This summer, while accepting an application in person, I was fortunate enough to talk to a proud parent. In talking to her, I discovered that her oldest child had also been on CHOICE, many years ago. The longer we talked, the more I realized that this was a success story which needed to be told. Below is her story for you to read. Enjoy.

Mary Nuetzman, Program Director

While attending St. Thomas Catholic Elementary School, Veronique Briscoe - Pulliam (Beuoy) was one of the first 1991 CHOICE inaugural grantees, and continued on the program through her 8th grade graduation in 1993. After St. Thomas, she attended Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School where she was a cheerleader and President of the Black Student Union. She is a 2001 graduate of Earlham College, where she earned a BA in Human Development in Social Relations. Following Earlham, she earned a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology from the University of Indianapolis. In the fall, she and her husband, Ryan, will attend Ohio Northern University to pursue (yes, both Ryan and Veronique) JD (Law) Degree’s. Two lawyers in the same family? That should lead to some very interesting, and, I’m sure, lively, living room conversations.

Professionally, Veronique has served as a bilingual assistant in IPS, taught 2nd and 3rd grade Spanish at Orchard School, worked at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and served as the Director of Teen Programs at the Martin Luther King Center. She currently serves as the Multi-Cultural Programs Coordinator for the Indiana State Museum.

Veronique’s mom was a single mom, and was frustrated with her inability to convince Veronique’s school that her daughter was not being challenged by the curriculum at her public school kindergarten. Like all mom’s, she was convinced that her daughter was gifted and talented. After exhausting all avenues to have her child placed in the district's gifted and talented program, she enrolled her at St. Thomas. Veronique remembers that her mom was never concerned with her safety at St. Thomas, was extremely pleased with the family environment and the daily interaction with all children by the teachers and principal, Bernie Paradise, of the school. Veronique also recalls that she definitely was challenged at St. Thomas – both academically and as a person. She also recalls that many of her friends as she grew up were students in the public school system, and she continuously noticed a distinct difference in the academics of St. Thomas and that of her public school friends. “I was constantly noticing that our vocabularies were different,” Veronique said. “Words that seemed commonplace to me seemed foreign to my friends.” “And homework? We definitely had so much more.”

Veronique Briscoe-Pulliam (Beuoy). Lawyer to be, an ongoing CHOICE success story