Alumni

Every child who has graduated from Opportunity Farm over the past decade has gone on to further education or to military service. The longer a young person stays at the Farm, the greater the chance for success.

Meet just a few of the alumni who have lived and grown at Opportunity Farm:

Bill Marshall

Bill Marshall lived at the Farm in the mid-1970's, and he says it made all the difference in his life.

"I came to the Farm in 1973," says Bill Marshall, an Opportunity Farm alumnus who now works with the U.S. Postal Service. "My mother, struggling with alcoholism, was getting a divorce from my dad. With little supervision, I started to spend time on the streets and get into bad habits. My aunt heard about Opportunity Farm and arranged for me to come here….I appreciated the structure and the stability of my new home. We all had chores to do, I kept my grades up, got involved in sports and landed a job working on campus….I am now the father of two children who mean the world to me, and I've worked at the same job for over 15 years. The lessons I learned at the Farm have made it possible for me to lead a meaningful and productive life."

JoeRogers 1995 Graduate

A 1995 graduate of Opportunity Farm, Joe Rogers earning a bachelor’s degree from The
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 1999. Upon graduating he spent a year of service as an AmeriCorps member with Georgetown University’s Office of Volunteer and Volunteer and Public Service Center, helping to improve a literacy program serving D.C. elementary schools. He then launched and managed an AmeriCorps program for D.C. LEARNs, a coalition of community-based literacy service providers.

Joe now lives in Harlem, New York City, where he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Education Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. Joe’s personal and professional experiences fuel his passion for educational equity, and he plans to use his degree to engage low-income urban communities in problem solving to improve educational opportunities and build civic capacity. Before returning to life as a full-time student, Joe served as a Program Associate with New Visions for Public Schools, a non-profit education reform and school support organization serving schools throughout NYC.

Here's part of a note that Joe sent to the Farm a couple of years ago:

"Yesterday was Mother's Day. My mom and I spoke on the phone for about an hour, catching up on the significant events of the past week in our respective lives. I feel strongly that if I had stayed with her and not made the move to Opportunity Farm when I did that we wouldn't have been on speaking terms now. My being at the Farm gave us breathing room. It allowed me space to grow as a person and eventually I reached the point where I could understand her circumstances - the issues that she was dealing with, and I learned to forgive. Of course we still occasionally disagree, and sometimes I get sad and even faintly angry when I think about how things were then and how I wasn't able to be with my family, but I know that things couldn't have gotten better, and I wouldn't be where or who I am now, if I hadn't moved to the Farm.

"Of course I'll always be at home whenever I visit my Mom or other family, but Opportunity Farm is also my home. At a crucial point in my life, the Farm provided me with a foundation, with stability, and with people who were sincerely interested in seeing me reach my full potential. Trying not to sound too "cheesy" ---if I were a rocket, the Farm would be my launching pad!

"I'm overjoyed that soon there'll be a chance for girls and young women in our community to experience the same supportive environment that thousands of boys and young men have benefited from since the Farm's inception."

Shane Montminy

Shane Montminy

After eight years at Opportunity Farm, Shane graduated from high school in June 2002. He recently shared a few memories of his time at the Farm:

"My first memory of the Farm is of being nine years old in the back of my mother's car. I was too little to really see out the window so I could only look up at the tops of the trees and the sky; it felt like we were driving around in a huge maze. We found out where we needed to go, and I stayed that day for a visit. Everything seemed OK, so a week later I moved into my room down at the Lodge. Even though I was a lot younger than Andy (who was my roommate) we bonded very fast, especially because I had a brother and sister who were significantly older but wonderful role models. As we became close, we began to share that older brother/younger brother relationship.

"My favorite memory-well, one of my favorites, anyway-is when the Residential Program Director when I first got here orchestrated a skiing weekend at Rangeley. His name was Dick Hoerman, and he had arranged for us to have a cabin on the lake. We spent half our time skiing and the other half ice fishing, and stayed up all night telling stories and playing poker with M&M's as currency. The only kids who were eligible to go were those who were on High Achievement, so it was a special reward to be amongst those who were much older than me.

"I've only ever considered leaving Opportunity Farm once, and it was because things were going so well, not because there had been a problem. I'd been here for two years. I was in sixth grade, on the honor roll at school and on High Achievement at the Farm. My mother said she'd be happy to have me back home, however, would support either decision I made. Colin, the Social Worker at the time, felt I was ready if that's what I wanted. It was left up to me, and ultimately I decided that I was better off staying. I had formed a real trust and bond with the Farm, and created a foundation within the community and at school.

"My mother understood completely. Our relationship used to be like a jigsaw puzzle that hadn't been put together. All the pieces were there, but you couldn't see the whole picture. We really needed the Farm to fit everything together.

"When I go, I know I'm really going to miss the Farm-the whole sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself and bigger than your family. It's almost like a fraternity-only more civilized. We might not always like each other, but we're absolutely there for each other.

"I take a lot of pride in being from Opportunity Farm. If I had one message to give to the other kids who are here it's to make the most of the opportunities the Farm can offer. You've got to be able to say at the end that you learned everything you possibly could have while you were here. It's an advantage in your life to be able to come to Opportunity Farm, and I hope they're able to use it."