What the Immokalee Foundation’s Class of ’24’ Means to SW Florida

By Noemi Y. Perez
President and CEO
The Immokalee Foundation
Caps, gowns, diplomas, sashes, and commencement speeches—these classic elements define an often highly emotional graduation celebration. For many, the act of graduating is a given. However, in Immokalee, graduation is never guaranteed—it’s often elevated to the status of “a dream come true.
“That’s precisely what happened for the 86 Immokalee Foundation high school and postsecondary students we celebrated this year. And why are these graduates so important to us? The Immokalee Foundation’s innovative education programs equip Immokalee’s best and brightest young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to achieve their full potential and prepare them to make a meaningful contribution to the community we share.
In the decades ahead, Immokalee Foundation alums will engineer and build our homes. They will oversee our healthcare. They will teach, protect, and lead us. Their innovation, creative thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit will change how we do business. Our collective future depends on their success.
This year’s postsecondary graduates join a group of over 16,000 Foundation alums already making their mark on our region and beyond.
Then there’s Immokalee, the small town and tight-knit community that shaped their young lives. Some may not realize Immokalee is a town located 35 miles outside of downtown Naples, not just a major thoroughfare in NorthNaples. Immokalee is home to a large, primarily migrant, farming community with a population of 40,000 during the winter season. Many residents are forced to labor in agricultural fields, move their families with the harvesting seasons, and suffer low wages. Still more fill vital, yet underappreciated blue-collar roles throughout the region.
These hard-working men and women often work to feed millions of people in SW Florida and beyond, yet they can find it challenging to feed their own families.
Thanks to the support of donors, mentors, volunteers, and community partners, The Immokalee Foundation provides the youth of Immokalee with life-changing education, career readiness, and professional development programs.
Starting in elementary school and continuing through postsecondary education, our students take an educational journey that sets them up for career success and financial independence. The Foundation provides mentoring and tutoring as well as access to field trips, career panels, internships, scholarships and so much more.
One hundred percent of the students we support graduate high school, compared to 88% statewide. Ninety-three percent earn a postsecondary degree or certificate compared to the statewide statistics of 41% for Hispanic students and 31% for Black students—two groups primarily served by The Immokalee Foundation.
These powerful metrics reflect the significant effort made in preparing our students for tomorrow’s workforce, especially as labor economists predict that more than 60% of jobs will require a degree or credential beyond high school by 2030.
Today, only 50% of working-age (ages 25-64) Floridians hold such a credential, leaving a considerable gap in workforce talent. While most of our high school graduates will attend a college or university, some will pursue a military career, and others will follow a professional path at Immokalee Technical College. All in preparation for becoming productive citizens and fulfilling the workforce needs of a rapidly growing community.
We celebrate the extraordinary young men and women they are today just as we celebrate the leaders, they will become in the years ahead—new leadership we can all find comfort knowing is on its way.
Immokalee is where a significant migrant farming community resides, with a population of 40,000 during the winter months. Numerousresidents are compelled to work in the agricultural fields, relocate their families based on harvesting seasons, and endure meagerwages. Additionally, many others play essential, albeit undervalued, blue-collar positions across the area.
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