Notre Dame Prep alum Annalisa Simmer with two 8th graders in her educational program. They had just taken two of three places in a competition at their school in Guatemala.
Ask 2003 Notre Dame Prep graduate Annalisa Simmer what drove her to her career and she immediately scoffs at the notion that she actually “has” a career. “It’s more of a ‘life work’ than a career,” she says. “No one ever went into humanitarian aid or mission work to make money or become successful as those in the U.S. might define success.” Simmer said this is the kitchen of one of the families in the program. Simmer is with her fiance in Belize, which is in Central America. Simmer is planning a June wedding.
Life work or career, what Simmer is doing is simply both unselfish and commendable. After what she calls a “privileged” upbringing and a degree from Albion College, Simmer began a journey that took her not to grad school, but to Guatemala.
She says she’s been a full-time missionary in Guatemala since October of 2010 at which time she thought she was going to teach massage therapy to the Guatemalans. But there was a real need for someone to teach English, so she jumped in with both feet.
“I run an educational program,” Simmer says. “The people here call it a scholarship program, but I also call it an incentive program. I offer ‘points’ to the kids based on the grades they get in school. With those points they can buy ‘emergency supplies’ such as beans, rice, salt and sugar, among other things, or they can buy items to help improve their own family economy; things like a sewing machine, a wood stove or hair clippers.”
They also use those points to buy their school supplies and pay for their school fees, which Simmer is happy to see. “But they need so much more. In the villages where I work, schools only go to the 9th grade. Currently, two of my most advanced students are entering 9th grade and it’s my hope that within the next year I’ll be able to purchase a large enough house to provide housing for those two girls and any future students who may want to study at a high school or university level. But that’s still a lot of prayers and a lot of money away.”
‘Privileged’
Having witnessed such poverty and need, Simmer says it’s made her appreciate even more her upbringing in the U.S. and her education. “I recognize that I was born privileged,” Simmer says. “For starters, I was born in a country that allows me hassle-free access to just about anywhere in the world. No one looks over my documents and declares me unfit to be in their country. No one in America ever assumes that I don’t have the money to pay any loan, and they all believe me if I tell them I have a certain amount of money in my bank account.
She also says that beyond being born in such a privileged country, she also was born into a privileged family. “While I was probably one of the poorest in my class from NDP, I did have two parents present in the household, which many children even in America don’t have. That definitely is a privilege!”
Importance of education
Simmer also is grateful for the education she received both at school and at home. “First of all, both of my parents are or were teachers,” she says. “My mother gave up teaching to raise my brother and me, but she still taught us. My father is now retired from teaching, but my mother has since gone back into it.” She says her parents always instilled in her the importance of education, a concept that also was reinforced at Notre Dame Prep.
“I remember my senior year at NDP. I took three languages, various art classes, religion and English,” Simmer says. “I also ended up auditing Mr. McCaskey’s AP calculus class, and that I can tell you affected me at college. I refused to let a math class beat me. I took it at Albion and passed—with a C!”
She adds that her creativity and love for learning were omnipresent in college as well, which she attributes to her time at NDP. “Having the ability to identify my interests also led to a few additional college degrees at Oakland Community College after finishing my bachelor’s.
But, she says, that same self-awareness and the ability to see potential in everybody ultimately led her to Guatemala. Seeing such potential drives just about everything she does now. “I believe that so many people could do so much with their lives if they just had a simple hand up. I have one girl in my program who is brilliant; I think she could be an ambassador or president of Guatemala. But right now her family struggles to have food on the table even once a day.”
“When I first started doing what I’m doing now in Guatemala, I was renting an unfurnished house,” she said. “The landlord left me a couch that he didn’t feel like moving. That’s where I slept for months until some friends with a hotel decided to get new beds and gave me two of their old ones. I didn’t have a stove or a fridge. Only a slow-cooker. I had no chairs, but at least I had a table for that slow-cooker and could stop living out of suitcases.”
With time, however, she was able to get the money together to buy some stools for her little house, and with those “accruements” she was able to start giving English lessons to earn a bit more income. From that point forward the program grew even beyond her own considerable imagination. But back then, all that existed was one young woman with enough tenacity to not give up.
“I still don’t have a fridge,” Simmer said. “And I still don’t miss it.”
Simmer is hoping to take her program to the next level. “After four years of doing this the money-free way, I’d like to form my own 501(c) organization,” she said. “The number of families I help is limited only by the meager amount of funding that I get currently. I’ve had a few people who have said that they would help set up a 501(c), but then they get busy or forget. So, if there’s anyone out there who knows how to do that or is interested in helping, let me know! I can be reached at asimmer@gmail.com.”
Busy teaching, busy learning
Obviously dedicated to helping others learn, Simmers said she also looks for opportunities to learn something new herself. Even though she’s studied five different languages—French, Spanish, German, Latin and American sign language—she’s not done. “Soon I hope to learn Kaqchikel, a Mayan language, so that I can communicate with another relatively large group of Guatemalans without the use of a translator.”
Also when she’s back in the U.S., Simmer looks forward to helping her mother in the classroom. And if all that isn’t enough, she’s planning a big event for this summer. “I’m engaged and planning a June wedding. We tried for a tourist visa last August to come home, but were denied. So you all will just have to come to Guatemala to meet him!”
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.