LCS Director of Operations Esther P.
“At LCS, we teach the students all the normal subjects—math, science, social studies, language—but we also teach them to care about others. We give the students an education that says the priority is not just you personally, the priority is the people around you; let other people come before you. This education is about loving your neighbor and helping those who are less fortunate.”
LCS Director of Operations Esther P. (LCS '02) in the Operations office at LCS Santo 5
Esther P.'s family learned about Louverture Cleary School (LCS) when a neighbor who had been in one of the school's first classes inspired them to apply. Madame P.’s older sister and younger brother enrolled, and she entered LCS as a Rhéto (U.S. 12th grade) student in 2000, graduating in 2002.
After receiving a degree in accounting at university in 2006, Madame P. joined the accounting staff at LCS in September 2007. Her responsibilities grew until she became the director of operations, the position she masterfully holds today.
THP: What do you like about your role in the LCS community?
EP: I really love knowing I can be useful to others. I can be responsible for my community. Managing the staff and budget are big responsibilities which provide a sense of self-worth.
THP: How did your LCS education prepare you for your current leadership role at LCS?
EP: LCS taught me integrity, to do what is right; accountability, to be responsible for my community; and empathy, to focus on developing others. Those values prepared me for my current leadership at LCS. There are other good schools in Haiti, but students there take the education just for themselves. At LCS, we act for our community.
At LCS, we teach the students all the normal subjects—math, science, social studies, language—but we also teach them to care about others. We give the students an education that says the priority is not just you personally, the priority is the people around you; let other people come before you. This education is about loving your neighbor and helping those who are less fortunate.
It is also an experience that reveals how important education is. Take me, for example. I come from a very poor family but now, because of my education, I can take care of my mother and my nieces and nephews. The LCS education is all about that—using one's education to help others. The fact that we do everything together—eat, study, clean the campus, wash dishes, provide pre-school and literacy classes for the neighborhood—reinforces this sense of community.
THP: What is the most important thing you believe LCS does to encourage leadership skills in its female students, and why?
EP: Having women in leadership positions provides a good example for our students and for all women. They see that if they have education, they can be whatever they want to be. It is not about “man” or “woman,” it is about education and how it makes a difference in everyone’s life. But I must also say that it was my mother who, though she did not go to school, always believed in education. She always said, “My children have to go to school so that they don’t have to have the same hard life that I’ve had.” My mother always believed in this.
All students at LCS, boys or girls, receive the same quality of education. I think it is the main thing which encourages the female students. Receiving the same level of education gives them self-confidence and makes them believe it is not about male or female, but about a human being who can achieve whatever he or she wants with a good education.
LCS Director of Operations Esther P. (right) with LCS Accounting Manager Nicolenne Philomé M.
THP: What role do you believe LCS and the LCS Network have to play in Haiti’s future, especially given recent events?
EP: Continuing [the mission of LCS in Haiti] produces better leaders through education. That is what Haiti needs to stand up. We will have ten times Esther; ten times Madame Marjorie M. [LCS Principal Majorie M.]; ten times the current students, boys and girls; ten times the graduates who are prepared to be productive, patriotic Haitian citizens. Graduates will be examples in their families, neighborhoods, churches. Everywhere they go, they will share what they learned at LCS and spread the good work we do here. To have 3,600 students every year makes for a very big number. Even just one person like me can have an impact on 100 people or 200 people, and now we will have 3,600 people each spreading the influence of LCS to 100 people, 200 people, and so on.
The biggest impact will be producing good leaders for Haiti. In general, Haitians believe in education—you see that when Diaspora send money to their families in Haiti, the families use it for food and to send their children to school. What Haiti lacks now is good leaders; good leaders are what Haiti needs in order to rise up. At LCS, we have our own leadership program where the older students learn to lead small groups of fellow students. Each student in the Philo (U.S. 12th grade +1) and Rhéto classes is responsible for a group of younger students in the dorms. The student leaders also supervise groups in Work Hour and in the cafeteria. The training of the student leaders starts in their first year, as they learn from their own leaders; but we also have one week before school starts when the older classes come in for leadership training. After leaving LCS, graduates can use the same methods to lead larger groups of people.
In Haiti, we have these sayings: "L'union fait la force" (unity is strength, as written on the Haitian flag); "Anpil men chay pa lou" (many hands make light work); and "Yon sel dwèt pa manje kalalou" (you can't eat gumbo with just one finger). The sense of community is important because it can help us become a better country and a better family.
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