Circle de Luz Offers A Small Group Of Girls An Invaluable Invitation

Each year, the organization gives a spark of opportunity for young Latinas

Jeniffer Gonzalez Reyes, a sixth-grader at Ranson Middle School, got called to the principal’s office. Her anxiety spiked. She hadn’t done anything wrong. The meeting wasn’t about punishment, however, but opportunity: a personal invitation to apply to Circle de Luz, a Charlotte nonprofit that supports and empowers young Latinas. Someone nominated her for the organization, and even today—17 years later—Jen doesn’t know who it was.

Each year, Circle de Luz works with school staff to identify a handful of girls who would benefit from extra support. Perhaps they excel academically but struggle a bit socially; perhaps it’s the opposite. From seventh grade through high school, Circle de Luz surrounds these girls with mentorship and opportunities. Part of it is academic: study groups, college and career workshops, scholarships. And part of it is fun: field trips and art classes. 

In the six years after her trip to the principal’s office, Circle de Luz introduced Jen to a new side of the Charlotte area: Broadway shows and Charlotte Ballet performances at the Blumenthal, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, pumpkin-picking at a farm, photography and painting workshops, and even one of her new favorite foods: sushi. As one of four children of busy immigrant parents who ran their own businesses, Jen wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do many of those things without Circle de Luz.

“In an intentional way, they were letting us know: You belong here. Anyone can be in these spaces, and it doesn’t matter what you look like or if you have an accent,” Jen says. “That piece really stuck with me, even to this day.”

Young Latina women face systemic barriers. While 98% of Latina students say they want to earn a high school diploma, 20% won’t graduate—twice the rate of Black girls and five times that of white girls. Access interferes: Latinx students are more likely to attend poorly funded schools and have inexperienced teachers. Circle de Luz bridges this gap. It has a 100% graduation rate.

“Circle de Luz feels like a sisterhood. It’s a community of women empowering other women,” says Executive Director Tere González García. “It’s not just about giving a workshop about how to write an essay, but it’s also about (recognizing) what these girls have inside them … how they’re navigating systems that were not built for them.”

The group supports the girls’ families, too. A staff social worker supports family members at home and connects them to resources like health care or food. One girl’s mom, inspired by her teenage daughter going to college, felt empowered to go to college, too. Mental health referrals are an area of growing need. Another barrier: The constant changes to immigration laws have increased stress at home and led to worsened bullying at school. 

Officially, Circle de Luz ends with high school graduation. It didn’t feel that way to Jen, though. Ten years after graduation, she’s still friends with the women in her cohort, and they recently reunited to celebrate a baby shower. Her Circle de Luz mentor, Rosie Molinary—who founded the organization—has become “a lifelong friend.” Jen recently read over their years of correspondence and realized her emails to Rosie sounded more like a diary; she’s leaned on Rosie from middle school into adulthood, and she even followed in her footsteps as a fellow Bonner Scholar who attended Guilford College. 

Today, Jen continues the spirit of Circle de Luz in her work as a program manager with the Bonner Foundation, an organization that increases access to higher education. She helped two of her younger sisters with their college applications, and now one is applying to graduate school. When Jen wonders how her life or her family’s lives may be different due to Circle de Luz, she begins to cry. 

“It was like having a direct lifeline with women who committed to be mentors. Even if they didn’t have every answer, they were there to help us navigate and figure it out,” Jen says. “They see the potential in every woman they recruit and in our families as well.” 

My hope is that there’s someone reading this column who worked at Ranson Middle School in 2008 who’s smiling right now, realizing what their nomination for Jen to Circle de Luz achieved. It’s Jen’s hope that some sixth-grade girls got called to the principal’s office last spring with a life-changing opportunity—and that they said yes.