A Children's Champion
In one infamous pocket of poverty the seeds of the American dream are growing. CBS News Anchor Dan Rather reports about a part of this country most of us never see or would just as soon ignore.
It may look like a Third World country but it is Donna, Texas, a community that sits on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Many in Texas refer to Donna as the end of the road, but that road has now become the beginning of a bright future for the students at Runn Elementary School.
And it is all thanks to one woman, the school's principal, Ofelia Gaona.
"I wanted to make a difference here in this area and I wanted to make it better for other people," says Gaona.
Gaona is a native daughter of Donna, a community of hard-bitten migrant workers. "My dream was to have a better way of life to where I would not have to work out in the fields in the cold and in the wet," she recalls.
As a child, she moved in and out of foster care. She was told by a high school guidance counselor to skip college because she, like many children here, would never amount to anything.
Gaona took that as a challenge. "It made me work even harder and I was going to be successful and I was going to prove her wrong," she says.
She graduated from college, and she did much more. In the six years she has been at the helm of Runn Elementary, attendance is up and state test scores have increased dramatically.
"Presently we have an 80-plus percent passing rate for children at the school so academically our children are doing very, very well in spite of the many different obstacles they face," says Gaona.
All of her students are children of migrant workers. A lot of their homes don't have running water, and the roads are very bad.
To keep these kids on track, Gaona makes house calls. "We have strong parental involvement and I feel that is because the parents see the school as a way of finding a way out," says Gaona. "This is the only pathway they have."
"They have to work hard. They have to make sure that their children get a good education so that conditions will be better, life will be better for them in the future," Gaona explains.
It is a future these children couldn't dream of if it wasn't for Ofelia Gaona.
Gaona says she wants them to get a good education so they can attain any goal in the future. "They are going to make it!" she says.
Gaona says educators have the power to make or break dreams for children.
Her own dream now is that her kids will one day have a new, state-of-the-art school building.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. It may look like a Third World country but it is Donna, Texas, a community that sits on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Many in Texas refer to Donna as the end of the road, but that road has now become the beginning of a bright future for the students at Runn Elementary School.
And it is all thanks to one woman, the school's principal, Ofelia Gaona.
"I wanted to make a difference here in this area and I wanted to make it better for other people," says Gaona.
Gaona is a native daughter of Donna, a community of hard-bitten migrant workers. "My dream was to have a better way of life to where I would not have to work out in the fields in the cold and in the wet," she recalls.
As a child, she moved in and out of foster care. She was told by a high school guidance counselor to skip college because she, like many children here, would never amount to anything.
Gaona took that as a challenge. "It made me work even harder and I was going to be successful and I was going to prove her wrong," she says.
She graduated from college, and she did much more. In the six years she has been at the helm of Runn Elementary, attendance is up and state test scores have increased dramatically.
"Presently we have an 80-plus percent passing rate for children at the school so academically our children are doing very, very well in spite of the many different obstacles they face," says Gaona.
All of her students are children of migrant workers. A lot of their homes don't have running water, and the roads are very bad.
To keep these kids on track, Gaona makes house calls. "We have strong parental involvement and I feel that is because the parents see the school as a way of finding a way out," says Gaona. "This is the only pathway they have."
"They have to work hard. They have to make sure that their children get a good education so that conditions will be better, life will be better for them in the future," Gaona explains.
It is a future these children couldn't dream of if it wasn't for Ofelia Gaona.
Gaona says she wants them to get a good education so they can attain any goal in the future. "They are going to make it!" she says.
Gaona says educators have the power to make or break dreams for children.
Her own dream now is that her kids will one day have a new, state-of-the-art school building.
