Over the years, Marie Goerner has learned to lay bricks, build houses, drive semis and incapacitate criminals…all over the shoulders of her adult literacy students.

“With each of them, I try to find something to work on to supplement their grammar lessons,” she said, speaking from her patio home on the LSS at Laclede Groves campus. “We work on things that will help them move up in their jobs and in society.” With her coaching, Marie’s students have gone on to own their own businesses, receive college degrees, and, in some cases, become naturalized citizens of the United States.

LSS at Laclede Groves’ staff includes a number of Bosnian immigrants who had to leave behind successful careers in their homeland due to the conflict that devastated that region in the 1990s.

Limited by an inability to speak English, many, like Emira Hodzic, took jobs in dietary or housekeeping just to make ends meet.

In Bosnia, Emira was a top ranking financial executive in a number of state-controlled industries. In that nation’s early attempts at free market businesses, she served as chief financial officer for a major company. In Emira, Marie found a student with a keen intellect and a desire to excel. “Emira was probably my most brilliant student,” she said. “She didn’t need to learn how to work in accounting—she just needed some vocabulary. So I found a college-level finance textbook, and she just devoured it.”

Marie helped Emira unlock some of the mysteries of the English language, and eventually helped her secure a position in Lutheran Senior Services’ accounting department.

In April 2007, Emira invited Marie to accompany her to her naturalization ceremony. “That was an exciting day,” Marie recalls. “It was so wonderful to see her change from a housekeeper back into what she really wanted to be. She had her pride back—she became a totally different person.”

For her part, Emira can’t say enough about the lady who helped her work through the citizenship exams. “She’s so wonderful,” she said. “I can’t begin to say all the nice things about her. She teaches very well. She’s my teacher and she’s my friend.”

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