By Ruby Thomas, Record Staff Writer
A smile lit up Emma Bartley’s young face as she talked about her work to help pave the way for young refugees to apply for college.
Bartley, a junior at Assumption High School, created PAVE the Way (PAVE stands for Promoting And Valuing Education) — a program that helps refugee youth and their families served by Catholic Charities of Louisville navigate the college application process.
PAVE, launched in January, will provide workshops that cover a variety of topics, such as preparing for the American College Testing (ACT) and SAT entrance exams, essays, obtaining letters of recommendation and completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The workshops, which will take place in March, May, August and October, will be led by school counselors from Assumption and Sacred Heart Academy. Refugee students will also be paired with a student mentor from one of the two girls’ schools.
The idea for PAVE, said Bartley, started taking shape last summer after she met a young Rwandan woman whose dream is to attend college.
“Malkia (the young Rwandan refugee) is amazing,” Bartley said in a recent interview. “She’s one of the most inspiring individuals I’ve ever met.”
The Rwandan woman arrived in the United States close to two years ago and was most excited at the prospect of going to school, noted Bartley. She’d given up her studies in Rwanda so that her younger siblings could attend school. She learned English her first summer in the U.S. and aspires to be a poet, said Bartley.
It’s the prospect of helping fulfill dreams like this that fueled her desire to launch PAVE, Bartley noted. She said she believes education is the key for young refugees to build their new lives.
PAVE offered an informational meeting in mid-January, which was attended by three refugee families “excited” about the idea of higher education for their children, said Bartley.
“If we help one student I’ll be completely content knowing we helped one person attain higher education and better their life,” she said.
Bartley and her family, including her three sisters, have volunteered at Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Services since she was in middle school. She tutors refugee youth and adults in the English language school, she said.
Bartley said she lives her life by St. Teresa of Kolkata’s teaching to “do small things with great love.”
“Doing small things and making an impact even for a few people is important,” she said. “That’s the guiding aspect of being a Christian. Living out your faith and following in Jesus’ footsteps.”
Bartley may be doing “small things,” but it recently garnered her national attention.
She is one of 10 students nation-wide honored with the 2017 Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). The award recognizes “selfless service, determination, innovation and ideals that are changing the world,” according to a press release from Assumption.
The NCEA is an organization whose mission is to “work with Catholic educators to support ongoing faith formation and the teaching mission of the Catholic Church,” according to the organization’s website.
Bartley was selected for the award for her work in creating a program called Compassion Connections at her school. Compassion Connections helps connect Assumption students with a local non-profit service agency with which the students can form a relationship based on service throughout their four years.
Thanks to her efforts, Assumption has nine service groups paired with nine local non-profits, including Catholic Charities’ Sister Visitor Center, St. John Center for Homeless Men and Shively Area Ministries.
Leisa Schulz, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Louisville, presented Bartley with the NCEA award during a prayer service at Assumption Feb. 14, Ash Wednesday.
Schulz said Bartley is an “outstanding young lady who is very caring and passionate about helping others.”
It’s also Bartley’s ability to see the big picture that made her a standout for the “Virtues, Valor and Vision” award, said Schulz during an interview Feb. 26. The Compassion Connections program Bartley created “fits with their school’s tenets and charism and permeates
everything they do in living out their mission,” said Schulz. The fact the program can be replicated in other schools made it “special and unique.”
Schulz said she believes Bartley’s impact in creating the school program will last long after she’s graduated.
Bartley’s desire to bring about change was evident again in her decision to create PAVE. “For most of us it (the college application process) is overwhelming,” said Schulz, noting how particularly difficult it must be for newcomers. Bartley saw that need, said Schulz, but also saw an “opportunity to put a system in place to help a whole host of young people.”
Bartley also started a blog called “She is Fierce,” she-is-fierce.org, where she encourages other young women to make a difference in the world. She has also opened the blog to her friends, who also contribute.
