“Success” sounds like a big word. But at The Immokalee Foundation, it often begins much smaller: a student moving forward, one step at a time. Multiply that story by thousands of students, and the impact reaches far beyond any one graduate, strengthening families, workplaces, and the future of Southwest Florida.
For a student at The Immokalee Foundation, that progress is rarely the work of one person. More often, it comes directly from three: an advocate, a mentor, and a parent—who we call our Triad of Success. Each brings a different perspective to a student’s life, creating the kind of support that helps students overcome obstacles, seize opportunities, and keep moving toward their goals. Along the way, they gain something even more lasting: people who keep showing up.
It’s easy to see the graduation photos. It’s harder to see the dozens of phone calls, quarterly meetings, conversations with mentors, parent conferences, text messages, and moments of encouragement that made those photos possible.
This is the story of the people who make that journey possible.
The Advocate
Every student in The Immokalee Foundation’s Career Pathways Program has an advocate. It’s the one guarantee they share. At least once each quarter, advocates review grades, attendance, graduation requirements, and whatever else a student may need. However, the work rarely stays limited to a checklist.
For Giselle Nava, that work feels deeply personal.
Years ago, she sat on the other side of the table as an Immokalee Foundation student herself. Today, she carries a caseload of over 60 students, helping guide them through many of the same challenges she once faced.
“I didn’t realize how much happened behind the scenes,” she says, thinking back to her own experience. “All the planning. All the phone calls. The meetings.”
Now, she’s the one making those calls.
Whether the concern comes from a mentor, a guidance counselor, or the student’s own academic record, Giselle follows up. Sometimes, that means checking in with a family. Other times, it means reminding a student that someone is waiting to hear from them.
“I have to be that bridge,” she says. “‘Hey, please reach out to your mentor.’ ‘Please do your part.'”
Sometimes, the first sign that something is wrong isn’t obvious. One student Giselle worked with had always excelled academically. Then, her grades and attendance began declining. Concerned, the student’s mentor reached out. Giselle met with the student, slowly earned her trust, and discovered challenges at home that had been weighing heavily on her. Together, Giselle, the student’s mother, and her mentor built a plan that addressed both the challenges at home and the work waiting at school. By the end of the quarter, her grades had recovered.
“The success isn’t impossible without one of us,” Giselle says. “It just becomes a little bit harder.”
Because while advocates are often the first to spot a problem, they were never meant to solve it alone.
The Mentor
Not every student at The Immokalee Foundation has a mentor. Today, about half do as we work to fill the need with new mentors.
Unlike advocates, mentors aren’t employees. They’re volunteers who choose to invest their time in a young person—not because it’s required, but because they believe one relationship can make a difference.
For many students, that relationship becomes something difficult to find elsewhere: a trusted adult outside their family and teachers, someone who listens without judgment, asks thoughtful questions, and reminds them they don’t have to navigate high school, college, or life’s uncertainties alone.
That difference is often easiest to see side by side. At a recent Foundation event, one mentor watched two students speak, both confident and well-prepared on stage. Afterward, meeting them one-on-one, she noticed something subtler: the student who’d had a mentor for years carried that same ease into ordinary conversation, while the other seemed more hesitant off the stage than on it.
“That’s one area,” says Yeimi, Director of Community Outreach, “where having a mentor really helped her build those interpersonal skills.”
Not every lesson a mentor teaches appears on a transcript. Sometimes the greatest gift is simply giving a student the confidence to walk into a room believing they belong there.
The Parent
Some of the most important work happens after a student leaves The Immokalee Foundation.
It’s at the dinner table, during the drive to school, or in the conversations that happen after a difficult day. It’s a parent reminding a student why they committed to the program, asking how a test went, or encouraging them to keep going when the path feels overwhelming.
For Yeimi, parents aren’t simply part of the support system—they’re essential to it.
“If we don’t have the parents keeping their student accountable,” she says, “then when a student decides, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ they would leave.”
That’s why every school year begins with a pledge. Students, parents, advocates, and available mentors come together to recommit to the year ahead. Parents promise to support their student’s education, stay engaged, and reach out when something doesn’t seem right. It’s a reminder that success isn’t something the Foundation does for students; it’s something built with families.
Together
No student succeeds because of a single conversation, one scholarship, or one person.
Instead, success is built over time—in relationships that grow stronger with consistency, in adults who notice when something has changed, and in families who keep believing in their children even when the road ahead isn’t easy.
At The Immokalee Foundation, that’s what the Triad of Success makes possible. An advocate, a mentor, and a parent each bring something different, but together they create something none could alone: a student who knows they don’t have to face the future by themselves.
Today, every student has an advocate. Every student has a family standing beside them. But only about half have a mentor.
For the students still waiting, the missing piece isn’t someone extraordinary. It’s someone willing to invest a little time, share a little wisdom, and simply keep showing up.
Because when one student moves forward, the impact doesn’t stop there. It reaches classrooms, hospitals, businesses, and neighborhoods across Southwest Florida. One student becomes many stories. And every one of those stories begins the same way: with people who chose to show up.
Become a mentor. It starts with two hours a month—a phone call, a coffee, a conversation.
