In October of 2010, Irma came to Covenant House.
Her mother had died, and when her father remarried, his new wife didn’t want Irma around. Irma moved in with her aunt, but was soon cast out again.
Irma was a junior at Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward. She loved school and the community there, and she was afraid of losing the only source of support she had left.
Thankfully, a school social worker knew of Covenant House, and brought a homeless and despondent Irma in.
“I had never heard of Covenant House, never knew what it was, never thought I’d have to go there,” she said.
Over the course of her 18-month stay, Irma blossomed into a confident and determined young woman.
“I liked the extra push they gave me,” she said. “I needed that extra push.”
Irma was elected homecoming queen in her junior year, and graduated third in her class (the first graduating class at her school since Katrina). While in high school, she worked at McDonald’s 30 hours a week, and in the summer of 2012, she interned at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.
Now Irma works full time at Costco and serves on the Covenant House Board of Directors. We are so proud of Irma and all she has accomplished, and are blessed to have such an inspirational young woman helping to make Covenant House a home for any young person who needs us.
