The Hour, Maria especially appreciated her time with Secretary Cardona on behalf of her mother who was watching the Livestream and still learning to speak English. “She understands some English, but when he spoke in Spanish, I’m like, she definitely knows what’s going on. She definitely knows the message that’s coming through,” Fe Luque said.

Harvard admitted just 3.19% of applicants to its class of 2026, the lowest admit rate in its history. Harvard also received a record number of applications, 7% more than last year’s record number! Notorious for its low acceptance rate, Harvard admitted just 1,954 students from the 61,220 students who applied. Maria will be joining students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US overseas territories, and 98 countries.

Kimberly Gaddy, Carver's earliest intern at Norwalk Hospital

As we report on our new internship program at Norwalk Hospital, we’re proud to declare that Kimberly Gaddy, today a Carver board member who also conducts a computer literacy program for Carver parents, was our first intern at Norwalk Hospital decades ago.

A Norwalk High School graduate in the 1980s, Kimberly received priceless and timely inspiration and work experience throughout her student years in the Carver community.

Born and raised in Norwalk, Kimberly was first introduced to computer science at the Carver Community Center. Carver’s then-executive director, Richard N. Fuller, Sr., gave her the responsibility of installing and maintaining the community center’s computers.

“One day, when I was just 16 years old, Mr. Fuller stopped me mid-stride in the hallway and asked me to configure and install the operating systems on three new IBM PCs (PS2s) newly obtained through a state grant. I had no experience at that point with such things, but that was the whole point. Mr. Fuller challenged me to stand up and embrace the challenge. And I did. From that point forward my interest in computers and technology soared,” Kimberly remembers.  

In her senior year at Norwalk High School, Kimberly’s career in technology, data analysis, and reporting took a more definitive and ambitious turn when Mr. Fuller introduced Kimberly to leaders at Norwalk Hospital.

Dr. Shirley Williams, Chief of Outpatient Ambulatory Psychiatry, and Dolores Downer, RN, Director of what was then known as the hospital’s ICOTT Program, provided Kimberly the opportunity to work after-school and during the summer. Dr. Alexander Kolezar also gave Kimberly the opportunity to learn and manage what was then Microsoft’s newly launched windows-based productivity software suite called Microsoft Works for PCs, the prototype for what eventually became Microsoft Office.

Kimberly left Norwalk to pursue her undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Hampton University, a private, historically Black, research university in Hampton, Virginia.

“Throughout my years of undergraduate studies, I interned at Norwalk Hospital during my summer and winter breaks, which helped me to afford college. I was primarily responsible for office management, analyzing, and reporting on outpatient psychiatric data,” Kimberly explains. “The data was submitted to the Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, as numerous state grants supported the hospital’s three psychiatric outpatient programs. This crucial connection was a pivotal ‘earn and learn’ experience that allowed me to successfull complete my undergraduate degree on time.”

After graduating from Hampton University, Kimberly was recruited as a Programmer Analyst by Aetna for the Aetna Information Technology Associate Program and was assigned to the Managed Care Systems team that supported Aetna’s National Provider and Non-Provider Databases. 

Kimberly and her technology students (Carver parents) at the Carver Community Center

A few years later, Kimberly was offered an opportunity at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven as a Senior Systems Report Analyst in Information Services Planning & Data Management. She was responsible for data integrity and report generation for the hospital’s Clinical and Decision Support Systems. Before eventually moving on in her career, Kimberly was an Integration Analyst maintaining the hospital-wide system-to-system interfaces while embarking on the new world of data integration.  

After working in the healthcare sector for many years an opportunity arose in the utility sector when she worked for Southern CT Gas Company while obtaining her Master’s Degree in Computer Science and continuing to develop her data integration and technology skills. 

In 2005, Kimberly returned to healthcare and spent the next 11 years working for Yale University’s School of Medicine. Kimberly began there as a Senior Programmer Analyst III and then moved up to the Director of Information Systems and Decision Support position. Her primary responsibility was to manage and integrate information systems, provide training, and direct decision support needs for Yale Medical Group’s Revenue Cycle and Practice Management services. She also provided data-based information, training, and analytical solutions to Yale University School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Health System, improving the overall quality and cost-effectiveness of patient care and business services. 

In early 2016, Kimberly signed on with Gartner, Inc. in Stamford as their Director of Reporting and Analytics. Gartner is an information technology (IT) research and consultancy company, formerly known as Gartner Group. Kimberly directed all aspects of the enterprise business intelligence, data warehousing, and data integration strategy for Global Consulting and provided the strategic long-term data and analytics vision through the implementation of repeatable processes and procedures improving productivity and reducing costs.  

Kimberly teaches our parents in the Tech Center on the second floor of the Carver Community Center.

Kimberly created this computer literacy class in 2018. The free 8-week course meets twice a week. The curriculum provides introductory and intermediate training in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access. The goal is to close the digital divide for those parents who need the necessary skills to compete in our fast-paced technological economy. Some of our parents have never before turned on a computer.  As of 2019, 28% of Norwalk residents were born outside of the United States. Norwalk Public Schools students speak 59 languages and come from 70 different countries.

Currently, Ms. Gaddy is a Senior Director, Data Analytics, in the Chief Data Office for Gartner Information Technology. She is the technical portfolio owner for Community Data Solutions, delivering analytical, operational, and new sources of data across all Gartner business units and driving transparency, collaboration, and consistency around data to provide first-class data and foster better data-driven decisions. 

Kimberly began her IT career at the Carver Community Center before IT as we know it today was even a career field. Norwalk Hospital then opened career doors, gave her vital relationships, and revealed whole vistas of new knowledge and experience. Those priceless experiences blossomed into Kimberly’s now-28-year career that continues to expand into new frontiers in the evolving fields of Healthcare, Technology, Data, and Analytics.  

Kimberly Gaddy is a Carver board member, Carver volunteer, lifetime scholar, professional achiever, and a shining example of what awaits Carver students who are willing to take the risks and invest the hard work necessary to realize their dreams.

Kimberly and Norwalk Hospital are Carver heroes.

Kimberly standing with Connecticut State Senator Bob Duff at the Carver Community Center

NPS Career Fair, Thursday, April 7th, City Hall

The Richard and Barbara Whitcomb Foundation renew their Presenting Sponsor level support for the 2022 Child of America Gala

The Richard and Barbara Whitcomb Foundation returns as a 2022 Presenting Sponsor. Here is the video we created to thank them for their Presenting Sponsorship last year.

Join the Whitcomb family and so many more sponsors in supporting our 2022 Child of America Gala on Friday, May 20th, at Shorehaven Golf Club, when we will be honoring Jerry Craft, a longtime Carver friend and advocate.

Individual in-person tickets will not be available until the end of April, as this cherished event mostly sells out early with event sponsors.

Our virtual guests will enjoy the gala as if they are there, as was the case last year when we honored Josè Feliciano.

We are returning this year to our traditional gala, such as the year we honored Sean “Diddy” Combs (and here).

All the joyful gala elements will return this year, including inspiring fellowship, the reception, the auction, and so much more!

Your support changes the world for Carver scholars!

GO HERE TO MAKE YOUR SPONSOR DONATION.

Write GALA and/or any other message in the Comment window.

See a print version of the sponsor donation form here.

Contact Nikki LaFaye at (203) 945-9665/mobile; nikki@carvercenterct.org, to pledge your sponsorship gift to reserve your table(s), to share with your guest list, and with any inquiries or special requests.

See our 2021 Gala sponsors here and the special videos created for each sponsor by clicking on their interactive logos.

Carver scholar Cassandra Midy is one of our 24 students interning at Norwalk Hospital

Cassandra is a Norwalk senior with a 3.7 GPA. She has years of volunteer experience at such places as the Norwalk Public Library and the Stepping Stones Museum for Children.

Cassandra is also a Carver after-school student participating in our new internship program at Norwalk Hospital.

Cassandra is looking at several colleges, but right now Iona College will be her likely choice. She received an early acceptance letter. This private Catholic college in New Rochelle offers more than 60 undergraduate programs. What also appeals to her is the intimacy this relatively small campus offers.

Cassandra is interning at Norwalk Hospital with an interest in pursuing a career in psychiatric care. She already possesses the most important skills to work in the mental health field including empathy, compassion, active listening, information technology savvy, healthy professional boundaries, ethics, and a strong desire to help. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing recently reported that 77% of counties in the United States are experiencing a severe shortage of mental health providers. Demand for mental health professionals is projected to greatly increase in the years to come. 

She aims to help remove the stigma of mental illness, to show that it is not a weakness. “We should be in awe of the amazing tenacity that many people with mental health challenges display daily. Simply getting through the day often requires huge reserves of energy, determination, and mental strength,” Cassandra shares.

Cassandra wants to be there for those whom teachers, parents, and friends too often cannot reach.  She will bring to her studies and eventually to her professional work the unflinching conviction that no person is irredeemable or incapable of having a full life.

Carver has many programs, budgets, a long history, and strategic plans. But it is the individual Carver student, such as Cassandra, who embodies Carver’s significance and promise.

Carver scholars are changing our world and our pride and confidence in them are boundless.

Carver mentor Tony Nanez encourages Carver students to excel by persevering

Antonio (Tony) Nanez, Regional Head of Commodity Trade Finance at North America HSBC, is a mentor to Carver high school students. With over 20 years of experience in client relationship management, structuring and syndication in the trade and commodity finance space, and as a graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business, Tony’s advice and guidance are priceless.

Our students attentively embrace all that he gives them. 

Tony recently met with a group of our high school students at the Carver Community Center. He shared lessons learned on his personal journey and listened to our students who voiced questions and concerns about life, learning, and careers. 

Tony connected with our youth by meeting them exactly where they are. He talked about his early childhood in Washington Heights as an only child with a single parent along with his numerous cousins after his family emigrated to the US from Venezuela. Tony didn’t allow the discouraging influences of his neighborhood to stir him in a negative direction. He shared about the personal challenges he faced early on when could not speak English and later when he became the de facto translator for his family. Tony worked through college.  The striving never ends. Tony has been living in Connecticut for 20 years helping raise four children with his wife who is a nurse pursuing her master’s degree. 

Student Question: Did you always know you wanted to go into banking? 

Tony talked about the importance of having a mentor. His father-in-law, an African American international banking executive told him about banking and working hard, habits he still uses today. 

Student Question: How do you handle stress? 

Tony talked about finding balance, the benefits of meditation, and managing stress by putting it in different mental compartments, and by prioritizing. Tony talked about the importance of being in programs like Carver’s and being around like-minded peers and adults. He talked about setting goals and committing to accomplishing them. Tony spoke about being open to learning new things, and about the power of internships, traveling, and continuing education.

 The students asked many questions: 

How has the war in Ukraine and other world events impacted your job? How many countries have you visited? How did you make it out of Washington Heights? Did you ever want to give up or feel like you didn’t belong at NYU? How challenging was it not to be able to speak English? What made you not fall into the negative paths of growing up in the Heights and getting in trouble?

Tony met with our students last week during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson’s story of wandering the campus of Harvard as a new student, feeling out of her element, and wondering if she belonged, echoed what Tony and our students discussed. 

Jackson was encouraged that fateful day decades ago by an older black woman who knowingly read the expression on Jackson’s face and simply spoke to her a single word, "Persevere." That word may have made the difference for Jackson. But for her (and our students) it may be more the realization that she, young and lost as she may have felt, was seen and appreciated.

Tony likewise acknowledges the infinite value of each of our students by being there with them and encouraging and advising them. Tony gives our students that same message today: to persevere.