Thread: College 101 for immigrant parents; aren't we helpful...

This is a town close to mine. Ryan Pagelow (reporter below) writes illegal immigrant pro article after article. Here's his latest...


College 101 for immigrant parents
(http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S1.article)

September 25, 2006

By RYAN PAGELOW rpagelow@scn1.com
GRAYSLAKE -- It was the first time Warren Township High School senior Rocio Garcia and her parents had set foot in the College of Lake County. Rocio wants to be the first in her family to go to college. Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, Rocio's parents knew very little about how to apply, when to apply or how to find scholarships.


They were among the 400 parents and their children who attended a forum on preparing for college that was held in Spanish Saturday morning in the auditorium at CLC's Grayslake campus, hosted by the Chicago Spanish-language TV station Univision.

"Some stuff I knew, but I couldn't really explain it to my parents," Rocio said. "This was really helpful for my parents."

Her family immigrated to the United States in 1999. They currently live in Gurnee. Her three older brothers didn't go to college, so Rocio has relied on friends and herself to navigate the college application process.

"My friends help out a lot. Counselors help a little. I find it's better to go out and find out for myself," Rocio said.

For many parents who grew up in Latin America under a different education system and who may or may not have gone to high school, the forum's four panelists explained college from square one, stressing parental involvement, early preparation and discussing options with counselors.

Liliana Ware, an academic adviser at CLC, started off explaining the different kinds of degrees and the different costs between private and public colleges and universities. For example, the average annual tuition is $2,500 at CLC, $6,300 at a state university and $33,000 at a private university.

"It's very important that families go to the universities and set foot on the campus. It's very important to visit universities their junior year," Ware said.

To save money, stay close to home or to boost a grade point average, many Latino students spend two years at CLC to get an associate degree before transferring to a university to study two more years for their bachelor's degree. Since 2000, the number of Hispanic students at CLC has grown by 33 percent. This fall Hispanics represent 23 percent of total enrollment at CLC.

Statewide in Illinois there are 11,000 Latino students in public universities and 16,000 in private universities, said state Sen. Miguel Del Valle, D-Chicago, who also chairs the Senate Education Committee and was a panelist Saturday.

"The majority go to private universities," said Del Valle. "That means a lot of parents are making sacrifices."

A few parents in the audience asked if their children could attend college, despite their children's undocumented legal status.

In 2003, in-state tuition in Illinois was extended to undocumented immigrant students that have attended Illinois high schools for at least three years and graduated. Before then, undocumented students had to pay out-of-state tuition at state universities, which was as much as three times the in-state tuition, Del Valle said.

However, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for state or federal grants. Some private scholarships do not require that students have Social Security numbers.

Saturday was the fourth and final forum in a series to provide parents with practical information about education that Univision also held in Chicago, Cicero and Aurora since March, said Luisa Echevarria, community relations director for Univision.

"You have to get parents to understand how things work in the U.S. There is an information gap and we're trying to narrow that gap," she said.

The forum was filmed and will be edited into a public affairs program to be aired in October on Univision and TeleFutura.

Well I sure hope someone is extending these "get acquainted with the process" white parents, black parents, asian parents, and American Indian parents...or are they the "Parents Left Behind"?

Baffling? How can people be this stupid?!!

Schools across the country are a dismal failure and yet, we have moneny to give to illegals? Only in America.

D.W.