YUMA (Arizona) SUN

August 7, 2010

New program aimed at getting migrant students into universities

BY CESAR NEYOY

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Students from migrant families will live and study at Arizona Western College's Main Campus in the first year of a five-year program aimed at encouraging migrant students to further their education.

“This is a new program that is being done with a federal grant from the Department of Education, and the goal is to grow the number of students of migrant origin who finish college and go on to a university,” said Everardo Martinez, director of AWC's South County Campus in San Luis.

Under the program, 40 students will live in dormitories on the Main Campus for two semesters, during which time they will receive help with their studies from tutors.

“This is going to help us a lot, it's going to give us many opportunities,” said David Tapia, a Somerton resident who will be a member of the inaugural class in the program. “I hope this program is successful and that it continues.”

His mother, Patricia Munoz, said the program is giving her son the chance to “take a step forward and become self-sufficient, gain responsibility and see how his life is going to be.”

Martinez said that in the 30 other community colleges around the nation where the program already is in place, 90 percent of the participants have gone on to a university.

“There are two factors (for the program's success): discipline and not having distractions, which keeps (the students) concentrated 100 percent on their studies.”

After a year, students in the program will rotate out of the program into regular curriculums at AWC, and a new group of migrant students will join the program.

The federal grant is for five years and can be renewed, depending on results of the program as measured in an evaluation by the Department of Education, Martinez said.

The students will begin their studies in the program Aug. 16