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We are thrilled to launch Season 2 of the Changing the Odds Remix Podcast. Margarida Celestino, who you may remember from Episode 2 in Season 1, has joined us as the co-host for this season. In this episode, Margarida kicks things off by taking us on a journey to her hometown of Portland, Maine.
Changing the Odds Remix elevates new ways of thinking, seeing, and acting to build toward equitable learning and development ecosystems by remixing ideas from the top thinkers and doers focused on young people. Sponsored by the Readiness Projects, Changing the Odds Remix is the latest endeavor of Karen Pittman, co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment. Karen will invite guests each season to engage in provocative, engaging, on-the record exploration of a trending or emergent learning and development topic.
In Season 1, Karen will be joined by youth and adult leaders in the K-12 field to reflect on and remix a podcast, lecture, blog or report they have recently released and push for a deeper perspective through an ecosystems lens. Listeners will engage with powerful stories of excellent, equitable learning happening in schools and communities across the country to help us collectively accelerate the changes needed within and across systems and organizations to create ecosystems that support learning and development.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to season two of the Changing the Odds Remix Podcast, in which we explore what it takes to capitalize on the fact that learning happens in schools and communities. Last season's episodes profiled four different approaches taken by school transformation leaders to ensure that all students have strong connections to community. This season, we'll zoom in to focus on the intentional roles that adults beyond the classroom and beyond the school, librarians, youth workers, nurses, caseworkers, counselors, have in helping youth navigate their communities, the people, the places, and the possibilities.
In season one, we were struck by Margarida Celestino's perspective on how unique her experience at Casco Bay High School was, both in terms of the opportunities to connect with all the adults in the building, and how her experiences in the community wove together with her experiences in school. I asked Margarida to join me as co-host in preparing for this season. Margarida's insights and experiences were so powerful that we agreed to shift our focus this season from community based settings broadly, to taking a journey to Portland, Maine, more specifically. In subsequent episodes, we'll hear from some of the amazing practitioners in Margarida's story to understand the complementary but powerful ways they work to ensure connection and opportunity, not to just support some kids in beating the odds, but to create conditions that change the odds for all young people in Portland.
In this episode, we'll hear more of Margarida's story to help us frame the season. But let me offer a more personal note before we dig in. The voices you'll hear this season are mainly Margarida's and that of our executive producer, Katherine Plog Martinez, rather than me. As we were preparing to launch the season, I had to take some time to step back to recover from major surgery. Katherine and Margarida graciously kept things moving, and my opinion, bring you very powerful conversations about what works when adults in different organizations and roles are committed to creating connected communities. I'm back now, and you'll hear me in each episode reflecting, remixing, and learning right alongside you.
Katherine Plog Martinez (02:05):
Margarida, I am super excited to be getting a chance to dig in more deeply with you today. We had some conversations really early on in planning for the season, where we asked you to just talk about what community meant for you, and how you had experienced community inside Casco Bay in the sense of crew, but also how you'd experienced the Portland community. And I wonder if you'd just start there, telling us a little bit about what you think of when you think about your community and the connections within it.
Margarida Celestino (02:41):
Well, thank you for having me, Katherine. It's always a pleasure to work with you guys. For me, community is a group of people, a group of diverse people, who are together in one place, who are there to support each other, uplift each other, make sure that everyone, or at least almost everyone is succeeding at the same time, being able to provide different opportunities that are presenting equity amongst the people that are within the community itself. I think that a community is a place or a system that is there for people to just know that there are people there for you. They're not necessarily your family members, they're not necessarily just your friend, but just people who are there to help you, to support you, and to encourage you, so that you can keep pushing and become a better person.
Katherine Plog Martinez (03:37):
I love that. In the episode, one of the episodes that followed yours last season, our colleagues at Education Re-imagined talked again kind of their model of learning and development ecosystems. And they talk about how every young person needs a home base, learning hubs, and field sites. And as you talk about that definition of community, it really hearkens back to their definition of home base, that it's a place where you're fully known and fully valued for who you are, and really deeply supported. And so as you think about your experience in Portland, I'd love if you can take us back to when you first arrived in Portland as an asylum seeker, and take us through the places and spaces that you started to connect, and how that took you through to graduation. And if you're willing, give us some updates on where you are now and how those places and spaces are coming back up for you in this new phase of life.
Margarida Celestino (04:34):
Yeah. When coming into the US, the first stop as an asylum seeker was the homeless shelter. That was the place that we were going to get our main support with general assistance, housing, food, even help with school. And I remember when we came to the US, the homeless shelter was actually full. We had a couple of weeks where we would be sleeping in a supporting center. I completely forgot what it's called, but it was a big basketball court. It wasn't a court, it was an indoor place with a big indoor basketball court. And we had a curfew. We would go in at around 9:00 PM, and we would have to leave the place around 7:00 AM, which is pretty early. And I remember the first couple of weeks, my siblings and I were still not enrolled in school, so it was really just going to that place for sleeping and shelter. And during the day, we had to stay busy.
And I remember the first day that we arrived, they introduced us to the Portland Public Library, and they introduced us to the Boys and Girls Club, which were available for us to kind of hang around. And I remember the Portland Public Library was one of the first places we went to because we came here around March, so it was snowing. And Maine is weird, it's supposed to be spring, but it's still really cold outside, so we would go to the Portland Public Library, where we found shelter during the day. And I remember my little brother, who at that time was I believe five years old, the youngest one, he's actually deaf. And we weren't getting any services to help us learn ASL or anything that could help us communicate with him because back at home, he was born in Windhoek, Namibia. And our family learned Namibian sign language. And when we came to the US, it was like, "Oh, sign language is not a universal language, so now you have to learn American sign language."
Through the Portland Public Library, I remember we were able to pick up some books for free, the membership was free. We were able to sign out some sign language books for ASL, and that's how we were able to kind of pick up the first signs before being introduced to Portland Public Schools as a whole. And we would just hang out at the library the whole day. That's where I got to meet Miss Blue. During my first days, I remember back then I loved reading a lot. I was a bookworm all the time, so I would go into the library just to get books. I wasn't really a video game person, but my little brothers would take advantage of the gaming. And I would go in with my little brother, go to the sign language section in the books, get my own books, and would just hang out at the Boys and Girls Club. If my mom had to run any errands, she would drop us off and then do whatever she had to do, and we would just stay there.
And I remember after we got a house, and after we were able to enroll for schooling, during the first weeks, obviously we did not have wifi at home. We had electricity, but we had computers and no wifi, not data. And the Portland Public Library and the Boys and Girls Club were my go to places to get homework done or to get help with homework in general. I remember my routine back in my freshman year, it was school, after school, library for about one to two hours because everybody ended up going to the library after school. And because the library closed around 7:00 PM at that time, I believe, we would all later gather together and go to the Boys and Girls Club, which at that time closed around 10:00 PM, if not later. So I would literally spend my whole day hanging out with friends and doing homework at both the library and the Boys and Girls Club. So those were my home away from home.
Katherine Plog Martinez (08:09):
Each time I hear you tell that story, Margarida, I think there's new things that stand out to me, and more that is just incredibly powerful. You've just painted a picture that I know I didn't have in my head around Portland, Maine. I think we hold an image of Portland, Maine as a predominantly white community. I'd love to kind of stick for a minute with that caseworker and the way that they supported your family. And I know caseworkers predominantly working with the adults, not as much direct contact with the kids. But can you tell me a little bit about the supports the caseworker provided to all of you? But also, what did you experience in your arrival to Portland? What did it look like? Who were the people you were meeting with and connecting with beyond the adults in the settings that we're going to dig in so much to, but what did you discover Portland looked, felt, sounded like?
Margarida Celestino (09:00):
Obviously, coming into the US at first, you think as a person who grew up watching Disney Channel, grew up watching shows like Jesse, I expected myself to be in a place like New York City, full of tall buildings, just busy all the time. And I was born in Angola, but I grew up in Namibia, so I left Angola when I was eight years old. And Namibia is ... So Angola is west central Africa, and Namibia is more to the southwest Africa. And it's close to South Africa. And South Africa, as many people know, it's pretty developed. And Namibia is a mini version of South Africa. And I remember coming here, I was like, "Oh, America doesn't look that different from Africa, but okay. Okay."
So it wasn't like I didn't have an environmental shock, unless when we come talking about the snow, because I never experienced snow and bitter cold weather. Namibia's cold, but it's not as cold as Maine, of course. But I did have a lot of culture shock because Maine is a predominantly white state. And yes, Portland specifically caters and hosts a lot of immigrant and asylum seekers. But it is still predominantly white, which is surprising to me because although it's very white, they still do an amazing job in hosting new immigrants and new asylum seekers. They are hiring the right people to work as case managers, to work at the Boys and Girls Clubs, to work at the library, because honestly I can't think of any other place that is as welcoming as the Portland community was to both me and my family because I remember when we were still new, we were introduced to food pantries, they helped us.
I remember my case worker, when we didn't have a car, she would drive to those food pantries and drop off the food at home, which as a person who is new, the thing that I have to say I'm privileged was that I came into the US already speaking English, so the language barrier definitely helped me because I feel for the families who come in and they don't understand the language because the fact that my family and I were able to speak English before coming into the US was already an advantage because we were able to advocate for ourselves. We were able to ask when we needed something. And we were able to thank the people that were helping us correctly. And the case managers were really helpful in helping us get our first physical exams because when we came here, we had to take physicals, make sure that we were healthy, and just make sure that everything was fine.
I remember one of my caseworkers introduced me to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, which I remember it was really helpful during the first, I'd say one to two years was really helpful because I'd be going out, going out to eat, going out to dance classes, because back home I was a ballet dancer for eight years, throughout my whole life. And when we moved here, I had to stop because I didn't know where to take classes. I didn't know what to do. And my parents didn't know where to take me, so she was able to introduce me to other types of dances like contemporary. She took me to an Afro beats, Afro house, African dance type of class too, which was really fun. So all those people really helped me just enjoy my transition.
Katherine Plog Martinez (12:15):
Again, so many things to pull out of that, Margarida. I think I hear something in that question about the case worker and the supports. Right? Certainly, hearing from you, it was ebbs and flows and back and forth. Right? But clearly, an understanding of what a family needs, what a parent needs, but the difference between what a teenager and a five year old need. I want to kind of keep moving through that story and talk more about the Boys and Girls Club. You just mentioned Erin. You mentioned Erin in the first podcast episode. She sounds like an amazing human being, and we'll get the opportunity to hear from her in one of our episodes this season.
But I would love it if you can tell us a little bit about your journey through the Boys and Girls Club, from your, as you used the phrase at one point, eighth grade Margarida, from those first experiences, and kind of how you grew up in the club, but also how the club grew up around you. Would just love to hear about: What does it look like when you head from the library to the Boys and Girls Club? What are people doing there? What are the opportunities and doors that being a member at the clubhouse opened for you?
Margarida Celestino (13:30):
At the Boys and Girls Club, you'll find athletes, you'll find the nerds, you'll find the kids who just don't want to go home. Usually, the boys are playing basketball, they're playing some indoor sport. There's a pool table. There's some little activities that teenagers can get involved in. They have the little elementary and the middle school kids have this thing, the groups called the pods, so they do their own group work. And unfortunately, I was never able to be part of a pod because by the time I got to the Boys and Girls Club, I was a teenager, so I didn't experience the Boys and Girls Club as an elementary and middle school kid.
But as a high school student, as I mentioned earlier, we would have things like writing internships, we would have the key club, if I didn't forget the name. It's the volunteering team. And I remember I was also given opportunities to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club during a few summers. I was able to volunteer with new incoming immigrants and asylum seekers who only spoke Portuguese and Lingala. I'm fluent in Portuguese. I understand Lingala. I remember I was working with Erin during that summer too, so I was able to help them navigate and kind of understand what Erin was teaching because Erin teaches them English during the summer. I don't know if she still does it, but that was her job back then, to just make sure that the kids are learning the alphabet, the numbers, the songs, and everything like that.
I was able to work with them, which was really fun because they were learning so quick. It was just fun. It was a good experience to see how fast kids can learn a language just over the summer. And it helped prepare the kids to go into the new school year with a bit of English, a bit of experience with some French too because if the kids came during the spring or the summer, they're not really very included in the schools. So the Boys and Girls Club, because it's not a strict setting where you have this, you have that, you can't do this, you can't do that, they're really just free to explore their creativity. They're free to make new friends and interact with the club members.
I remember back in my high school days, before the pandemic, we had junior staffs who were high school students, who were working at the Boys and Girls Club. But as time went by, the Boys and Girls Club has become even more diverse. They're hiring Boys and Girls Club alumni, they're hiring people that have grown up at the Boys and Girls Club, people who speak multiple languages. So now the families are able to come in and have someone who speaks their language without having a language barrier and wondering what's happening.
Katherine Plog Martinez (16:09):
I think that was such a key point that you mentioned of that shift of really Boys and Girls Clubs learning about deeper learning. They already clearly had a lot, but even deeper learning about the community and what it takes, and that ability to take young leaders from the club and move them to being staff members who can connect and even more direct and, passionate is the word that's coming to mind, but I don't think that's quite the right word. But they have a more similar lived experience. Right? And I think it's really important that the leadership of the Boys and Girls Club recognized that was something that was needed. So you mentioned Mrs. Blue as one of the first people that you met in the teen library. Tell us a little bit about Mrs. Blue and the teen library, and the opportunities that were afforded to you there, as well as your connection and relationship with her.
Margarida Celestino (17:01):
Yeah. So in the first years, Miss Blue was really just my go to person for books. I never really knew what else the library had to offer besides books, books and hanging out, because we have the separate teen library, so hanging out and reading and doing some of my homework was just my daily routine at the library until one of the days she approached me and she told me about the teen advisory council. And she asked if I wanted to join because she had also invited other friends of mine. And I was like, "Oh," so the library has leadership opportunities for teenagers. I was happy, of course, I went to one of their meetings at first.
I remember they don't have meetings every week, or they have it once a month, or whenever they feel like it. So it wasn't really something that I attended all the time, but I was involved in because the opportunity was there. In one of the meetings, I remember we were trying to see events that would be beneficial to the teenagers that go to the library. And most of the teenagers that actually hang out at the library are multicultural kids. They're immigrants and asylum seekers. And they were trying to look for ideas and things to do, or events to host that would cater to the kids that are at the library. So after that meeting, I remember I was really happy because I saw that the library was not just a building for books, but it was a building that had people that wanted to be involved in the community.
Katherine Plog Martinez (18:32):
Yeah. And as you think about those young people on the teen leadership council and in the library as a whole, I thought it was really interesting, and this is true at the Boys and Girls Club if I'm not mistaken from our previous conversations, you often think about young people from one high school going to a place to hang out together. But at both the library and the Boys and Girls Club, you had young people and your peers from Casco Bay, but you also had Portland High School and PATHS, the other school in the Casco Bay. And which other one?
Margarida Celestino (19:02):
And Deering High School.
Katherine Plog Martinez (19:03):
Yeah, so you've got all these cultures coming together, and really able to interact across schools. And it goes back to your definition of community, it becomes you almost have these nested communities. And in the library and Boys and Girls Club, you get to connect more broadly with the Portland community. So we're going to hear from Erin. We're going to hear from Miss Blue. We're also going to hear from two people that you talked about in the first season, without I know were really important with Casco Bay High School. So Ron shared that Casco, and the school leader at Casco are really intentional about building a connection between all adults. And you talked about how what that meant for you was ability to connect much more deeply with your school nurse and with your guidance counselor. So I'd love to hear just a little bit from you about the role that they played for you, and then maybe we can use that as a little bit of a transition to particularly for your guidance counselor, the role that she is playing for you right now.
Margarida Celestino (20:09):
Yeah. When a lot of kids think about a school nurse, they just think of someone they go to when they need ibuprofen, Tylenol, or when they just need someone to talk to. But for me, at least during my four years at Casco Bay High School, I was able to build an actual relationship with my school nurse. I remember at first, I would just go into her office when I needed a pad, when I needed ibuprofen, when I wasn't feeling well and I needed a break, I'd go in there. But throughout the years, it became a habit to the point where even if I didn't need anything, I would just go in there and say hi to her. And that's because she was always so warming, she was always so welcoming. She will never kick anybody out of her office because I know there's nurses out there who are like, "You're not sick. Go to class." She is never like that.
Nurse Bell is always very, she's very warming. She's very open to having a conversation with any of her students. And that was the main reason why I felt like even if I wasn't sick, even if I didn't need the lotion or her Vaseline, I would just go in there and be like, "Hi, Nurse Bell. How are you? How's your day going?" And that really helped me because she was not my teacher, and all she was at school was just the nurse. But I still felt like she was part of the whole community. Without Nurse Bell, Casco Bay's not standing right. So that was the reason why I felt like, yeah, she's not my teacher, she's not my guidance counselor, but she still helps me a lot. So I can't go a day by knowing that she's sitting in her office without saying hi to her.
And my guidance counselor, Miss Doyle, I feel like she really, really helped me because I remember throughout my whole high school career, the finances or financial circumstances when it comes to college and universities and all that is kind of the number one reasons why people go and don't go to schools. And being an asylum seeker who still hasn't had the hearing, that means that I don't qualify for FAFSA. So I knew that I would have a lot of challenges when it came to applying for college in general, or applying for scholarships because I don't qualify for FAFSA. And some scholarships do not ... You're just not eligible if you don't have a green card or if you're not a citizen.
So I remember my sophomore year of high school, I had a conversation with one of my other teachers, who's called Miss Haar, and Miss Doyle. And I told them my situation, this is what I'm going through right now, I know it's still early in my years. I probably don't need to be thinking about college and whatnot. But finances is going to be a big thing for me if I want to go into a good school, I will need the money and I don't have the money. And I don't qualify for the money that can be given to me. And I remember in the beginning, the summer before my senior year of high school, Miss Doyle nominated me for this national scholarship called QuestBridge, and I remember getting the email. It was during the summer. Which teacher's going to reach out to their student during the summer?
And I remember I saw the email, I was like, "Maybe this is a scam. I don't think it's true." And when school started, Miss Doyle asked me, "Have you applied to QuestBridge?" And I remember I told her, "Oh, I saw the email, but I didn't start the application." And she helped me just make sure that pushing me so that I would start the application. I remember going to see the stats on how many people get the application. I was like, "Yep, this is not for me. I'm not getting this." And Miss Doyle was just continuously telling me, "Did you apply? Did you apply?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I did, I did." And I remember I ended up giving that application last minute. And the only reason why I even gave it in or submitted was because Miss Doyle kept telling me, "Apply, apply, apply, apply." So without her push, I wouldn't have applied.
And I ended up becoming a finalist to the scholarship, and I ended up matching with Colgate University, which is a liberal arts school in Hamilton, New York. And matching with a school meant that I was getting a full four year full ride to go at Colgate University, an amazing school, competitive, good education for free. I was like, "Wow." And all that, I give it to Miss Doyle because she was able to look for scholarships that were going to cater to my needs for scholarships that I was eligible for. Just her knowing my needs and hearing and actually doing something about it, I was grateful for what she did because I know a lot of friends that they will present their needs, they will present what they want, and they'll be heard, but nothing, no action is really going to be taken. So I am grateful that I had a guidance counselor who was there to listen and actually take her time and see what options were out there for me.
Katherine Plog Martinez (24:48):
The through line between both of them is they took time to get to know Margarida and not just academically, but for all of your potential and who you were as a human being, and really gave you a safe place. And from that safe place, they pushed you to do more and to connect more. So you are now on staff at Casco Bay working with ninth grade students, which is super cool. Always good to be able to connect back in that community in a really different way. I would love ... Thinking back now on your own experience, but also now working with the ninth graders and being on the adults crew side of Casco Bay, do you think that what's possible at Casco Bay is possible anywhere in Portland or across the country? And do you think the experiences you had in Portland as a whole are possible across the country? And what do you think it would take so that every community and every school were working in this way of being really youth centered, being really community centered, and taking time to get to know all the young people and their needs?
Margarida Celestino (26:02):
Yeah, I definitely think that every other school can be like Casco Bay High School, and every other town or city can be like Portland. And I feel like the one way that it can be like that, like a copy version of it, is if people are intentional because I feel like at school specifically, the teachers are passionate about what they're teaching. They're passionate about helping their students, and they're intentional of what they're doing. They're not just doing it because it has to be done. They're doing it because they know their purpose. They know their impact and how they're influencing the students.
I feel like if everybody loves what they do, they'll be grateful for what they're doing without complaining. And I feel like that's how Portland thrives as a city, and that's how Casco Bay thrives as a school because the people that are working there generally want to work there. And it can be seen, the teachers love their students. They will do anything to support their students, whether it is with their academics, or just life goals in general. I know at least Casco Bay High School doesn't have an official group of alumni that are just checking on each other and all that, but if you are in an alumni and you go back to Casco Bay and you ask for help, whether you need a job, whether you need a house, whether you need help with college, the teachers are there.
I have friends who are still getting their papers peer edited by students that are going to Casco, or just teachers themselves offer that. Hey, if you need a peer editor, send that email and I will edit your paper for you, and you'll be fine. So it's not like once you're part of the community and you leave, you can't come back and join and be part of it, just like you were before. Because I remember last semester when I was at Colgate University, yes, I was away from home. I was away from school. I didn't really talk to anybody anymore. And after transferring out and coming back home, it didn't feel like I ever left because everything just fell back into place, even though I graduated, I'm not a student anymore. I was still welcomed and people show that they appreciate that I'm there.
And as a staff member, I still feel the love. It's not like anything really changed. Yeah, I guess I upgraded from student to staff member, but I still feel like the love is there. The energy is the same. It doesn't really change.
Katherine Plog Martinez (28:32):
It's so good that the saying of you can't come back home again is definitely not true in Portland or Casco Bay. The doors are always open. The relationships are always there. And I think folks will hear this season that same mentality is in place at the Boys and Girls Clubs and at the library. While we could keep going, Margarida, I think that folks are going to get to hear more of your story in our conversations over the coming weeks and the coming episodes. So thank you again for inviting us into your life and your community, and thank you for giving us this overview to really help shape and frame the season.
Margarida Celestino (29:11):
Thank you for having me. As I spent time with Karen and Katherine working on this season, we've had lots of discussions about whether my experiences in Portland were about me beating the odds, or whether there were systems in place to change the odds. When I was first asked that question, I wasn't sure. But as Katherine and I talked with so many of the adults that made a difference in my experience, I came to recognize that even though not all my peers had the exact same experience as I did, the community in Portland is focused on working together to ensure that all young people have access to people who will support them, places where they feel safe and connected, and possibilities to explore new opportunities and reach their full potential.
As you listened to today's episode, what stood out to you about my experiences in Portland? How are they similar or different than the young person would experience in your community? As we launch into the upcoming episodes, I encourage you to think not just about every setting and adult we talk to as individuals, but how they represent a broader base of youth serving organizations, community institutions, and the hidden half of adults in schools.
Katherine Plog Martinez (30:24):
Join us next week as we begin our journey through Portland, Maine, and hear from Erin Giwer from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine. As always, visit us at changingtheoddsremix.com and follow us on social media to join the conversation about the power of community in learning and development ecosystems.