The first time Jeidy Delarosa Luperon saw an airplane was minutes
before she was about to board it. The sheer size of it shocked Luperon, who
grew up in a small farming community called Bánica in the Dominican Republic.
She was just as intimidated by what she was about to do — leave her family and
her homeland to attend college in a country where she didn't speak the
language.
“I can’t believe I did that,” said Luperon, speaking in English
from her high rise dorm on Marymount University’s Ballston campus. More than
four years after arriving in the United States, Luperon now is completing her
senior year with the hope of attending graduate school and becoming a high
school teacher. “If I have kids one day, I’m going to tell them — this is what
I did.”
The story of how a young woman from the Caribbean received a
scholarship to study in Virginia began when the Diocese of Arlington partnered
with the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic. Since 1991,
priests from Arlington have served in Bánica and the surrounding towns. The
support has been material as well as spiritual, said Luperon.
“People depend on the church in so many ways,” she said. “(The
church) builds houses, latrines, they work in education. They provide clothing,
food and medicine — anything you can imagine. Nobody ever cared that much for a
town and nobody has done that much for a town.”
Luperon was born a few years after the mission began, Jan. 7,
1995, the youngest of five siblings. Her father grew corn, rice, beans and
other crops in the field by their home; her mother cleaned houses. They were
poor, she said, but never lacked the essentials. She attended local public
school and always loved reading. She spent much of her time at church
participating in the youth group, teaching religious education and manning the
front desk.
Jeidy Delarosa Luperon poses for a photo with her mother
last summer. COURTESY
Once she graduated from high school, Luperon and several of her
peers in the church were awarded a college scholarship through the Arlington
Mission’s “Jovens Misioneros” program. The opportunity to go to college was a dream
come true. “My whole life I wanted to go to college, but I knew there was no
money for that,” she said. “I didn’t want to dream too big. I had to be
realistic.”
But the college they attended was less than ideal. Classes were
huge, teachers didn’t always come to class and grades were posted sporadically.
Later, all the scholarship students transferred to a better college in Santo
Domingo. Except for Luperon — she was headed to Marymount.
After hearing a talk about the mission, former Marymount President
Matthew Shank approached Father Patrick L. Posey, director of Arlington
Missions and now rector of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, and
told him they wanted to offer a partial scholarship to a Dominican student. Arlington
Missions, the missionary arm of the diocese, decided to pay the rest. The two
priests serving in Bánica then, Father Jason Weber and Father Keith M. O’Hare,
nominated Luperon. Her parents were sad to see her leave, but happy, too. “My
mom was crying but they were excited because they knew this was the opportunity
of my life,” she said.
She spent two months learning English in the Dominican Republic
before she came to Virginia in August 2015. She then spent a year learning
English at the Northern Virginia Community College while living with a host
family from St. James Church in Falls Church. When she was 20 years old, she
enrolled as a freshman at Marymount. After finishing her general education
classes, she decided to study English and education.
Though living here has been an adjustment, Luperon said she’s
come to love her adopted home. “I’m so grateful for Marymount. I love
everything about it — the education I’m receiving, the relationships you can
make, strong bonds with faculty members,” she said. “I’m grateful that I’ve
encountered people who have helped me grow spiritually and have challenged me
to be a better person.”
Luperon doesn’t know what will happen once she finishes student
teaching at different schools in the area this spring. But she believes God has
a plan. “When I look back, I can trace how far God has led me,” she said. “Some
of my friends say, ‘Oh, you are so lucky’ but I think I'm so blessed. I have a
lot of things I don’t deserve, so they have to come from somewhere and I know
that’s God working.”