Photo By Staff Sgt. Tegan Kucera | Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Laliberte, is currently working for The State Adjutant...... read more read more
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DETROIT, Mich. – With everything on hold in America, life will still go on. No one knows this better than high school juniors who have to plan for their future, a future that includes taking standardized tests.
One Soldier is helping them with this. He is still providing guidance to the students even through the challenges of the Stay home – Stay safe order.
Guidance is what Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Laliberte is known for. Before he started doing special projects for The Adjutant General of Michigan, he was a guidance counselor for Wayne State University. One of these special projects included improving the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test scores for Soldiers who wanted to advance their careers along the warrant officer career path. This worked so well that he is at it again with students at Pershing High School in Detroit.
“I think it’s awesome. He’s an educator who understands education, and he has a great rapport with the students,” said retired Lt. Col. Elizabeth Peters, the director of Army Instruction for the Detroit Public Schools. “He’s building relationships, and that’s really what it’s about.”
Peters, who runs the Junior Reserves Officers’ Training Corps, has seen how Laliberte has been changing how the students approach taking standardized tests. It is not only help with taking the ASVAB that he could change with these students, but all the tests that help them get into college like the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Testing. While Peters and Laliberte would like to see the students come into the guard, the purpose for the Student Testing Improvement Program is to help the community.
“The guard needs to continue to build relationships in many communities, especially the larger ones,” said Peters.
Building relationships is important, and by introducing high school students to the guard early, they are helping to shape how the community will see them for many years, because the guard intends to be there for them.
“When our communities are in need, the guard needs to have a presence. That’s why they’re the guard. It’s vital they respond,” said Peters.
While the citizens of Michigan are to stay home when possible, the guard is there for them, taking on many community projects like helping at food banks or providing medical care in the alternate care facilities that have been opened in the state.
Before the response to the coronavirus, Laliberte was in Detroit helping students. “These are students who could benefit tremendously from any enrichment type of stuff because of the environment they’re in,” said Laliberte.
Pershing High School was deemed important because it has a lot of students who have shown an interest in joining the military. It also has had its share of challenges over the years. Once able to teach up to 3,000 students, it now teaches 400. Many of these students need the STIP, because it will not only help them in the short term, but also in the long run.
“A lot of students could benefit from going to college, the active military, or the National Guard. It’s giving them more opportunities for the future,” said Laliberte.
Pershing has seen a progressive decline through the decades. This is why Laliberte likes helping these students so much, because he sees how they could really make use of his lessons. Lessons that have not stopped with the coronavirus, because while he is not able to teach them in person, he stays in contact by phone. Many of the juniors have reached out to him for help, because they are planning on taking one of the tests as soon as testing becomes available.
“I love it. These are the students who could benefit the military and they would thrive,” said Laliberte. “It would give them broader career opportunities, and a view of the world outside their own city.”
While Laliberte would love to see the students come into the guard or the active duty military, he would also just love to see them improve their scores on the standardized tests to see that they have more opportunities in their future. While this school year may not have gone the way anyone was expecting, Laliberte and the Michigan National Guard would like to see the STIP becoming a standard for the upcoming years. (Story by Michigan Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Tegan Kucera)
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.30.2020 13:59 |
| Story ID: | 368902 |
| Location: | DETROIT, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 65 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldier Helps Students Improve Test Scores, by SSG Tegan Kucera, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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