Project Learn Puts Wilmington Pupils on Path to College

Eleven-year-old Robert Acevedo, who inconveniences his mother by taking apart household appliances and reassembling them, wants to go to college and study electrical engineering.

His classmate, Joe Guerrero, wants to go to college and become a police officer.

Another classmate, Jesus Serna, can’t decide on his future career but says, “You can be anything you want if you stay in school.”

The three boys and 47 other sixth-grade students from a low-income, predominantly Latino school in Wilmington are participating in a pilot program aimed at helping them beat the odds that many of them will not make it to college.

Project Learn, sponsored by Los Angeles Harbor College and four other schools in the South Bay, is designed to motivate the students to stay in school and to teach their parents, many of whom do not speak English, how the American education system works.

Educators, community leaders and college students volunteer their expertise for the project, which involves a series of Saturday workshops that are conducted mostly in Spanish. The volunteers also accompany students on educational field trips to various museums and other points of interest.

“We’re mostly showing them that they have to work together: the parents, the teachers and the students,” said program director Juanita Naranjo, who oversees a variety of outreach programs for Harbor College. “They are all components of the whole educational process, and none can be left out.”

The 14-session program was designed by a panel of educators from Harbor College, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Banning High School, Wilmington Junior High School and Wilmington Park Elementary School.

Harbor College Vice President Patricia Wainwright, who first organized the panel, said Latino students are under-represented in colleges and universities, and she had decided to do something about it.

From 1976 to 1988, the percentage of Latino high-school graduates from low-income families who went on to college fell from 50% to 35%, Wainwright said, citing figures from the American Council on Education.

And many Latino students never make it to their high school graduation. The Los Angeles Unified School District enrolled 26,288 Latino students in the 10th grade in 1986. Of those, 9,502, or 36%, did not graduate with their class in 1989 and were considered dropouts, said district spokesman Shel Erlich.

“We looked at the demographics of our area,” Wainwright said, “and found that in the K-12 system, we’re over 60% Hispanic right now. But Harbor and Dominguez don’t reflect that.”

At Harbor College, 24% of the students who enrolled in the fall of 1989 were Latino, according to Gary Wood, spokesman for the school. At Cal State Dominguez Hills, 12% of the students who enrolled for that fall were Latino, said university spokesman Greg Klerkx.

Said Wainwright: “Since we’re all in this together, what affects one level affects the others. We’re kind of looking at our future.”

After meeting for a year, the panel drew up a proposal describing the program and submitted it to the Sacramento-based state board that governs community colleges. The board awarded a $40,000 grant from its Underrepresented Student Special Project Fund. Harbor College also contributed $22,000 to the program.

Wainwright said that sixth-graders at Wilmington Park were targeted for the program because students begin dropping out after they reach middle school. Most of the students selected for the program by their teachers showed signs that they were having trouble in school, such as poor attendance or grades, or behavioral problems.

Wilmington Park has 1,170 students, 95% of whom are Latino, said Principal Patricia McKenna. Half of them recently emigrated from Mexico.

Although many students at Wilmington Park speak limited amounts of English, McKenna said their biggest disadvantage is that they come from low-income families. She said 90% of her students qualify for a federally assisted lunch program.

Often, both parents work, keeping them too busy to keep track of their child’s progress in school, she said. By the time the child is in high school, the student may be expected to help look after younger siblings or contribute to the family income by finding a job.

“A lot of parents don’t look at education as the fastest route to help the family out,” she said. Most parents want their children to go to college, but “it’s hard to put off the short-range goal in terms of the long-range goal. Sometimes, the reality of the economic situation takes over.”

Project Learn began in October and will continue through the school year. Parents were asked to attend the first four sessions, covering a variety of topics, from parenting skills to how to apply for financial aid. During these sessions, the students were taught about career opportunities and did exercises designed to build self-esteem.

By the fourth session, which took place recently at Harbor College, many students appeared to have developed detailed goals.

“I’m going to Harbor College, then Cal State Dominguez Hills,” Joe Guerrero said. “My dad says it’s a good idea. I’m real smart. I can do whatever I say.”

More than 200 parents and teachers crowded Seahawk Center to hear community leaders and college and high school students speak about the importance of higher education.

Ramiro Lizarraga, whose daughter is in the program, said he was thankful for the information, which he thought was very clearly explained.

“For me, it’s the best. It’s the first time in six years that they’ve had anything like this,” he said.

Robert Acevedo’s mother, Darlene, said she has attended all four sessions.

“He’s more secure,” she said of her son. I really noticed a difference. He understands that he’s going to college, and that’s great.”

Volunteer Diana Montoya, a member of Si Se Puede, Harbor College’s Latino club, said she wished her parents had participated in a program such as Project Learn when she was growing up.

“Hispanic families are so old-fashioned,” she said. “We need to tell them it’s OK for a daughter to go to college and not get married right away.”

Now an education major at Harbor College, the 26-year-old said she had to learn about the importance of higher education on her own. Her family did not begin encouraging her to get a degree until last year, when she had already enrolled in college and was supporting herself financially.

“My parents were not knowledgeable about opportunities,” Montoya said. “When you don’t know about something, how are you going to encourage your kids to do it?”