We would like to introduce you to Raisa Unigovshaya, a volunteer in Ms. Pendleton's classroom with the Lutheran Social Service Foster Grandparent program.  The Foster Grandparent program is an intergenerational volunteer program for people age 55 and older who help tutor and mentor children.  Grandma Raisa has been with the Foster Grandparent program for 11 years and a  volunteer at Whittier for 10 years.  She spends about 15-20 hours a week at Whittier. She is originally from Russia, from Minsk, the capital of Belarus.    She graduated from the Linguistic University of Foreign Languages in Belarus and worked as a French teacher for almost 40 years.  She worked with students from 1^st grade to 10^th grade and was honored with an Excellent Teacher of Public Education of Belarus award, as well as the Veteran of Labor award.  She has been in the United States since 1992. Ms. Unigovshaya’s husband was in the military and was a colonel of the Soviet Army.  He passed away one year before she came to the U.S.  She has 2 daughters and 2 son’s in-law and four grandchildren. They all live in Minneapolis.  She likes being at Whittier because she can’t imagine her life without helping and educating children.  She says, “ their eager excited eyes keep me young.” .  We are so happy to have Grandma Raisa at Whittier.