Peterson BonPied Jerome is a coach and former National Haiti Soccer team player.

 His name is Peterson Jerome, Living in the United States for 10 years, being illegal for 9 years, he succeed despite hurdles. When he took his first plane ride in 1995 and arrived in Florida from Haiti, Peterson was in search of a better way of life. Soccer is serving as his guide. At 17, he attended Piper High School in the city of Sunrise; Peterson did not waste any time making an impact in the classroom, and on the soccer field.

Some folks in soccer circles were so impressed with his ability they encouraged Jerome to skip his senior year of High School and earn a living playing professionally in Major League Soccer. He wanted to have a degree so bad and chose to stay in school. During that 9-year period, he had to overcome different obstacles and barrier, such as the language, he did not get granted political Asylum, his immigration lawyer advised him against a visit back home, but Jerome's homesickness had not interfered with my success in school or on the soccer field.

Not being able to take advantage of different academic and soccer scholarships being offered to him, all that had affected Peterson physically, and emotionally. Despite numerous efforts from teachers and other parents who wanted to help, but no one from Peterson's community seemed to be concerned. Soon, he started to realize that more help was needed in his community to monitor the success and the failure of the youth throughout High School academically and athletically during and after school, by then Peterson knew that his biggest challenge was yet to come.

Peterson Jerome graduated in June 1997 and ended up not taking advantage of the opportunities, since then, he embraced the dream of one day making a difference in his community. Now being legal and active in the community, in January 2005, Jerome founded Haiti Youth Development & Education to help today's youth grow toward the positive light. Knowing that anything that benefit the youth in the community is a benefit for everyone; keep in mind local people are a better fit to fix local problems.

For more information, please visit www.haitiyouth.org

Peterson Bonpied Jerome was featured on our A Match That Heals A Nation program which aired January 31, 2010.