Teen Parents Changing Courses

Going to college just didn’t seem like an option to teen parent Martha Arellano. After all, she was an 18-year-old mother and her 19-year-old husband held down two jobs to make ends meet.

So when Arellano found a flier about the Teen Parent Program at Oxnard College on the door of her Pleasant Valley Village apartment, she thought it would be too difficult an endeavor and set it aside.

“I kept telling her to go, but she was insecure about the program,” said Jose Serrano, Arellano’s husband.

It wasn’t until a counselor from the program came knocking on her door that Arellano gave it some serious thought.

“I was pretty skeptical to begin with,” she said. “But then the counselor got me to join.”

The counselor helped her fill out applications and make an appointment for the assessment test. Arellano soon found herself enrolled in full-time classes. And when Serrano realized the program wasn’t just for women, he joined too.

Program officials work with the Oxnard Housing Authority to recruit parents from La Colonia, Pleasant Valley Village and other public housing developments. The program provides such services as career and personal counseling, bimonthly workshops, assistance with child care, books, supplies, parking permits or bus tokens, and tutoring.

The effort is paid for with a federal grant aimed at eliminating drug abuse in public housing complexes. So far, the grant has provided $172,293 in four years.

Arellano graduated from Oxnard College last year and is now a junior at Cal State Northridge, majoring in sociology. She hopes to graduate next May with a bachelor’s degree and is thinking about pursuing a master’s, enabling her to become a high school counselor.

Serrano is also interested in working at a high school. When he graduates from Oxnard in May, he plans to attend UC Santa Barbara and also major in sociology. He would eventually like to teach at Channel Islands High School, where he graduated three years ago and is now working as a tutor. Serrano said the program also helped him secure a position as a counselor with the Oxnard Boys & Girls Club.

If it weren’t for the Teen Parent Program, Arellano said she would have returned to clerical work. Serrano would have continued at the muffler shop.

“It’s opened doors for us and has shown us different things we can accomplish,” Serrano said. “They gave us a lot of support and encouragement.”

Since the program began in 1993 with 13 students, it has enrolled a total of 55 teen parents--25 of those students enrolled in the spring semester. There is a waiting list of 10 students.

Retention rate was 55% during the program’s first three years, but increased to 83% during the fall 1996 semester. Many students have entered the work force, completed certificate programs or transferred to CSUN.

“We’re the only program in the county that serves teen parents from very low-income families by helping them to get an education,” said Guadalupe Moriel-Guillen, the Teen Parent Program coordinator and counselor. “We focus on how to become independent, how to succeed in life through education and how to be better parents. If they improve their lifestyle, their children will also benefit.”

Ventura and Moorpark colleges are considering similar programs. Students in the Oxnard program must take child development classes as part of their course work and attend bimonthly workshops, which address topics such as parenting skills, birth control, domestic violence, drug education, child abuse, and college success and personal growth issues. A lot of the teens dropped out of high school or come from homes where there was domestic violence, child abuse, gang activities or prison incarceration, Moriel-Guillen said, adding that many of their parents were teen parents as well. “We try to break this cycle and enable them to learn a different way,” Moriel-Guillen said.

Each participant’s skills in reading, writing and math are assessed and then a course of study is planned. Many need tutoring in remedial courses before entering the college-level courses.

They come in not knowing how to even dress or act for an interview, Moriel-Guillen said. “But over time, you see them change. It is beautiful to see their transformation.”

Although the program accepts both teen women and men, most of the students are single female parents, said Rose Banuelos, resident services assistant with the Oxnard Housing Authority.

“Every day is a struggle for them because of child care, financial resources, domestic violence,” Banuelos said. “We deal with almost every issue with these girls on a daily basis. We try to give them a lot of supportive services and help them overcome these barriers so they can continue with their education.”

Another problem Banuelos finds herself dealing with is that sometimes the male partners don’t want their girlfriends or wives to become educated.

“Our philosophy is that we try to make them better educated so that they can become better parents to their children and be better role models,” Banuelos said.

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FYI

The Teen Parent Program is part of the Extended Opportunities Program and Services Department at Oxnard College. It is open to men and women who are teen parents. Call 986-5816 for information.