This content was published: November 19, 1998. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Young Latinos Learn to be Leaders
Photos and Story by Mark Evertz
A mentorship program brings high school and college students together at the Rock Creek Campus.
by Nancy Leon
On a brisk fall Saturday morning at the Rock Creek Campus, 118 Latino high school students from Washington County gather in a sunlit room enjoying breakfast and filling out a five-page questionnaire asking for frank answers to challenging questions. "How confident are you that you will attend college?" "How much stress do you feel when people make negative comments about your culture?" "How much stress do you feel when you act against your own best judgement?"
The students are then matched with college students who are taking a class at the Rock Creek Campus to learn how to be their mentors.
Luz Villarroel, who is a counselor at PCC and the instructor of the Oregon Leadership Institute,talks about her guest speakers, the Garcias, and explains how the program works. "This is our answer to the gangs and to the high school drop-outs. The Garcias, who are here today and who will teach in the afternoon, are my who have come back to volunteer. They have gone to college and then they earned master’s degrees, and when I ask them to come, they say ‘yes,’ so they can reach more kids, and more and more."
Studies show that Oregon’s Hispanic high school populations is at the highest risk of dropping out, 15.7 percent, more than twice the overall statewide rate of 6.7 percent.
The statistics are more alarming when one adds up the four years of high school: it translates to less than four out of every 10 Latino youth entering Oregon’s high schools obtain their diploma. The Oregon Leadership Institute is working to turn this around.
The program is active on other college campuses, but Villarroel is particularly impressed with the spirit and cooperation from Portland Community College and Paul Halloran, PCC’s enrollment advocate who brought the program to PCC.It is produced in collaboration with the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement and includes nine sessions which run during the school year.
Mentor and PCC student Angelica Morales, a graduate of Century High School in Hillsboro, says she responded to the urgings of her high school counselor to attend college and once at PCC, a convinced her to become a mentor. "I am not a good talking person in front of people, but I want to help others know they can go to college, too," she says.
PCC student Isabel Shapiro participated in the leadership program at Rock Creek last year while attending Aloha High School. She enrolled at the Rock Creek Campus this fall and in turn has became a mentor to others. "I wasn’t sure when I would go to college, but I knew I would, because I want to become a teacher," she says.
The program begins in the campus auditorium. The first speaker is Frank So, student body president of Seattle University. Dressed casually, he greets the students with a ribald ice breaker and then launches into an impassioned presentation on peer pressure. "When you are faced with a difficult decision, ask yourself ‘Why – why should I do this or why not?’" he reasons. He tells them that girls don’t like guys who are stupid, adding that boys don’t like girls who are stupid, either, and earns a round of spontaneous applause.
David Loera lectures in Spanish on the issue of family substance abuse, focusing on alcoholism. The students listen intently to his message that alcoholism is destructive to everyone in a family. Following a Mexican lunch, students then meet Frank, Leslie and Brenda Garcia for a session on personal responsibility. Frank Garcia announces that he is the son of migrants. "There is no silver spoon here, my friends," he booms and the room is quiet before erupting in activity once again.
Rick Collins, vice principal at Sunset High School in the Beaverton School District, has referred more students to the program than any other high school.
"I know the people at PCC are working hard to support the students," says Collins, "when the kids come back and say, ‘This is valuable.’ That’s when we know to promote it even more. It makes college look like a reality, that ‘this is something I can do.’ It also gives them an opportunity to celebrate their culture on the college campus and it gets them excited about their future."
"We are here as a family," says Villarroel. To do something good!"