Bigger Dreams: Nancy
Resident Nancy discovered new aspirations and leadership qualities by participating in MHP’s after-school programs.
A central goal of MHP’s resident programs is to inspire our students to aspire, dream big dreams and reach for new possibilities. A great example of that is resident Nancy Cabrera, a student at John F. Kennedy High School in Wheaton. Nancy has been participating in MHP preschool and afterschool programs since she was a little girl. “MHP has been a big part of my growing up years,” she says.
She is grateful to have grown up in MHP’s Greenwood Terrace Apartments with her mom and her sister and brother. “It’s a great community that provides a welcoming and safe environment for families like mine.”
She was thrilled to find out MHP’s afterschool programs had expanded to include an offering for middle schoolers called Future Leaders of the World, or FLOW. “Being part of MHP’s programs has helped me discover new things about myself,” she observes. In the FLOW program, “We created journals and wrote about how we think we would like to see ourselves 15 years from now, which really helped me reflect and inspired my creativity.” Nancy also took a lead role in creating a cheerful mural to decorate the FLOW meeting space.
Perhaps the activity with the biggest impact on Nancy was a FLOW field trip to the University of Maryland College Park. Nancy says she envisioned entering the workforce once she finished high school. The field trip changed that, making her realize she wanted to go to college. “On the trip to College Park, I said to myself, ‘I can go higher. I can do this!’”
Her ambition is to become a crime scene investigator. She hopes to enter the Health Professions Academy at Kennedy High School when she is eligible, a health-oriented training program. “I think that training will be helpful no matter what career path I take,” she says. To Nancy, FLOW has been a source of friendship and support. “With MHP’s programs, I have been able to try out many things. I also have made very good friends, from many different schools. ”She hopes MHP will be able to expand the middle-school programs it offers so “more kids like me can get a chance to find new ways to express themselves, to get to know themselves better, and to visit colleges and dream bigger dreams, just like the ones I have!”