Page 23 - BusinessWest January 20, 2025

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The stage where many locals have enjoyed concerts over the years will now showcase a blend of student training and community events.
Staff Photo
LightHouse actually has partnerships with the public school sys- tems in Holyoke and other communities, taking in a handful of stu- dents who are technically enrolled with the city, but do their learning at LightHouse.
“The students they’re sending us are typically disengaged,” Gobron said. “A lot of times, we hear from parents, ‘I used to have a curious and excited kid, and somewhere, that went away.’ And now we have this child who’s kind of shut down and disengaged,
thinks that they hate learning, or have any number of challenges.”
Each student has an advisor that becomes their point person, she explained, both for the student and their family — with ‘family’ being an adaptable term. “Some students have two parents; some students have four parents; some students have a grandmother, a social worker, and a probation officer. And the advisor creates a team of support around the student.”
Students are encouraged to pursue their own inter- ests — sometimes with immediate, real-world applica- tions, as with the burgeoning event-production and culinary programs — but still need to achieve the same graduation requirements, in terms of credits and test- ing, as public-school students in Massachusetts.
“LightHouse was very supportive of me. I’d been used to being treated inalotofways.I knew when I was being brushed off, neglected, or taken advantage of, so this feeling was very odd.”
Incoming students tend to fall into one of several categories, Gobron noted: young people with passions and interests who seek more time, support, and flexibility to pursue them; those who come from negative schooling experiences, may learn differently, or be anxious, depressed, bullied, ostracized, struggling academically, or managing other challeng- es; and teens somewhere in the middle, who are open to the possibility of being inspired, but aren’t there yet.
One senior student recently wrote an essay on her experiences, and how she always liked learning, but faced a combination of bullying in middle school and struggles at home.
“I went from being an honor-roll student to skipping classes and not learning a single thing,” she wrote. “I was so consumed by depression and anxiety that I felt suffocated. I understand that it was a tough time for everyone when COVID hit, and school became completely different, but I’d never done worse in my life in terms of grades. COVID was my
“We believe that young people can and should be
supported to be the leaders of their own lives,” the
school’s website states. “We know that learning is most
successful when it is actively chosen and personally
meaningful. For us, the purpose of education is to col-
laborate with young people to cultivate the skills, confidence, and vision to co-create the future.”
Success Stories
Lighthouse
Continued on page 25 >>
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