Lee College alumna Erica Navejar to Latino students: ‘You’re going to make it’ - The Vindicator: Community

Lee College alumna Erica Navejar to Latino students: ‘You’re going to make it’ - The Vindicator: Community: BAYTOWN, TX – When Lee College alumna and Horace Mann Junior High School principal Erica Navejar encounters students whose families have recently emigrated from Mexico, their struggle to learn a new language and assimilate into American culture strikes a deeply familiar chord.

Just 5 years old when her parents managed to gather the money and secure the approvals they needed to move to Texas in pursuit of a better life, Navejar entered kindergarten at San Jacinto Elementary in Baytown and quickly felt the frustration of trying to master English and adapt to a new way of life.

“They come to a different world and I say, ‘I know you don’t get it. I know how you feel. I know that you’re lost,” Navejar told a group of Latino students at a recent holiday luncheon for the Lee College Puente Project program. “But your mom is here, and it’s her dream to have you here and to move forward. So, you’re going to have to do that.’”