Texas native has embraced the Upstate, seeking out opportunities to serve others
Jennifer Olivares says she was just starting to learn the ins and outs of her job in social services when COVID-19 hit.
She had been working as an intake specialist at Greer Relief, greeting the agency’s clients and trying to connect them to someone who could help with their needs.
Often, the Spanish-speaking native of Brownsville, Texas, was also able to help clients overcome language obstacles, both spoken and written.
“I was just hitting the ground, learning how to do Social Security applications and food stamps applications and just learning the ins and outs of all the different resources out there that people miss sometimes,” she said.
During the pandemic, the obstacles became even greater.
“It was just a whirlwind of trying to figure out how to get people to help when all these agencies were closed,” Olivares says. “It became ‘OK, I’ve got to figure out how to do this. Let me sit down and help people do stuff online.’ There’s a huge population of people who don’t know how to use a computer, especially if you have trouble speaking the language or can’t read the language it just makes it 20 times worse.”
When she noticed that people were having trouble getting their tax refunds, she took training as a volunteer tax preparer. When they told her about paying exorbitant fees for notary services, she became a notary public herself so that she could certify signatures herself for free.
“Just going through and trying to learn all that stuff so I would be able to help people,” she says.
Always looking for other ways to help, Olivares is the education and volunteer chair for the Asociacion Hispano-Americana de Mujeres of South Carolina, where she coordinates events that support AHAM’s scholarship program for Hispanic students in college.
And this year, Olivares joined the staff of Legacy Early College as a parent coordinator, where she acts as the liaison between the school and the parents of its more than 400 high school scholars. About a third of the school’s students are Hispanic.
“Primarily just being able to translate and then having parents feel comfortable enough to ask their questions.”
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Like everywhere else, she’s been quick to jump in and help at Legacy, assisting with the school’s transition coach program, which matches each scholar, most of whom will be first-generation college students with a mentor.
For her commitment to helping others navigate bureaucratic, language and technology obstacles, Olivares has been named October’s Greenville News Community Hero.
The Community Hero program, sponsored by the Greenville Federal Credit Union, is a way of recognizing generous, noble and selfless work by those among us who make our community a better place.
Embracing Greenville's Hispanic community, culture
Olivares grew up in the Brownsville, Texas, area, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. She served six years in the Texas Army National Guard as a data specialist and was working on a college degree when she says her father talked her into moving her family to the Upstate.
When she got here, she was surprised at how large the Hispanic community is and how many different cultures are represented. It has been a valuable experience for her three children, especially her teenage daughter and son, who are students at Eastside High School.
“I absolutely love it. It’s given them another whole perspective in life, to be able to experience all the different cultures that Greenville has to offer,” she said, adding that she thinks her perspective as a recent transplant helps her recognize that value.
“When you’re from here, I think you just don’t see all the things that Greenville has to offer.”
And all that someone can offer to Greenville.
She says that over the years, she has “made” her kids go with her to volunteer so much that they now go mostly willingly – and sometimes even bring their friends.
“Which is great because that means there are fewer volunteers that I need to go look for.”
Her son and older daughter were with her earlier this week, helping to staff AHAM’s informational table at an education fair sponsored by the Greenville Hispanic Alliance.
She says she is also constantly “volunteering” her husband, Marc, and even their 4-year-old daughter to help with events and her various projects.
Olivares left Greer Relief this summer to join the staff at Legacy, a decision she says was difficult. But she plans to continue volunteering and teaching financial literacy and other classes there.
She says that the work has changed her as a person, and she is grateful for colleagues and mentors -- people like Yvonne Thompson and Nita Williams -- who she says have helped her learn to look a little deeper and listen more.
“It definitely has made me a much nicer person, just trying to help people navigate through a lot of these systems,” she says “I see people in a different light – when you start meeting people and really listen to their stories and try to figure out why they are in the situations they’re in, it just changes your whole perspective. It’s not just good for them, it’s good for me.”
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Community Hero: Texas native has embraced Upstate, working to serve others
