It came to me tonight on an airplane, the answer to the “What can each of us do?” question about improving today’s dismal higher education levels of American Latinos. The need for ALL college-educated Americans to understand the gravity of the situation and to step up and be personally involved as a long-term mentor must be clearly understood. This post does that.

I just completed a particularly full week in Washington D.C. that involved meeting with Congressmen/women, middle school students, young Latinas (some former high school dropouts now in college), and the gentleman who founded the USHCC.

Let’s begin with a fact: In 2009, only 12.7% of Latino U.S. residents held a 4-year degree. [Pew Hispanic Center]

Now, the national problem: If by 2020 the USA is to get back on top globally, meaning that Americans earn more college degrees versus any other nation, we need to earn 36 million college degrees in the next nine years. [Source: Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future, March 2011]

Due to projected rapid growth rates confirmed by the 2010 Census, 5.5 million of those college degrees must be earned by the Latino community.  That averages out roughly to 611,000 Latino college graduates per year, beginning next year (2012.)

Want to guess how many Latinos are graduating annually from college right now? Best numbers put that figure at around 130,000. [Source: National Center for Education Statistics.]  See the problem?

In academic year 2008-09, Latino males received 50,628 degrees; Latinas received 78,898 of them (Go mujeres!!).

I saw one annual figure that totaled all Latino high school graduates at 300,000, meaning that even if 100% of high school graduates went to college (and graduated), we’d still be way short of the 611,000 graduates needed annually.

I’m hearing the words of a man I met with in D.C. in my head. “Everyone is talking about the high school dropout problem; nobody is talking about the elementary school and middle school dropout problems.”

Given all that, how do we scale from 130,000 college graduates per year to 611,000 college graduates per year? Is it even possible?

I think it is possible and I have a suggestion as to how to do it. It will involve all of us who currently have at least a bachelors degree. I call it the “Two by 2020 Challenge.”

If you have a college degree, please commit to the following by 2020: do whatever it takes to ensure that one or two young Latinos in your circle of influence stays in middle school, graduates from high school, then graduates from college. This means find a seventh grader and commit to mentor him/her for the next nine years. By this I mean:

• Tell your student he/she is college material (pump them up!)
• Introduce him/her to other college graduates in a variety of fields.
• Help him/her explore a WIDE variety of possibilities for their future profession (I can’t tell you how many students I have met who say “I’m going to study nursing because it sounds good,” or “I’m going to study criminal justice because my dad’s a cop.” You can connect your student to a new person once a month, once a quarter, whatever works. Expand his/her horizons. That’s what many college-educated parents do. It serves to excite and open childrens’ minds.
• Keep your student focused on the long-term view and future successes that become possible with higher education credentials.
• Help your student around and over cultural obstacles that may arise.
• Help your student understand the financial aid process. Help where you can.
• Do some research and connect your student to at least five scholarship sources. You know was well as I do that there is a TON of money out there for our young people to pursue their education.  Guide them through this process.
• Help your student fill out college applications.
• Help connect your student to people so he/she can conduct informational interviews before committing to a major.
• Keep pumping them up; make them believe college IS for them. You may be the only one saying this to this young person.

You get the idea. Just be the force that guides the student from where they are, to where they need to be — in college and beyond.

Plus, if you know someone who started college but didn’t finish, why not have a conversation about what it will take to finish. The reality is we will never achieve the number of college graduates needed without also getting the recent high school graduate who is right now working for minimum wage somewhere into college too. Look around. Be the person that shows up and changes the trajectory of someone’s life, and the lives of his/her descendants, forever.

The vast majority of stories I read about Latinos and Latinas who, like me, were the first in their family to ever attend college, contain a sentence or two about the one person that first showed up in his or her life and told them they must go to college. That person said they were college material, regardless of the economic circumstances of her/his family. That person then became the guide through the application and financial aid phases, and beyond. They made sure it happened -they changed that person’s life. And guess what, in about 90% of these stories, including mine, the person that showed up to be that mentor was NOT a Latino. This means that regardless of who you are, you can, and I dare say you MUST, seek out a young Latino/a in your community, church, wherever and change that life.

I honestly believe that nothing else will make as much an impact as personal commitment to mentoring and guiding by the many thousands of us who already have one, two or three degrees behind our names.

Please, go ahead and commit to this; I cannot stomach the consequences and the idea that we can literally drag the nation down with rapid population growth and dismal education outcomes. So much is at stake for our country. Will you please join me?

About Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
Graciela Tiscareño-Sato is the author of the first book at the intersection of the green American economy and Latino leadership and innovation. Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them received congressional recognition seven months ahead of its publication date. At the September 2010 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Public Policy Conference in Washington D.C. Graciela and five of the “Latinnovators” featured in her book were recognized by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez and Congressman Ben Ray Lujan at the 2nd Annual CHCI Latino Innovation Recognition portion of the “Green Economy Leading the Way” Session.

Latino community organizations have been working at addressing the issues of the education of our youth for the past 30 years. The challenge the Latino community faces today are the deep cuts by our government in education as well as the
increase in tuition fees to attend college, which will impact Latino children and youth. Financial hardship is cited as the principal reason many Latinos do not achieve higher education, according to numerous studies.

America’s long-term economic security and social stability requires that we break the cycle of under-education amongst
Latinos. With a college education, Latinos will be empowered to contribute to the challenges that our nation faces today. As the
fastest growing segment of the U.S. workforce, increasing college graduation rates among Latinos will lead to self-esteem, pride and better paying jobs for individuals, families and communities. This will produce an increase in tax revenues, including much needed support for Social Security and Medicare. It will also increase disposable income for Latino consumers, which will help fuel the country’s economic growth.

To address these needs in education, Latinos A Morir’s EDGEucation Org is partnering with the Latino Leadership Comité (LLC) to take responsibility to ensure that Latinos who are in need of financial aid are able to get an education. The LLC is grass-roots of 400 people composed of students, parents, educators, lawyers, merchants, health providers, community organizational leaders, artists, public and private sector representatives. With your support, these 400 members aim to recruit 4,000 volunteers for a scholarship campaign that will empower Latino youth to achieve a higher education.

We will be looking for volunteers to commit to sell at least 10 raffle tickets. These volunteers will then form part of the LAM selection committee to help give out the funds to the students.

If you’re interested in being part of this select group of people, please go to: http://bit.ly/a2Fo9H.

The Adopt a Family Program is a holiday program in which families give us a wish list, ie. clothing, bedding, shoes, toys (no electronic gaming devices)and we match the family with a donor.  As of last week there were still 40 families on a waitlist to be adopted for our holiday program.  People or companies interested in being a donor would contact Antoinette Harris at (925) 602-1750 or at aharris@emqff.org and state you were referred by LAM Social Club and Dalia Rivera.  The donors would be faxed or emailed the wish list of the family and the donor would buy the gifts for the family.   When ready, arrangements can be made for pick up of gifts or donors can drop off gifts directly to our office.  For more information and arrangement for pick up of gifts you may contact Dalia Rivera at (925) 325-3338.

Let’s turn this into a fundraiser for our newest organization, EDGEucation!!

We are looking for as many Comadres as we can find to join us on race day. We can all run for Team LAM. We can wear matching pink jerseys with our logo on it. We’d be super cute! To raise money, we can get sponsors and put their logos on the back of our jerseys. We can get our friends and families to sponsor us, too, by donating to the cause. Did I mention that we’d be super cute? And all the money we raise will go to supporting the youth in our communities through the wonderful mission of EDGEucation!

The race is on Saturday, June 5th. Please contact Viviana Vesga (vvesga@gmail.com) or Laura Lara-Brady (llarabrady@gmail.com) or comment below if you are interested or have any questions. We would need to register as a team so we’ll need to know who is in as soon as possible.

Support Urban Garden: The Effects of Pollution on Water- an enriching environmental awareness project for Latino Middle School Students

I’m a 6th grade teacher at public charter middle school located in Downtown, Los Angeles, predominantly serving low-income Latino students. The group of 6th grade teachers at my school and I would like to provide an enriching hands on experience activity for 78 students in order to enhance our Ecology Unit. Thus, we are planning to culminate our Ecology Unit with a gardening project to enrich our students environmental awareness. But in order to do so, we need your financial support to purchase some of the supplies: a water test kit, planter boxes, and seeds.

We feel that a gardening project would be beneficial to our low- income students, many of whom reside in Downtown, Los Angeles, and thus have limited access to gardens and healthy -fresh food. We feel that exposing our students to gardening would arm them with the tools necessary to start gardening at home and hopefully start eating healthier foods. We hope that this experience serve as a catalyst for change.

My Project

Please donate here: http://www.donorschoose.org/andrea

As students start the school garden, they will learn the importance of good nutrients for organisms to live and stay healthy. They will test different types of water (tap water from home and from school as well as treated water and filtered water). Once they test the water, they will talk about the different pollutants that could affect its pH balance. As students water sections of the garden with the tested water, they will be able to test the soil and keep observational notes. They will test if the quality of water affects the soil and if the quality of the soil affects the growth of the plant. Students will hopefully learn that clean water helps create healthy soil for plants to absorb good nutrients. This experience will provide students with hands on experience to have discussions for the different types of pollutants that are damaging our environment and think of habits they can change to help. In addition, we will link this experience/ experiment with their eating habits.

An urban garden will show first-hand the impact of providing good quality water and soil needed to produce when planting. Hence, students will learn how different pollutants affect our resources. As students become cognizant of the need of a clean environment in order to have good nutrients available, they will learn the importance of changing habits to help have a clean World. Moroever, students will learn the need for them to keep a healthy diet in order to have a healthy growth.

If you would like to help support this enriching hands on environmental awareness project as students investigate the effects of pollution on water and plants, please make a donation at: http://www.donorschoose.org/andrea

Contributions are tax-deductible and donors will hear back from the students.

This and all other projects at DonorsChoose.org have been submitted by public school teachers who seek resources that will help their students learn.

Sincerely,
–
Andrea K. Lee
Ed.M. ’10 l UCLA Teacher Education Program

We have been keeping busy meeting mentors and students! We are still in need of some more mentors!

Specifically recruiting, interviewing, and pairing mentors with high school students. So far we have paired half of our mentors with amazing students and we are in the process to start clearance (background check and TB tests – by law we need it since we’re speaking with minors). We are finishing pairing students and current mentors this week to get ready for our Launch event!

Our next step will be getting ready to rock this summer at our first EDGE-ucation Launch event, where mentors will meet their assigned students for the first time and get to mingle and make connections with other mentors, educators, as well as the EDGE-ucation Directors!

But there is still time, and you can still sign up to become an EDGE-ucation mentor for the summer! Remember that all we ask is to keep 3 hrs of face to face communication (that can be once a month or 3 times a month, depending on your schedule), and an additional 2 hrs of other communication (this includes email, phone, facebook, chat, etc, just keep tabs on your student and you can monitor their progress). You can meet with your student as well as other mentors and their student anywhere in the Bay Area and make an impact on a student’s life!

Invite your kids, neighbors, mentees, nephews, and/or students, to register for this great event! Go to http://sanfrancisco.lemonadeday.org/sign-up.aspx and register online or simply Download the application and mail it or fax it! All the information is on the application.

During that day, thousands of kids in the Bay Area (San Francisco and Eat Bay) will be setting up their lemonade stands and selling their lemonade to the entire community. Everyone will be participating. So get ready because you will be either making lemonade or buying lemonade.

Businesses, city leaders, and youth organizations will be participating to teach our youth the value of money and how to operate their own business – a lemonade stand.

So how does Lemonade Day works?

1. Children sign up to participate with a supporting adult
2. When noticed, children and adults will pick up backpacks at their designated location that includes more information, ideas, and cool contests
3. Before Lemonade Day arrives, both kids and adults start to prepare for the big day (develop a secret recipe for their lemonade, thinking about how to attract potential costumers, how to build a cool lemonade stand, etc…)
4. On May 15, children set up their stands and make $$$

So start telling everyone about it! LAM is a proud sponsor of Lemonade Day and is ready to compete with other organizations for the most lemonade stands.

Stay tuned to find out when the registration forms will be rolling out, and when to start signing up for such a neat program!

If you want to get involved, have access to youth, or just to check out what Lemonade Day is all about, email me at  llarabrady@gmail.com and check out lemonadeday.org

If you still need more convincing, check out Believe today

Empowerment is having confidence because someone has spoken it into you –Julia Hampton

Today, we started the day early at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School with Edgar ‘ShoBoy’ Sotelo, and it was a great success. Vocational/Life-Long Learning Day is an event that brings alumni and other successful community members to share their success stories and tips with students interested in their industry. We joined Edgar today to talk with high school students about potential opportunities in the entertainment industry after high school. This included information on internships, job openings, and insider tips.

It was definitely a different environment and crowd than the one from our previous trip. For starters, the school grounds were gated and sprinkled with trimmed trees and flowers. The building was in great shape and the classrooms were very bright and airy. Students were fascinated on the topic and they were very engaged with the guest speakers. We also found that there is a strong community of parents always willing to help in all of the school events.

Edgar, as usual, captivated the audience’s interest and his speech focused on how to climb the entertainment ladder, specifically in radio. Edgar encouraged students to never give up and to keep focus on the price, even if it means going to school and having 3 jobs on the side. Another speaker in the same session, emphasized the movie industry and gave students a valuable insight in how people get hired and move up to higher positions.

During session breaks, we met remarkable people, among them Honorable Troy Nunley ’82, Mr. Franco Finn, and Mr. Garrett Dempsey among others.

After lunch we left with this thought: imagine how great it would be to offer the same educational opportunities to people in other less affluent communities?!

And our dream continues….

Today after a very early rise, Giovanni and I met with Edgar and Janet Beleche from http://unshatteredclothing.com to share some ideas about how LAM can contribute to the community.  After crafting some awesome ideas we all moved to Hayward High School, where we met with Little Omar and Counselor Lupe Santoyo, to shadow Edgar. Throughout the day, we met with 3 groups of students who were very eager to hear what Edgar had to say.

The presentation was very motivational and it touched on Edgar’s life, highlighting his family’s challenges, struggles, and unity. It was a monologue/stand up routine that kept the audience hooked, engaged, and laughing. Throughout his presentation, Edgar highlighted the following points:

1. You can CHOOSE whether to be a victim or a creator under any circumstance.

2. We are all an army that are fighting against society’s low expectations, and as such we should remain united and help each other.

3. Go to school, graduate, and be a true baller and not a fake baller.

4. Women are the backbone of a family, and should be all treated with respect regardless of their age.

5. (As a Man and for a reality check) You should fast-forward 10-15 years and think if you would let your daughter date a guy like you.

As we progressed through presentations, the audiences continued to get bigger and more excited about Edgar’s story. Even teachers showed support and asked questions, encouraging students to think about what was really important in their lives. During lunch, students got to listen to La Kalle on campus and even participated in the ‘wave’ and some games.

After lunch, Counselor Lupe Santoyo expressed her interest in forming a partnership with LAM members to help students through High School and help them get to college. Overall the whole experience was motivational and inspiring, and I think that as a part of an organization as LAM who is filled with successful, ambitions, and energetic people, what a better way to give back to the community than to participate in their success.

So as Edgar closed his monologue ‘Don’t be afraid to dream big, but make it a reality Familia’

The perception of discrimination is present even in elementary schools. Viva Diversity will let kids know that diversity is not only beautiful but necessary for the world to work.

Studies have found that teens who maintained strong ties to their Latino culture performed better at school and adjusted more easily socially.

MY AMERICAS PROJECT

An Adventure into the Heart and Soul of Latin America

Roberto and Leticia, each born in Mexico but raised in the U.S. set out to discover their Latin roots. Viva Diversity will donate “My America” video sets to public schools for them to integrate them as part of their cultural programs. With this videos the kids will take a journey to Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Ecuador and Cuba on a sort of pilgrimage with the young hosts Roberto and Leticia, to discover the deeply rooted cultural, historical and spiritual traditions of these extraordinary countries.

They will explore their sacred sites, celebrations, processions, food, music, dress, local festivals and fiestas.

(Complete set: 13 total episodes, 24 minutes each. Two DVD set, 300+ minutes. ENG.)

My Americas Project’s goal is to provide one complete set of DVDs to 20 public schools around the Bay Area with the highest Hispanic/Latino student population.

Please join LAM and HMB to help start this program! We need to raise funds to be able to buy and give the documentary 6 DVD set to 20 elementary schools in the Bay Area.

Come enjoy a big party and help us make a change in the history of Latinos. If you are not interested in the party you can always donate here Viva Diversity