Letter of Reference
from Evelyn Collazo
October 14, 2008
Dear Mr. Peter Ferrito:
Thank you for making one of my professional dreams come true! I asked you to please help us bring out the leadership qualities of each one of our student council members, and that is exactly what you did.
Although the time was limited and these young leaders still have to finish their mission statement, implement it, start leading by example and presenting their plan to the entire faculty, you have provided them the tools to do just that, and so much more. I am sure that with those tools, the help of their dedicated advisors, my own support, and your willingness to continue helping us, they will come together as an effective team that through well planned activities will certainly make a positive impact on the entire student body.
Your insight into the minds and souls of our students with your most effective "tough-love" style confirmed to me that young people need to be challenged and will always rise to the occasion when pressured in the correct manner. You were demanding and strict but kind and caring at the same time, and they responded beautifully to what was required of them. The fact that they were willing to give up a holiday to be present on that second day, spoke volumes of the respect they felt for you and the satisfaction they felt for that which they were accomplishing, individually and as a team. I only wish you could have been able to work with them a little longer.
Hopefully we will keep in touch and make sure that my students continue to give the best of themselves by working at a personal level on whatever it is that might be keeping them from giving their full potential. I hope your visit to Puerto Rico and Commonwealth High School was a pleasurable one and that we will have the opportunity of working together again in the future.
May God bless you for all that you accomplished with my students and all that you are doing "one school at a time." As you so well put it: "We can never give up!"
Sincerely yours,
Evelyn Collazo
Director
Commonwealth High School
Hato Rey, Puerto Rico
Read Evelyn Collazo's article, "Leadership Workshop at Commonwealth High School," from the October 2009 CPS Scene Newsletter.
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