Mason History Professor runs a nonprofit that provides enriching experience for immigrant youth

We recently caught up with Mason History Professor, Robert Ponichtera. Professor Ponichtera started a nonprofit called Liberty's Promise in May of 2003. Prior to founding his organization, Ponichtera worked for six years as a program officer, administrator, and grant writer at a number of nonprofit agencies in the Washington, DC, Metro area. Liberty's Promise works to sustain and support low-income, young immigrants, ages 15-21, while encouraging them to be active and conscientious American citizens. Its programs of professional internships and civic education aim to make the immigrant experience an affirmative one for young newcomers while instilling in them a sense of pride and support for American ideals of democracy and freedom.

Wow. We have been really impressed with the goals of your organization. How did you come up with the idea for Liberty's Promise? What made you tap into youth programs?

At the turn of 2002-03, I was working as a grant writer at a pretty left-leaning organization. Back then, everyone else around the office was lamenting how the rest of the world hates the United States—I believe for our policy toward Afghanistan—which got me to thinking: if everyone hates us, why is it that more than one million people come here every year? Why is it that some people risk their lives to come here? Is it just that people are looking to make more money, or is there something more to it? It got me to brushing up on my American history, and the thing that most impressed me—which we all take for granted—was how very revolutionary this idea was that all (at that time) men had the right to chose how they wanted to live for themselves. It was quite a radical concept for the 18th-century world. If we look at long-term political evolution, it’s no great surprise to see that most people in most places at most times in the history of the world have lived badly. On the other hand, when it’s at its best, the United States still stands as the country that most values freedom and individual liberty. You can live well here. Immigrants understand this. That’s why many people who come to this country for economic reasons stay here, even if they themselves aren’t doing well, because they believe their children will have a better life in America. There’s something here really worth maintaining. And in our own little way, we’ve made it our mission to maintain it. Why adolescents? We realize that many people coming to America these days did not grow up in countries that have a tradition of participatory democracy. Whereas young people are quick to learn new things, and sometimes even have to tote their parents to government offices because their English is better, how to become engaged in civic life, or learn about the American way of doing things, is not so easily picked up. Our assumption (admittedly, untested) has been that young immigrants are the least set in their ways, without the baggage of years of living in places where police officers and government officials are to be feared, bribed, or avoided. Whether this is true or not, it is undoubtedly so that youth are the future of our county, and our county will be what it is as long as we (and later on, they) stand by our ideals. Thus, to keep America a land of freedom and liberty, we work to demonstrate the value of civic engagement and participation to young immigrants.

What an incredible and inspiring story. How did you get the nonprofit started? Did you use your own money?

“In order to establish our programs with immigrant youth, we worked hard to introduce ourselves and our programs to other social service organizations, government agencies, and within the public schools.”
—Robert Ponichtera, Founder and Director, Liberty's Promise

In between stints as a grant writing consultant, I sat in the basement of my house for nearly two years writing a strategic plan, building a Board of Directors, and looking for money. I recall that after only a few days I realized there was no money in my basement. I’m sure that looking for a venture capitalist to invest in a money-making venture is hard enough, but even that seems easier than looking for seed money for a nonprofit. In my first two years, I didn’t even have to file a tax return, since I didn’t have any revenue. That wasn’t so bad, but it did prevent me from actually running any programs. Since I started, I’ve probably used about $3,000 a year in my own money, which isn’t very much, unless you take into consideration that we were living on just one income. Liberty's Promise was extremely fortunate to find a champion in Congressman Jim Moran. It was suggested to me at some point that I seek an earmark for my organization. Of course, I had no idea how to do that, but off to Capitol Hill I went, doing my “Mr. Smith-goes-to-Washington” thing, trying to advocate for the utility and necessity of this type of organization. More than one person told me that requesting an earmark for a start-up nonprofit was “not the best use of my time.” Along the way, a colleague reminded me that “all politics is local politics," so I met with Mr. Moran’s staff. Evidently, the Congressman liked the idea, and he arranged for us to receive $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, for 2005-06. That money really made a world of difference for us. It enabled me to rent an office, hire staff, and concentrate on program implementation, which helped us build a good reputation. That earmark essentially jump-started Liberty’s Promise, because we had enough time to draw the attention of private foundations. Our federal government money ran out in December, but we’ve been able to secure enough funding through other sources to keep our programs going. And we’re hopeful that we will continue to spark the interest of donors because of our results: we’ve placed 162 young immigrants from 45 countries in professional internships or civics classes in less than two years of operation.

Impressive. What were some of your early challenges in establishing Liberty's Promise?

When you’re the new kid on the block, things go slowly. In order to establish our programs with immigrant youth, we worked hard to introduce ourselves and our programs to other social service organizations, government agencies, and within the public schools. All that meant a lot of meetings and a lot of miles on my Hyundai. Although other agencies acknowledged the worth of our programs, they were swamped (naturally) with their own work, so while they were enthusiastic, we didn’t achieve the level of collaboration that we had hoped for—which would have been a stream of referrals. It was also difficult to get businesses to support a paid intern—business owners assumed that they would have to invest too much time in training adolescents. The only way to alter that presumption is to convince people that our adolescents are ready to learn, eager to work, and reliable. The best way to do that, of course, is to get the young people in the door, where they can demonstrate their own work ethic. And of course, when you’re new, no one wants to give you money. I suppose this is understandable, too. People want to see that you’re producing results and really making a difference in the lives of young people—not just blowing smoke.

What does the future hold for Liberty's Promise? Where are the challenges?

I think the biggest challenge is the one that faces all businesses—getting the right people in the door. Liberty's Promise as an institution has been enormously fortunate to get the right No. 2—Sarah Sherhols, who volunteered here fulltime for more than six months and now runs both our civics and internship programs. She does more than what I ask of her, which is fantastic when you only have a two-person shop. Since we plan to expand nationwide, we’re still working on the most appropriate plan to administer our programs effectively without opening offices all over the place (thus driving up overhead). If we’re to be a bit creative, and take advantage of recent workplace trends (allowing people to work from home, for example), we have to be absolutely sure we hire the right people. Beyond that, funding is a continual challenge. We want to make sure that our programs are sustainable; the last thing we want to do is start work somewhere and then be forced to scale back. They say fundraising gets harder as you grow, but I can’t imagine it would be any harder than it is already. We’re optimistic about our prospects, however. What we do is necessary and needed; we think other people, including donors, will feel the same way. Right now we’re our own best kept secret, but we have some volunteer marketers on board and we’re hoping that more and more people will hear about our work and our accomplishments. Like they say, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.

What can Mason and the Patriot Entrepreneur Newsletter do to help you as an entrepreneur?

Local entrepreneurs can think seriously about hosting young immigrants for a 10-week internship—in a lot of cases, our interns are Mason students. It’s a great way to give back to the community, and what you do really makes a tremendous impact on a young person. Our young people are eager to take advantage of the opportunity to be in a professional work environment—by far, their biggest limitation is their vexing ability to convince themselves that these opportunities are not for them. Just recently, we had a young woman from Bolivia express astonishment at being placed at an internship at a Fairfax County Public Library. “This is a job for white people,” she said. “Hispanics don’t get jobs like this. They work in McDonalds or cleaning houses.” We have young people who marvel that the languages they speak at home—Spanish or Arabic—would have value to an employer and should go on their resume. These are bright kids, and it doesn’t take much to motivate them. Again, it makes a world of difference. Publicizing what we do is so important and reminding Patriot Entrepreneurs over the course of the year that we’re out there serving low-income, immigrant youth is such a great help. Finally, donations are what keep us going. If Patriot Entrepreneurs like what we’re doing and feel that they’d like to support us, contributions are a great way to help us keep helping immigrant youth. We can’t say enough about the impact of our programs. We have seen a remarkable change in the adolescents who go through them. When we first meet our young people, they often feel disconnected from their community and frustrated by the challenges of trying to understand the American system. Our programs change that. Our youth leave with newfound self-confidence and the belief that they can succeed—and not only succeed, but also make a difference and contribute to their community. We hope the Mason Community will see the great value in our programs as well.

Liberty's Promise is located in Alexandria, VA. Visit their website

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