While Tirelessly Serving the Community, Lovell Fulfills a Promise to Himself
Literacy Council student Lovell Offer walked the stage at Anne Arundel Community College’s 26th Maryland High School Diploma Graduation Ceremony on November 13. It was a moment that was decades in the making. “Through me trying to help other people, I ended up helping myself,” he said of his accomplishment.
Lovell took a long road to achieving his high school diploma — one where he encountered stumbling blocks but also inspiration, entrepreneurship, and the value of service. In tenth grade, at age 16, Lovell was kicked out of Old Mill High School. He had been selling narcotics and was asked to leave.
Despite offers of help from Pastor Sheryl Menendez and support from his mother and sister, Lovell could not finish school. In 2019, he started his own cleaning business, Lovell’s Cleaning and Transportation. He realized he could use his van to take people living in low-income Annapolis communities to rehab if they needed and wanted help.
Before long, Lovell had taken dozens of people to Baltimore, where they received rehabilitative services. In 2021, the City of Annapolis noticed and offered him a job with NO HARM, a community-based violence intervention program. Lovell got to work, but six months later, the opportunity ended when funding dried up. Lovell felt he needed to continue his community efforts and founded Small City Big Dreams (SCBD), a nonprofit with a mission to help people.
Through SCBD, Lovell started supporting youth activities. He used his own money to buy basketball shoes for young players. He got a friend to make a flyer offering help getting into rehab. Lovell posted it in low-income housing buildings. “People started calling the number on the flyer asking: ‘Is this the rehab place?’,” Lovell said. He continued taking people to rehab and started getting community members to work with him at his cleaning business.
“I wanted to help with things that were holding people back,” Lovell explained. As his outreach grew, Lovell got permission to use an old police substation in Eastport as his operations base.
In 2022, Lovell got a job at the Anne Arundel County Health Department, working as a support specialist. He participated in the Flagship Program with Leadership Anne Arundel (LAA) and got hired as a peer navigator in the rejuvenated NO HARM program with the City of Annapolis.
Through an LAA Flagship Program event, Lovell found out about the Literacy Council. In 2023, he was matched with AACLC tutor Paul Baker to help him as he pursued a high school diploma with the NEDP (National External Diploma Program) run by Anne Arundel Community College (AACC).
In September this year, Lovell completed the NEDP requirements and earned his diploma. Because of his community service and high school diploma accomplishments, AACC asked him to speak at graduation on November 13. In his speech, Lovell honored everyone who helped him, including his mom and sister, the staff at AACC, and his tutor, Paul.
Of his work in the community, Lovell said: “I like what I do. It affects other people, and I love it. I want to keep spreading the love and changing people’s lives. It doesn’t feel like work. I could do this all day, every day. It’s a beautiful thing.”
This month, Lovell plans to enroll in courses at AACC, where he will pursue an associate’s degree in entrepreneurship. He wants to take grant writing training to support SCBD and its initiatives. He will transfer to a four-year college to earn a bachelor’s degree. Paul will continue working with him. “We became close friends. We clicked,” Lovell said. “He’s going to be my tutor in college, too.”
Lovell advises anyone who wants to improve their skills or get a high school diploma: “Give yourself a chance. Don’t give up. If you put yourself in the right place, it may not be as hard as you think. Go sign up for school if you don’t have a high school diploma.”
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