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Testimony of Ms. Ariana De
La Garza United States House of Representatives Hearing On October 6, 2003 Good Morning, I am Ariana M. de la Garza. I am a senior in the Physician Assistant Studies Program at the University of Texas-Pan American. As a representative of the students at UT-Pan American, I thank you for the opportunity to present my story and testimony before the Subcommittee on Select Education. I am from a migrant seasonal farmworker family. My mom and dad are originally from Mexico. My dad has worked as a machinist and seasonal farmworker in order to meet the expenses of our family of four. My dad began to do seasonal farmwork in his late 20’s, he has worked in different crops in the Rio Grande Valley and also migrated to West Texas, Florida, Minnesota and Arizona to do seasonal farm work. When I was in 8th grade, my dad lost his job, so we packed up and migrated to West Texas to hoe cotton. When I was in 9th grade we migrated to Minnesota and hoed sugar beets. During my 10th grade, we went back to West Texas and hoed cotton and peanuts. When we migrated, my whole family worked in the field. Unlike some migrant students, I was fortunate because my parents knew the value of an education, so they made sure that I got back on time for school in the fall. There was only one time, that I had to leave school a little early in the spring, so that we could travel up north. The living conditions in West Texas were much better than when we migrated to Minnesota. In Minnesota, we lived in a farmer owned trailer camp. The trailers had no toilet, no air conditioning and we had to cleanup in communal showers and use out houses. In West Texas, we rented a wooden house which had sewage and a water air conditioner. Also in Minnesota, we were paid by contract based on the number of rows completed at the end of the day. The rows were a mile long and it was very difficult to at least earn minimum wage. In West Texas we were paid by hour. During my high school education, I had the opportunity to be part of the Mission Migrant Club. Through the migrant club I had resources and people who provided academic counseling, trips to universities and laptops that we could check out. Through the migrant club, I also had the opportunity to attend a Close-Up Conference in Washington, D.C. My migrant counselor provided valuable information concerning college admissions and financial aid. Through the help of my high school counselor, I also took the opportunity to take some concurrent enrollment classes at UTPA, so that I could get a headstart with college credit. When I enrolled at UTPA as a full-time student for the Fall 1999 term, I did so with the anticipation of participating in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). CAMP helped me to get a solid foundation during my first year at UT-Pan American. I attended a five-day CAMP summer orientation which helped me to become more familiar with the UTPA campus. The CAMP staff was honestly interested in my success and in the success of other CAMP students. They provided tutoring, academic advice, financial aid assistance and counseling. The CAMP Center was my home base on campus, I felt comfortable enough to go there, ask questions and get help applying for scholarships. CAMP opened the door for me to stay on campus during my first year. Without CAMP I wouldn’t have had the money to live on campus. Living on campus made me feel connected to the university, gave me more access to university resources and led me to a fuller college experience. I had the opportunity to join different student organizations, do community service, and participate in mentoring programs such as ESTRELLA project and UTPA Student Ambassadors. As an ESTRELLA cyber mentor I mentored high school migrant students. The program provided laptops to the students and I would communicate with my mentee via email. I answered her questions, sent important college information and encouraged my mentee to attend college. As a UTPA Student Ambassador, I mentored Freshmen and helped them to have a smoother transition to college and a successful entering Freshman year by involving them in university activities and providing them with important college information. By being a mentor, I took what I learned from CAMP about transitioning into college and shared that with others As I reflect on my own experience, the experience of other migrant students and the experience of Mexican American students in the Rio Grande Valley, I think that there are many challenges which deter us from succeeding in post-secondary education. A few of those challenges are: Many students migrate during the summer months. During the time that they are migrating, they lose touch with the traditional financial aid and admissions offices. Migrant students need people like the CAMP staff who take special interest in tracking and contacting them while they are out of state. They need a home base to come back to while their family is still up North in the early months of the fall. Hispanic students need more programs which give them a strong step into college. I was lucky because I was able to attend a college enrichment program, Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP), during the summer before I started at UTPA. This helped me to learn more about health careers and to be more prepared for college classes. I hope that you will continue to fund summer enrichment programs for Hispanic students and programs like GEAR-UP and TRIO which help Hispanic Students to start preparing for College early. Many Hispanic students (migrants in particular) come from low income families where the parents do not have accurate information about financial aid. I was lucky because my high school migrant counselor and the CAMP staff gave me the information I needed in order to get the Pell Grant. Also, the CAMP staff knew me personally, so they wrote recommendation letters and helped me to apply for scholarships. With their help, I obtained the Gates Millennium Scholarship (which provided the money that I needed to continue to live on campus all four years). Many students and their parents don’t get the information that they need and if students don’t get financial aid they probably are not attending college full-time. I hope that you will continue to fund personnel who can assist both Hispanic and migrant youth in obtaining financial aid. I also hope that more financial aid information can be presented in Spanish for parents. When students live at home, they are often expected to contribute to the family income; they often don’t have access to computers; and they aren’t able to get the full college experience. In the Rio Grande Valley, transportation is a big issue, there is not a well-developed transportation system. Students miss classes because they "don’t have a ride". Its an endless cycle, when students work too many hours in order to make ends meet and consequently do not have the time to study, they get low grades and lose what financial aid they have. Once a student loses financial aid, they either drop out of college or their course load drops down to one or two classes per semester. I hope that as Congress looks at federal financial aid for college students it will take into consideration the benefits associated with living on college campuses and will increase the amount that is given to college students who reside in university housing. Migrant and Hispanic students need role models and mentors to help them be successful in post-secondary education and make them feel connected to the university they are attending. During the time that I was in CAMP, I became a cyber-mentor through the ESTRELLA project. This gave me the opportunity to pass on the information that I learned from the CAMP staff to high school migrant students. I also became a UTPA Ambassador and mentored entering Freshmen. Both of these experiences taught me leadership skills and gave me the opportunity to give back to my community. I hope that you will continue to promote and fund mentor programs which match upper level college students with entering freshmen and high school students. Young female migrant students have both the financial struggles and the cultural expectations that make it more difficult to achieve a baccalaureate degree. In my culture, it’s harder for a female to move away from the family and travel a great distance to go to college. I hope that you will continue to fund universities like UT-Pan American which are located near large Hispanic populations, so that they will continue to offer quality post-secondary education to young Hispanic women. Some migrant students are not yet legal residents or citizens. These students are long time residents of the United States. They have attended public school in the United States and have achieved high grades, but then they are held back from attending college due to high tuition rates. They are unable to receive the Pell Grant or participate in federal programs like CAMP. It’s sad because students who have such potential to be successful in our society are discouraged because they don’t have the money for college. I hope that you will support legislation like the Dream Act which gives hardworking students the opportunity to continue their education. In May 2004, I will be graduating from the Physician Assistant Studies Program. When I become a certified and licensed physician assistant, I would like to practice in the Rio Grande Valley. As a bilingual health care provider I will be able to provide quality care to my community. Having a migrant background, I will also be able to understand the needs and struggles of migrant families that reside in the Rio Grande Valley. Finally, as you consider the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, I hope that you will continue to fund programs like the College Assistance Migrant Program which support migrant students. I am grateful for this opportunity to be a voice for migrant and Hispanic students and to express these concerns and recommendations through my testimony. Ariana M. de la Garza |