Supporting Connections

Every Saturday, Upper School Spanish Teacher Esperanza Soria-Nieto P ’15 ’21 and a group of Collegiate Upper School students take a trip to Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School, located in the southside of Richmond. “We’ll sit and read with the students, and we’ll play together, but really we just share community with each other and we learn from each other,” Mrs. Soria-Nieto explains. It’s a relationship that she and her students have continued for more than a decade. Why? Because of the time-honored commitment to community and citizenship that Collegiate students and teachers uphold. And, as Mrs. Soria-Nieto says, “It’s important to give back to the community when you yourself have been given so much.”

The experience is mutually beneficial, and the Upper Schoolers get back as much as they give. For a number of them, the time spent at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School has inspired them to become teachers themselves. “One of the great things about our students is that they always want to give back,” Mrs. Soria-Nieto says. “Before we started going to Oak Grove-Bellemeade, students would come to me and say, ‘Let’s do community service in Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala,’ and I would remind them that our support can be felt just as much locally, too.” The relationships Collegiate students build with the elementary-aged students at Oak Grove-Bellemeade involve commitment, dedication, community awareness and a selfless desire to improve the lives of others.

“When we go to Oak Grove-Bellemeade, you see a lot of very, very smart kids who don’t have the same opportunities that Collegiate students have because they don’t have the money, and I think that quality of education is something they deserve,” Mrs. Soria-Nieto says. “I believe every student should have the right to a quality education, and with whatever impact I have I want to give students that opportunity.”

A perennial supporter of the School, Mrs. Soria-Nieto has seen her two children, Ivan Soria-Hawkinson ’21 and Adriana Soria-Hawkinson ’15, mature and grow at Collegiate. She also recognizes the warmth and inclusivity of the Collegiate community. Her hope, she says, is to continue extending that community to other students. “The money that I give and the money other people give helps broaden our community,” she explains. “It helps provide a good education to students, and I think that’s very special.”