LCS Head of School Ernst V. teaching a leadership seminar for Philo (U.S. 12 grade +1) and Rhéto (U.S. 12th grade) students in preparation for the new school year.
LCS Head of School Ernst V.
Ernst V.’s career in academia began as a Brother of Christian Instruction (Frères d’Instruction Chrétienne, or FIC). He spent three years in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, as a missionary and student of theology and education science.
Monsieur V. returned to Haiti from West Africa and worked an additional 11 years with FIC. He taught and served in various administrative roles at schools throughout Haiti, including principal and regional treasurer. During that time, Monsieur V. completed his master’s degree in education administration. He has been Head of School at LCS since 2018.
THP: What do you love about your role in the LCS community?
EV: I love working with a project that gives hope to disadvantaged youth in my country while attacking poverty at its base. LCS does not provide the fish, but it gives the necessary training for the young people to fish for themselves. This allows youth to reflect and make free choices while fundamentally improving the quality of life for those around them.
THP: What most distinguishes LCS/THP from U.S.-based charitable groups operating in the country?
EV: We work with a sector of young people that poverty would otherwise prevent from continuing their education if they didn’t have an institution like LCS to provide it. Most schools in Haiti only serve people who have the means to pay for the education. In Haiti, lack of opportunity is a significant driver of political instability. Our work at LCS allows us to give young people the opportunity to truly thrive and create better conditions for themselves and those around them. We also teach kids here that if you are not happy with the way things are, you sit down, you talk, you recognize your differences, and figure out how to resolve those differences and work together.
The challenge for Haiti in general is to be able to get people to sit down together and talk in order to get people to move in the same direction. This is why the LCS Network will be so important—to spread these ideas of working together.
THP: Why is it so important that LCS and the creation of the LCS Network are being locally led [i.e., led by Haitians]?
EV: The Haitian leadership of LCS allows the adaptation of the overall system to the unique needs of the local community. This I learned in my work with the Brothers: what works in St. Marc will not work in Les Cayes; what works in the countryside, will not work downtown. Only local Haitian leadership will best know how to translate the global objectives into local practice.
THP: What role do you believe LCS and the LCS Network have to play in Haiti’s future, especially given recent events? And why?
EV: LCS and the LCS Network have an important role to play in Haiti's future because today, more than ever, it is important to give to the disadvantaged the possibility of feeling valued, of not only dreaming of a better tomorrow but to be the actors in this better tomorrow. At LCS, academic excellence is good, but the values of community are much more important.
I think LCS will provide a model that will inspire other institutions. LCS students are taught to live in community and that is the biggest challenge in Haiti today—to get people to live and work together. The Network is not just talk; it is action, a concrete example of how the will to change becomes an institution designed to build community, understanding, and progress for Haiti.
THP: What lesson from your education has stayed with you and influences your current leadership?
EV: Fè tout byen m kapab, tout jan m kapab, pou tout moun m kapab, jiskaske m pa kapab ankò. (Do everything I am capable of, as well as I can, for as many as I can, until I can do no more.)
LCS Head of School Ernst V. (right) pictured with members of the LCS Administration (from left): Head of Fondation Haitian Project Patrick B., LCS Director of Operations Esther P. and LCS Principal Marjorie M.
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