Latinas lead way in college degrees
Latinas lead way in college degrees
Skokiaan Rocha’s parents never had the opportunity to pursue their education.
They were too busy working in the fields and making sure they earned enough to support their two children and cover bills from their two-bedroom mobile home.
Thanks to their work, Rocha was able to follow a different path.
The 22-year-old Cal State Bakersfield graduate will be receiving her degree in psychology this spring, something she considers an accomplishment for her and her family.
“The most difficult thing for me was not having someone in my family having already gone to college,” Rocha said. “But thanks to my parent’s hard work and loving demeanor, I have been able to make it this far.”
Rocha’s parents worked in the fields when she was young, but today they own their own flower shop in Wasco.
“Life has gotten better. We live in a bigger home and life is not as financially tight as it used to be,” she said.
Rocha is among an increasing number of graduating Latinas.
At this year’s commencement ceremony at Bakersfield College, 417 Hispanics received associate’s degrees and certificates, which amounts to about 42 percent of the graduating class, compared to 156 Hispanic graduates or about 18 percent in 1995. At CSUB last year, 355 Hispanics obtained bachelor’s degrees, which was about 29 percent of the graduating class, compared to 140 Hispanics or about 17 percent in 1995.
While the number of male and female Hispanic graduates is increasing at both Bakersfield College and CSUB, Latinas are outnumbering their male counterparts in completing their degrees, according to Bakersfield College’s Institutional Research and Planning Department.
For instance, about 63 percent or 858 graduates last year were female compared to about 37 percent or 496 males, in total. Bakersfield College’s female graduates have outnumbered male graduates for the past 10 years.
“Latinas are entering college at higher rates, and they are graduating at higher rates,” said Joe Audelo, president of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber
Foundation, which gives annual scholarships to local Latinos attending college.
“The phenomenon has actually been studied and it is a reverse of what was seen in the ‘70s. I fear we are losing the boys.”
Audelo attended a conference last fall hosted by the Latino think-tank Tomas Rivera Policy Institute where speakers presented on the trend, which is seeing less male Hispanics entering and graduating from college.
According to Maria Acevedo, director of CSUB’s College Assistance Migrant Program, about 67 percent of their applicants to the CAMP program are Latinas. CAMP is a federally funded program designed to help freshmen with a migrant farmworker background transition into the university and complete their first year of college.
“We have seen more women apply to the program, and we also see more men dropping out,” she said. “I think it is just that male students have different perspectives and responsibilities at home. They don’t feel ready.”
Acevedo has seen many male Hispanics drop out of college to get a job and help out their family.
“Personally I think the issues lies in the whole system — family support and school expectations,” Audelo said. “Some kids might get branded trouble-makers, and it can stick with them through their entire high school career while in some other cases I feel the families are not to sure of the educational opportunities out there and how the education system works.”
Audelo said that at the conference he attended presenters also mentioned identity formation and peer pressure as two other possible factors contributing to male Hispanics’ low college attendance.
“Our scholarship recipients are overwhelmingly girls,” Audelo said. “I think what changed to make girls more likely to go to college was that programs placed in the past that were created to help out Hispanics maybe focused too much attention on females and the men didn’t get as much attention.”
Audelo believes help for the young men should start with the family first, learning about the educational system and giving support.
One young man who has gone against the trend is Rogelio Pelayo, a 2006 CSUB graduate.
Pelayo will be receiving his degree in psychology and Spanish and hopes to continue his education and receive a master’s.
“A huge problem I faced when coming to college was the language barrier,” Pelayo said.
Pelayo came to the United States from Jalisco, Mexico at age 12.
“The fact that I was first in my family also made it difficult,” he said. “Nobody understood the stress I was going through, and I think many times my family might have thought that I was just relaxing at school.”
Support from his mom is what kept Pelayo moving forward to obtaining the degree. He remembers having some of his friends not make it to graduation and dropping out because of a variety of reasons.
“I remember some just got carried away partying. They forget they are in school and need to set priorities,” he said. “Others, well, they prefer to start making money now.”
Pelayo’s graduation meant more than just getting a diploma. It was about breaking down stereotypes.
“There is this image that immigrant Hispanics are not educated and are just here to abuse the system. The stereotype basically says that if you are an immigrant, you don’t dominate the language and after high school, you end up getting a job cleaning something,” he said. “For a while I started to believe that is what I was going to do.”
When Pelayo was in high school, he worked at a restaurant and remembers some of his co-workers telling him he would never make it to college.
“Graduating from college was more about me not letting the stereotype influence me and proving people wrong,” Pelayo said.
For Rocha, it wasn’t about breaking down a stereotype but convincing her family that school was for her.
“Some of my family members tended to look down on me for continuing my education,” she said. “They didn’t see it as I do right now. They just feel that it is up to a woman to get married and wait for her husband to provide.”
Maria Avina’s parents were always supportive of her education, but nevertheless she found trouble managing her time at school, work and home.
The 21-year-old business administration major graduated from CSUB this spring and is looking forward to gaining work experience.
Avina recognizes that not all of her classmates made it across the stage.
“I think for some girls what makes them drop out is a pregnancy or getting married, which changes their focus,” she said. “For guys it is more of finding a job with a good salary and then feeling like they don’t need an education.”
Getting sidetracked is a major factor when students drop out because they don’t set their priorities correctly, Avina said.
And what kept Avina on the right path?
“I knew the importance of an education,” she said. “My parents didn’t have the opportunity to further their education but they worked hard to make sure I did, and I took advantage of that.”
Comments