In late 2019, SCPA Works requested that all vendors submit an individual nomination for the 2020 Governor’s Achievement Award. The Lebanon Youth Program nominated Linsey Bogantes for this award, and we would like to share her nomination story!

Linsey Bogantes is twenty-three years old, the mother of two children (ages 4 and 5), and a wife. She was born in New Jersey, but moved to Costa Rica with her mother as a small child and lived there for twelve years. She moved back to New Jersey at the age of fifteen to live with her father and was an English Language Learner student while in public school.  She experienced many hardships during her teen years.

She started living on her own when she was seventeen years old and dropped out of school to support herself.  It was at this time that she became pregnant with her first son, had him at the age of eighteen, and also married his father. She then had her second son at the age of nineteen. When Linsey was twenty, she moved to Lebanon, Pennsylvania with her husband and children. In order to be a good role model for her boys, Linsey decided to finish her high school education and started attending High School Equivalency classes at the Lancaster Lebanon IU13.

Sophealin Hul arrived in the United States from Cambodia and joined high school equivalency classes at CareerLink a few weeks later. In these past six months, she has passed three subject tests and plans to take her final test--math--by the end of February.

Tony Brewer, affectionately known as Mr. B, will be remembered by staff and students as a man whose depth and breadth of knowledge and unique sense of humor brightened many days and enriched many lives.  In the classroom, Mr. B conveyed his deepest respect and concern for every student, and he often brought out the best in those who had never before experienced a teacher who truly cared about them.  His top priority was to make students feel safe and secure so that they could learn and grow to their fullest potential.