Latina ed program is a victim of success

Organizers cancel event, will regroup

February 7, 2007
By Bruce Lieberman

For many Latina girls in middle and high school, attending college seems an impossible dream, but Cecilia Martinez decided early not to limit her expectations.

The turning point came in the 23-year-old's sophomore year in high school, at a conference designed to show Latina girls and their parents that college could be a real possibility.

Called Adelante Mujer, or “Forward Woman,” the conference opened Martinez's eyes to a world beyond her Pala neighborhood. Engineers, doctors, TV news anchors, writers, poets, lawyers, teachers and other professionals – all of them Latina – shared stories of trial and success.

“They spoke my language, they looked like me, and yet . . . they were successful,” said Martinez, who graduated from California State University San Marcos in May with a degree in human development and works there as an academic adviser. “They just opened doors of opportunity by helping me realize that (college) is an attainable goal.”

The North County Latinas Association has organized the annual Adelante Mujer conferences since 1992, but this year decided to cancel the event and rethink how to offer it in coming years.

The event has become somewhat a victim of its own success, said Mónica Nava, president of the North County Latinas Association. Last year, organizers had to turn away about 200 girls after 1,200 descended on Cal State San Marcos, Nava said.

The association plans to re-evaluate which grades to target for their conference, and whether to offer smaller Adelante Mujer events twice a year instead of one large annual meeting, she said.

Organizers also hope to generate partnerships with schools and other North County agencies that work with Latina girls. The conference, which cost about $40,000 last year, has relied heavily on private donations. The Tri-City Medical Center, California Endowment, Bank of America and the Bravo Foundation, a private family foundation based in San Diego, have been past donors. The conference has cost girls $10 to attend.

Adelante Mujer conferences do much more than introduce Latina girls to successful role models. Workshops focus onpreparing for college and applying for scholarships. There's also advice for parents, in seminars conducted in Spanish, on encouraging children to pursue a college education.

The need for conferences such as Adelante Mujer is great.

The percentage of college-age Latinos in California who are enrolled in the state's public universities is the lowest among all ethnic groups, according to a report published in December by the Washington, D.C., group Excelencia in Education. The report was done in partnership with the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California and the California Policy Research Center.

Only 22 percent of California Latinos 18 to 24 years old were enrolled in a public college or university in 2005, said the report, “California Policy Options to Latino Success in Higher Education.”

By comparison, 60 percent of Asians, 43 percent of Caucasians and 32 percent of African-Americans in the same age category in California were enrolled in higher education.

For Latinos, the percentage of high school graduates entering college has hovered between 8 percent and 10 percent for 25 years, the report said.

Martinez said part of the reason for the low attendance rate is that Latina students have few adult role models in middle and high school.

In San Diego County, more than 47 percent of the students enrolled in public school districts are Latino, but less than 15 percent of the teachers are, according to 2005-06 data from the California Department of Education.

John Herrera, a board member for a North County group called Encuentros that promotes education among Latino boys, said Adelante Mujer helps connect young people to adults they want to emulate.

“Professional, mature women have reached out to the young (through the conference) and shown them that yes . . . they are capable of succeeding,” Hererra said.

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune