NPR

This Nun Has Been Fighting For Migrant Kids For 45 Years

Sister Ann Kendrick has dedicated most of her life to serving immigrant families. The community center she helped found in Florida functions both as a school and a sanctuary. Here's her story.
Sister Ann Kendrick (center) of the HOPE Community Center in Apopka, Fla., rallies with Hispanic immigration policy demonstrators from various groups in front of Orlando City Hall in 2012.


In 1965, Congress took a major step in addressing the plight of schoolchildren growing up in some of the nation's most impoverished communities: They passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. At the time, it was considered an important victory in the "war on poverty."

For the children of migrant farmworkers, however, the law has fallen short. Their quality of life and their education have not improved that much, according to the Interstate Migrant Education Council.These kids still drop out at high rates and graduate from high school at low rates — researchers even have a term for it: "mobility-induced

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