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PSJA migrant students recognized by UT-Austin
By Naxiela Lopez
PHARR — Four Pharr-San Juan-Alamo students who travel with the seasons
and work nearly 12-hour shifts in the farm fields are being recognized
as exemplary migrant students.
One of them even received the statewide Migrant Student of the Year
Award.
Rogelio Ortiz, a 2010 graduate of PSJA High School, migrates with his
parents to Bay City, Mich., where he picks strawberries, cucumbers and
cherries and cleans sugar beets and beans.
“The work is so hard that you feel like quitting, but you cannot because
your family is counting on you to earn the money,” Ortiz said.
The Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program at the University of
Texas at Austin recognized Ortiz and three others in March at the UT
campus before members of the Texas Legislature and the Texas Education
Agency.
The program, which began in 1987, helps Texas migrant students graduate
from high school by providing them opportunities to earn credit at
flexible times and locations. Since its inception, it has enrolled
approximately 20,000 students in 42 distance learning courses so
students like Ortiz, who have to leave school before the end of the
year, can earn full credit for their work.
Despite enrolling late each year at PSJA High School, Ortiz has
maintained a 99.94 grade point average on a 100-point scale while also
participating in the school’s cross-country, track and soccer teams. He
tutors, volunteers and is a member of the National Honor Society.
“My life as a migrant farmworker has been difficult,” he said. “Having
to wake up every morning at 5 a.m. is not fun.”
For Marco Aleman, a 2010 graduate of PSJA North High School, working the
rice and cotton fields in Jonesboro, Ark. isn't the hardest thing about
migrating; it is the task of saying good-bye to his mother for up to
seven months at a time.
“My experience of being a migrant student changed my life completely,”
Aleman said. “After a while, I matured and experienced life from a whole
different perspective.”
Aleman was named an exemplary migrant student after graduating this
spring with a 92 GPA and serving as the secretary and then president of
the Migrant Club. He was also the captain of the varsity golf team and
volunteered at his church.
Italy Montemayor, also a 2010 PSJA North graduate, said the hardest
thing for her was leaving her friends behind.
“I have met so many people who I will never see again,” she said. “My
life has always been on the road.”
Montemayor, who has travelled to Arizona, California, Nevada and New
Mexico so her father can harvest grapes, graduated with a GPA of 86.
She was given the award after remaining on the Honor Roll since
elementary school.
Despite her constant migrations, she was involved in extracurricular
activities, including serving as the treasurer for the French Club.
Montemayor also tutored other students in French, and as a junior,
placed second in the Rio Grande Valley French Competition.
Judith Garcia, a senior at PSJA Memorial High School, migrates from May
to October to Brooten, Minn., where she sorts potatoes, picks rocks from
fields and cleans sugar beets.
Garcia attends school in Minnesota and participates in an evening summer
program where she works on distance learning courses offered by the UT
Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program.
“I thought that being a migrant student would hold me back on my
education,” she said. “But now I realize that is has benefitted me.”
Garcia was also selected as an exemplary student after making the A/B
Honor Roll throughout high school. She is a member of the school’s
folkloric dance group and volunteers at a day care and nursing home. She
expects to graduate next year and attend the University of Texas-Pan
American to pursue an accounting degree.
Like Ortiz, many of the students in the program will become the first
high school graduates in their families.
“I will be the first in my family to graduate from high school and
attend college,” he said.
Ortiz plans to pursue a degree in mathematics and a minor in computer
science in the fall at St. Edward’s University in Austin.
Aleman plans to attend a four-year university and pursue a master’s
degree in civil engineering.
“After my master’s program, I plan to join the military and train as an
officer, and then obtain my PhD,” he said.
Montemayor also plans on attending UTPA and aspires to become a medical
lab technician.
“I learned every mile is a voyage,” she said. “And we have to struggle
and work hard for what we want.”
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