The Howard County
I N VOL.2, NO.5
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5 0 MAY 2012
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Not retired, rewired for service By Robert Friedman “From early in my life, the family motto has been, to quote my mother, ‘Se servicial — Be of service’,” said Felicia (Feli) SoláCarter. So after a career in the Social Security Administration (SSA), Solá-Carter is spending her so-called retirement years training federal employees to excel in their jobs, advocating for Howard County’s growing number of Hispanic students, and trying to improve access to healthcare for county residents. “I’m not retired, just rewired,” said the Puerto Rico-born resident of Columbia, Md. Solá-Carter, now 61, began working at the SSA in 1971, right after graduating from college. She rose to the position of assistant deputy commissioner for human resources at the federal agency. She retired from that position three years ago, and sees her work career as having been part of “the honorable profession of the federal civil service.” Since then, her retirement has allowed her to take on several challenges closer to her heart.
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Empathy for fellow Hispanics Her principal civic interest now is how Hispanic students are (or aren’t) progressing in Howard County’s public schools. She has channeled that concern into the position of president of Conexiones (Connections) — an organization that works to keep Hispanic children in area schools and helps them to go on to higher achievements in education and in life. Solá-Carter took up the volunteer post, she said, “because I was a Latino student who had the good fortune to be born into a family that could afford an excellent education for me, from which I’ve benefitted immensely.” She decided to permanently move from her Puerto Rico homeland after graduating from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, N.Y. Since Puerto Ricans, unlike other Latinos born outside the U.S., are American citizens, she needed no papers and faced no bureaucratic problems in making the move. “I was able to get a good job [at the Social Security Administration], and I enjoyed the life in New York,” she said. She married Maryland native Bruce W. Carter, and they are the parents of two
Felicia Solá-Carter (left) is president of Conexiones, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Hispanic students in Howard County Schools. Solá-Carter, shown with students at Howard High School in Ellicott City, also volunteers with a number of other organizations, including the Partnership for Public Service, and serves on the board of the Horizon Foundation.
grown sons, both graduates of Howard County schools. She acknowledged that coming from the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where she attended private Catholic schools, gave her certain advantages that other newly arrived Hispanics might not have had. A strong empathy for her Latino brothers and sisters impelled her to help those less fortunate. “I know the [Hispanic] culture and family values, and I know the language, and I see the potential of the kids and the difference that I could make,” said Solá-Carte, a native of Caguas, a mountain town south of San Juan. Conexiones was founded in 2000, when Hispanic students were “the invisible kids”
of the Howard County education system, she said. Their school drop-out rate was higher than for any other group, “and no one was paying any attention to them.” Then along came lifetime educator Murray Simon, who spent 14 years as an advisor to education ministries in five Latin American countries. After taking up residence in Howard County, Simon saw the dropout problem among Latinos here and co-founded Conexiones with the Rev. Walter Rodriguez. In 2003, the organization became an educational partner of the local school system. Simon retired as Conexiones president in 2007 and Solá-Carter took over the volunteer post. See SOLÁ-CARTER, page 29
ARTS & STYLE
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FITNESS & HEALTH 4 k Does your doctor tell the truth? k Flu vaccine may last a lifetime THE SENIOR CONNECTION 15 k Special 4-page section from Howard County Office on Aging LAW & MONEY 19 k How to get high returns at low risk k Cheap stocks with potential PLUS CROSSWORD, BEACON BITS, CLASSIFIEDS & MORE