Monroe College International Students Host Pre-Thanksgiving Feast for First-Generation Americans and Their Immigrant Parents.

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- Luz Lopez, a Peruvian immigrant to the United States, is being clung to by a first generation of American children, teaching them about the most unique American holiday, Thanksgiving.

"Lucy! Lucy!," four-year-old Jason Katz impatiently clamors for Lopez' attention. Jason wears a headband with a single brightly-colored feather that Luz - "Lucy" to her young charges -- cut from construction paper. "'Papi, papi,' I'm talking. What do you say when you interrupt somebody?'" A quick lesson in manners, combined with after-school homework help, time on the computer or just hanging out with pre-schoolers to pre-teens four-days a week, plus Saturdays, keeps this 52-year-old grandmother young and constantly in-motion.

For the pre-Thanksgiving feast she helped prepare for "Kiddies College," a free after-school program for the children of Monroe College students in New Rochelle, Lopez brought from home one of three turkeys she'll roast this week, including one prepared Kosher for her morning job at a Jewish nursery school. Monroe students and staff helped with the trimmings, including mashed potatoes, yellow rice, salad and fresh fruit. There were also bakery cakes and cookies.

Energetic Jason's mother, Selina Suarez, 25, says she and her husband, Jason Katz, a construction worker, could not be juggling college, jobs and parenting Jason and his nine-year-old brother, Dashawn, if it weren't for this free after school program. "My husband and I take turns attending classes at night," says a bit weary Suarez who is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Business Management. "I'm grateful. I have a house, a car and a lot of support, but I couldn't be doing all of this without Kiddies College."

Strapping 6'1, 185- pound Akil Friday helped launch "Kiddies College" earlier this year and was on-hand to help manage the party. This is one of several community service projects that Friday and his classmates help manage as members of the college's Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) chapter. The 22-year-old Trinidad-Tobago native from San Fernando greets guests at the party with a firm handshake and an equally strong sense of self-confidence. Now co-president of Monroe College's SIFE chapter, Friday explains that "SIFE is an organization about assisting others. We go out into the community teaching others about free enterprise, financial independence and social responsibility, being more independent and not dependent upon the government. We're putting our studies into practice before we graduate."

As co-president, Friday oversees the chapter's agenda and all of its community service projects, which include computer instruction for the other end of the community spectrum, senior citizens. "We have seniors who re-enroll every semester because they enjoy it so much. We've gotten great feedback from the community."

Classmate and Kiddies College project leader, Lynissa Jordan, 20, says, "This is one of SIFE's most successful and strongest programs. Also assistant vice president of the chapter, the Business Management major from La Fillette, Trinidad-Tobago, adds, "Being able to witness how these kids grow intellectually and socially over the course of the semester makes me very close to this project." And while she never babysat for her 17-year-old brother back home, she says Kiddies College gives her more patience when she spends time with her pre-teen cousins in New York.

Winning the SIFE national competition next May in Kansas City for this private college of 6,000 students is the chapter's goal. It has already won several regional awards since it was started three years ago by accounting professor and faculty adviser Max Torres, a Monroe graduate.

Max LaMarque, nine, a fourth grade student at P.S. 189 in Manhattan, and his 10-year-old sister, Illys, a fifth grader, attend Kiddies College several days a week while their mother, Niurka Rodriguez, 40, works towards her Bachelor's degree in accounting. "The kids want to come everyday, just to see Lucy," says Rodriguez, who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic where she already had a degree in banking administration. She plans on becoming a CPA upon graduating from Monroe, next June. She works at the Dominican Women's Development Center as a bookkeeper in the accounting department. Her husband is a cab driver. "I could not go to college without Kiddies College."

Kiddies College director Lopez is a classic example of "immigrant makes good." In 1991 she left behind a thriving private school that she had founded in Lima in order to be closer to her then 20-year-old daughter, Merella, who had moved to New York to attend college. With her masters in education degree, she was able to get a job in the New Rochelle public school system as a teacher's assistant. Three years later, she began working for Monroe College. She has since earned an associate's degree in psychology, takes courses at Monroe, and recently purchased her co-op apartment. She plans to bring her mother and brother over from Peru to live with her. On Thanksgiving, she'll be roasting yet another turkey, this time for family and friends.

As Lopez uncovers the chafing dishes and her young charges line up for this special pre-Thanksgiving feast, she asks anyone in listening range: "What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Who wants the drumstick?"