Noe Antonio Hernandez Castaneda, left, tutors Marina Mendez in mathematics for the GED certificate exam at El Centro de Las Americas. Even though Hernandez Castaneda already received his GED certificate, he still attends the El Centro GED classes regularly to help his fellow immigrants and friends accomplish their goals. / Photo by Kay Kemmet

By Kay Kemmet

Marina Mendez wants to work, but after a fall down some stairs put her on disability, she hasn’t been able to find a job. Most applications she fills out have prerequisites that she can’t meet. She isn’t fluent in English and doesn’t have a high school diploma.

But Mendez is trying to change her circumstances. For most of her adult life, Mendez supported three children as a single mother, but now that they are grown and have children of their own, she feels useless.

“No había trabajado ni nada,” said Mendez, who immigrated to the United States from El Salvador 22 years ago.

That means Mendez hasn’t been working. So she studies — a lot.

Every day, she has two hours of English class. Then she applies for any job she can find. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, she goes to Lincoln’s Hispanic community center, El Centro de las Americas, to study for her GED mathematics exam.

El Centro provides a long list of services geared toward low-income Latino immigrants, including a program that is unique in Lincoln, according to executive director Roger Garcia. Many organizations, including Southeast Community College, offer GED testing, but El Centro does it differently: They teach and test their students in their native language, Spanish.

“It’s not easy to find people who give their time to us,” said Mexican immigrant Noe Antonio Hernandez Castaneda, in Spanish.

The small staff, less than 10 full-time employees, also provides a multitude of other services and has done so for 30 years. The programs at the center were initially designed to help newcomers to the United States, but Garcia said he never turns anyone away, even on his day off.

First, the center seeks to provide basic needs, like assistance finding housing, jobs or filling out food stamp applications with the help of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Next, the employees, along with part-time workers and volunteers, provide classes to expand essential skills, like the GED certification program. They tutor students in basic English and computer skills and offer classes for clients who want to earn their U.S. citizenship.

Lastly, the center helps immigrants get a foothold in the community. The staff hosts support groups for domestic violence victims, a program for young men called Golden Warriors and a weekly visit from a Lincoln Police Department officer to answer legal questions. Beyond the programs offered at the center, the staff helps connect clients with other mental and physical health services for issues such as anger management and substance abuse.

Through the GED program alone, more than 90 Latino immigrants attend El Centro to study for the exams, said Garcia, executive director since November 2012. The GED program graduated 10 clients last summer and another 10 in January.

“It’s really an exciting moment,” said Rossana Jaeger of the graduations. She started working at El Centro part-time tutoring students last year. “You see the effort they took to get that goal.”

Noe Antonio Hernandez Castaneda was one of the 10 students who graduated in January, and said he feels proud for having received the equivalent of a high school diploma. The 29-year-old emigrated from Mexico 10 years ago to help provide for his family, a mother and sister. A year later he met the woman who would become his wife, Gloria, who now is studying to receive her GED certificate. The couple has three children.

Before receiving his GED, Hernandez Castaneda studied for more than a year, which attests to the difficulty of the exams. The exams cover five subjects: social studies, science, math, reading and writing, but for Hernandez Castaneda and Marina Mendez, math is the hardest.

Hernandez Castaneda finished the last exam in time to graduate last month, but Mendez is still one exam away from earning her diploma. She plans to take her last exam, on mathematics, soon. The other exams were fairly easy, Mendez said, though she had difficulty memorizing United States history for the social studies exam.

Rossanna Jaeger, right, teaches Seferino Angeles about verb conjugation and Spanish grammar at El Centro de las Americas. The agency specializes in services for Latino immigrants and provides a GED program unique to Lincoln. Unlike other programs, El Centro teaches and tests their students in Spanish. / Photo by Kay Kemmet

Hernandez Castaneda was just one year shy of getting his high school diploma in Mexico, so he’d learned part of the material covered by the GED exams before. The same is true for Mendez, who married and stopped attending school with just one year to go.

But not all GED students start at the same academic level.

For students like Seferino Angeles, a Mexican immigrant, the process can be more difficult. At 36 years old, he’s starting at a lower level with a 20-year gap in his education. He went to school in Mexico only up until the ninth grade, so much of the material is new. Therefore, the subject material he studies, like sentence structure, is more basic than some other students. Angeles said he also has problems with composition and spelling.

The tests may be difficult, but so is finding the time to study. Most students work full-time and have children. Hernandez Castaneda worked close to 60 hours a week while he was studying for the GED exams. Classes are offered from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but organizer Jaeger said they often stay later. Some days, more than 20 students come to class, but other times, only a few students are able to attend, Jaeger said.

Between working full-time as a cook at Wilderness Ridge golf course and part-time at Famous Dave’s restaurant, Hernandez Castaneda would come to El Centro twice a week for two hours each day, but that was only when he had time to attend classes regularly. He stopped studying for the GED tests for four months at one point, because he was too busy with work and his family.

Other students, like Angeles — who works in a factory — have manual labor jobs.

“Most of these people don’t have a desk job,” Jaeger said. “They have really hard jobs.”

Full-time jobs keep them from studying, but it’s also why many come. They want to improve their job opportunities.

For Mendez, it’s about getting a job that doesn’t involve manual labor. She broke her shoulder about five years ago while cleaning at an area hospital and said she still has weakness and shaking in her arm. Her workers’ compensation covers the cost for English classes and tutoring, books for GED test-prep and transportation — she can’t afford her own car.

For students who already have a job, the GED diploma may help them get a pay-raise or promotion. For others, the certificate is the first step to continuing their education, Jaeger said. Angeles, who just started studying for the GED tests, hopes to receive his certificate and continue his education.

“Tengo ganas para hacerlo,” said Angeles, who emigrated from Mexico City about 12 years ago. He is ready, he said, and has the will to get his diploma.

And the GED students, current and former, eagerly want to continue improving.

Even though Hernandez Castaneda has his certificate, he’s still attending GED classes at El Centro. He helps other students to pay back those who helped him pass the exams, but he also continues to study. He plans to take entrance exams for Southwest Community College but said he needs to improve his English first. After going back to school, he wants to become a certified chef and continue working in the restaurant business.

Regardless of their personal circumstances, the students have a mutual goal. Beyond their list of programs and services, El Centro is a place where immigrants can speak their native language and feel a sense of belonging in the community while making steps to better their lives.

Like most employees at El Centro, Jaeger immigrated to the U.S. from Latin America. Working with the GED students fills her with a sense of community, she said. Jaeger emigrated from a resort town near Cancun, Mexico, where she worked in the tourist industry. She met her husband there, a native of northeastern Nebraska. Jaeger started volunteering at El Centro to combat the culture shock she encountered after moving to Lincoln, she said.

At the center, she doesn’t just help prepare adults to take the GED tests. They talk about the things they miss from home and share the culture from their respective countries and experiences as immigrants.

Mendez spends about nine hours studying at the community center each week but she said she also comes out of obligation. She’s made friendships at El Centro — relationships she plans to honor by continuing to study hard and earn her diploma.

The GED program is just one example of how El Centro is helping Lincoln’s Latino immigrants find a sense of community while also bettering themselves.

“Es un lugar que da mucho ayuda a mucha gente,” Mendez said.

It’s a place that gives a lot of help to a lot of people.