Diego Reynoso and Latosha White have struggled throughout their lives. They both have grown up under difficult conditions, but they are too busy working toward the future to worry about their hardships.
The bond that these two students share is the place that provides their families with a place to live – St. Luke's Mission of Mercy, at 325 Walden Ave.
St. Luke's is a fixture in the Buffalo community and helps provide aid for people in numerous ways. It's located on the East Side and has been the home of both Diego and Latosha for many years; the mission has provided them with housing because their families cannot afford otherwise and because they volunteer at the mission.
Both teenagers exemplify how a relationship between UB and St. Luke's can help inner-city kids.
Diego attends Bennett High School, and Latosha attends Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts. This year, with the help of the mission, both Diego and Latosha were accepted into the Meszaros International Center for Entrepreneurship (MICE) program, which works directly with UB. The program is for high school students looking to learn more about business, and classes meet once a week for five months, every Saturday for about three hours.
Michael Taheri, a former UB adjunct law professor, has volunteered at St. Luke's and works with Diego and Latosha within the MICE program on Wednesday nights at St. Luke's. He can't say enough about what the program has done for Diego and Latosha.
"It's a very solid entrepreneurship program that's allowed two kids from St. Luke's to go, who would never have had an opportunity to go to that program," Taheri said. "We're very grateful. They gave the kids a scholarship and without that they just wouldn't get the exposure to business principles. Now they're on a level playing field."
Being on a level playing field is what St. Luke's is all about. The Mission is a staple of the East Side and helps the community in a variety of ways. It feeds anywhere from 400 to 600 people a day.
St. Luke's was co-founded and is co-directed by Amy Betros and Norm Paolini. Their mission is to help the people on the East Side in any way they can. A new program in the works is an after-school effort that will help kids study and improve their skills in the subjects they're taking.
Betros and Taheri are heading up the after-school program but need volunteers to help teach the students. UB students could really help get this program off the ground, according to Betros.
"The goal is to get [UB] students interested in helping so they can be role models for our kids," Betros said. "We're trying to give the kids a chance. If we can get them young and teach them young, then they're going to get through school…When you have someone who encourages and helps you, you make it."
There are a number of subjects being taught in the after-school program, like creative writing, reading, math, and science.
One of the biggest problems facing the St. Luke's staff is the amount of 16-year-old inner-city students still reading on a third-grade level.
St. Luke's functions almost primarily on donations, and nobody on the staff accepts a salary, according to Betros. There isn't any money to pay tutors but kids are being left behind because they aren't equipped with the basics.
Betros believes UB students able to sacrifice some time and make the 12-mile bus ride down to St. Luke's can change someone's life.
"The thing is that the kids here want to do better," Betros said. "But they don't have anyone to help them…[The program] will be something cool that kids will want to come to. We'll have snacks for the kids; they can go to math, English, reading, science, or whatever they need help in."
Betros hopes to have computers available as well so that the kids have an easier time doing their homework.
Taheri has been a bridge between UB and St. Luke's for a while now and has even brought his law school students down to St. Luke's in the past to help out. Even if UB students don't want to teach, there are dozens of other ways to help.
President John B. Simpson had a vision for UB 2020 that, if executed, was meant to help bring jobs to the city of Buffalo. Taheri thinks the new UB president should include the less-fortunate in his plans for the future.
"I think there is now a void [following the failure of UB 2020 legislation], and that gives the president coming in the opportunity to create a vision that incorporates the poor," Taheri said. "I don't think that was there. Now you have a real opportunity to show a connection between the kids coming in and what's going on in the poorest part of the city. It's a chance for St. Luke's and UB to intersect and meet a need. That's with the basics of reading and writing. I think good things can really happen."
The possibilities are endless if UB steps up to the plate, according to Taheri. If not for the MICE program, Diego may not be dreaming of becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
The opportunities that MICE has afforded Diego and Latosha are very crucial, Diego said. Without the program, they wouldn't be able to meet people in the professional world and would struggle building the contacts they have already started to develop. He is also thankful not to have fallen through the cracks growing up.
"If you follow the crowd, you're just going to fall down with everyone else," Diego said. "You have to be a friend to everyone but just keep your own interests in mind. The grades at Bennett are down for a reason. It's because people choose not to work, read, and study."
Diego was born in Argentina and lived there until he turned four years old. His family then moved to Canada for about six years before finally arriving in Buffalo. Latosha has grown up in Buffalo and is proud of it. That may explain why she has taken so well to UB.
"UB has a home feel to it," Latosha said. "I don't know how to explain it. It's nice and neat and the people there seem nice."
Both Diego and Latosha are ready to go to college and both envision one day attending UB. While Diego plans to first go to Trocaire College to study radiology, Latosha has already applied to UB.
She hopes to be able to bring people back to St. Luke's from UB to help out in any way that they can.
"You meet new people every day," Lotosha said. "Coming to St. Luke's is a big part of our lives so why not introduce it to other people. The worst someone can say is ‘no, I don't want to go.' You just have to ask."
Diego said that St. Luke's is a great place to get involved.
"St. Luke's supplied us with an opportunity to live there and I'll do anything for them any chance I get," Diego said. "St. Luke's always brings the best out of people. It brings everyone closer together."
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