Chara Gladden

With over 13 years of professional experience working with children in various settings, Chara has impacted the lives of students and their families in New York and on the isle of Belize. Upon traveling to Belize on vacation in 2015, Chara noticed a high mortality rate among women due to domestic violence; which was a cause dear to her. In light of this, her calling became clear, and she became a school teacher and after-school director in Placencia Village. Chara worked to help students gain access to quality education through raising money in the community to help fund literacy programs in her school and for her NGO after-school program for local children. This literacy program transformed non-readers into proficient readers within a few months. In her spare time, she volunteered in Seine Bight Village whose residents are currently feeling the weight of economic oppression. She was able to assist 15 students in getting full scholarships to high school and funded school supplies that they could not afford from sponsors abroad.

She is currently collaborating with domestic and international sponsors to create Belize’s first STEM school. Chara continues to answer an intrinsic calling to provide much-needed service for populations that are systematically underserved. Her goal is to provide youth domestically and internationally with the toolkit to be able to navigate their social landscape in a manner that will empower them to make informed choices in challenging social and emotional situations.

She graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree from CUNY City College with a concentration in Developmental Psychology.