I am the product of an incredible village that my parents built when they founded The New Victorian School in Haiti back in 1991, where they shared their love for music with children while offering them an education that could take them far beyond the shores of the island. 

In 2015, I inherited the school and continued the legacy. 

As a first-generation, female biracial Haitian-American, it wasn’t an easy decision to move to Haiti, but I couldn’t bear to close the school that my parents had worked so hard to build. When I arrived, I saw the sheer terror and uncertainty on the faces of the staff and students, and I knew that I had to do everything in my power to keep the school open. 

Since then, I have never looked back. 

My mission goes beyond just educating the children; it’s about changing the narrative that the world has when they think or see the future generations of Haiti’s people. I want my students to feel proud of who they are and where they come from, and to know that even though the odds may be stacked against them, they can still rise and offer their greatness to the world. 

But it takes a village… 

I know this because it took a village to support my father’s dreams for more, my mother’s devotion to teaching, and their combined villages to make me into the person that I am today. An accomplished violinist and violist with over 30 years of performance and teaching experience and the Executive Director of The Joseph Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit that raises funds and provides resources to the students, staff, and parents of The New Victorian School in Haiti. 

Helping others has always been a core value in my village and I’m honored to be a pass on the love of music and the power of education, just like how my parents did for me.