Don Keel, president and CEO of The Genesis Center, an educational institution in Providence, has more than 30 years experience working with non-profit institutions.
At the center, he is teaching over 700 immigrants from over 30 countries annually, and providing child care and job placement services. He has been a vice president of development and external affairs at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden-Sydney, Va., and has held administrative posts at other U.S. colleges. He also has been director of development for The Florida Orchestra; and vice president of development of the YMCA of Greater Providence. He co-wrote a book entitled, “Funding Exploration” with fellow author William Vartorella.
PBN: Why do you do the work you do at The Genesis Center?
KEEL: This is the best job I have ever had. It’s not, by far, the biggest or the highest paying job I’ve ever had, but it’s the best. Every year, The Genesis Center provides educational, health, employment, and social services to more than 750 immigrants and refugees from over 30 countries. We serve families throughout the entire life spectrum – from infants to the elderly. In the last year, there were 683 adults and 107 children directly impacted by our services. We teach English in an “integrated program platform” which uses the teaching of English as a context into which we weave education in family finance, computer technology, job procurement, healthy cooking (we have an organic garden), and other enabling skills to thrive in our North American culture.
Spend five minutes in one of our classrooms and see the energy and commitment and motivation of both teachers and students. Those five minutes will explode any notions you may have had about the negative stereotypes of immigrants. Come see the pride of our students when they receive their U.S. citizenship. See the joy in their faces when they receive a diploma from a Rhode Island high school. It’s exhilarating for me to meet someone in a position at a bank, for instance, and have them tell me with pride: “I went through your program!”
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PBN: What is your favorite success story?
KEEL: Ricardo (not his real name) arrived in the U.S. from the Dominican Republic in 2006. As a divorced father of three children, he had to adapt to a new and unfamiliar North American environment, learn English, and make a living, while raising his children as he thought they should be raised. He wanted to teach his children a sound work ethic, and the “American dream” of starting his own business was a huge motivator for him. He enrolled in the Genesis Center’s English for Speakers of Other Languages program in August of 2009.
Ricardo started a business by buying an ice cream truck. He now operates two and is expanding. Of course, an ice cream business in the Rhode Island winter doesn’t pay the bills. So this is when Ricardo’s second successful business skills kick in. He buys cars at biweekly car auctions in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. He cleans, refurbishes, and sells them. Knowing good used cars are at a premium, he buys only the ones that just need brakes, a starter, battery, and such, but no major work like transmissions. He is doing a thriving, state-licensed business and is growing his clientele rapidly by word of mouth of satisfied customers.
Ricardo was also a citizenship student at The Genesis Center and has become a U.S. Citizen.
PBN: What is on the horizon for The Genesis Center in terms of new programming?
KEEL: We have a “Financial Opportunity Center” in which a full-time ex-banker and financial coach provides hands-on training in basic skills in financial management and asset building. This is a critical skill for our new Americans, and we are planning to “scale” it to bring it to pockets of immigrant populations throughout the state.
We are modifying and expanding our workforce development programs to meet the dynamic needs of Rhode Island’s employers. We are also developing a “family literacy program” in which parents and children can learn alongside each other. We’ve brought state of the art technology into our classrooms through mobile labs and we are continuing to build our e-learning capacity to provide students with the skills to compete in the 21st century.
PBN: What is the biggest need facing adult immigrants in this country today and how is the center meeting that need?
KEEL: The biggest need is building English proficiency along with acquiring the survival skills and tools to be successful in the U.S. That is the origin of our integrated platform. Stand-alone teaching English as a second language just doesn’t cut it anymore. Our instruction is infused with financial literacy, job readiness, and technology instruction, so that our learners come away equipped to realize their individual goals.
PBN: If you could fund one project to help facilitate children’s day-care what would it be?
KEEL: Family Literacy: parents and children learning together. The early formative years are critical to a person’s subsequent development. So, we are focusing on giving our kids the learning opportunities to enable them compete among their peers when they get to kindergarten. Because the parent is the child’s first teacher, we need to include them in the process. Many of our parents have low literacy and educational attainment, so family literacy helps the whole family.
You can see that our approach at The Genesis Center is a holistic approach. We don’t just teach one thing at a time. We weave together the teaching of a spectrum of skills to enable individuals and their families to make it in this new country they have chosen as their home.
The result is that they will be better off as individuals and families, and we will all be better off as a community, a state, and a nation.
