Mentors Push Latinas to Give College Try

Comision Femenil pairs Latina professionals with Latina students at San Fernando High School who need role models. Just a few hours a month--going to a concert, attending a museum opening or just talking about life--can make the difference for a young Latina woman. Comision Femenil’s message: Stay in school, get the facts about higher education, and college is obtainable. Allison Cohen talked about the program with Maria Reza, a mentor, and Sonia Hernandez, the student she counsels.

MARIA REZA

Newhall resident and a Los Angeles Unified School District administrator for the San Fernando cluster. Reza began her career with San Fernando High in 1969 as a teacher.

We would like to see more of our women--and young men, for that matter--go on to higher educations. In the mentoring program, the students meet women already in a profession that has required some higher education and additional degrees. In that respect, once they get to know you, they see that it is possible for them to go on and become a professional.

So many of our young women come from homes where they don’t have role models in their own family that have gone on to college. Why? There are several reasons, like a lack of resources and poverty. Sometimes it’s just a lack of role models. The students don’t see themselves with the capability to go on and achieve at higher levels. No one ever talked to them about it.

I know women that were A and B students but no one ever talked to them about college. These are the kinds of things we want to prevent. We want to be sure [Sonia] is motivated to stay in school. Her parents want this and we want this for her. We really are an extension of her family.

Because I have an education, a lot of doors have opened for me. Not only in my career, but in the arts and traveling, for instance. I tell [Sonia]: “This is what can be yours if you get educated and get a good job.” She also has an older sister who goes to USC. I can empathize with these girls because I was one of them. I was the first woman to go to college and graduate in my family--even my extended family. I never met a college-educated Latina woman when I was growing up--except for my Spanish teacher in high school. Consequently, I didn’t think college was for me. I graduated in the top 10% of my high school class and no one talked to me about going to college.

A lot of our younger Latina women are asked to take on household responsibilities at a young age. We help take care of children and fix dinner while our mothers are working. How did I know what to do? I asked a librarian to show me the college catalogs. I chose to go to the school that had the loveliest picture on its catalog. Isn’t that silly? It was San Jose State. I got accepted to all the schools where I applied--even UCLA. But I had no idea that [UCLA] was a higher academic school. I hope things are changed now, but I don’t think they’ve changed that much.

SONIA HERNANDEZ

15, Sylmar resident and 10th-grader at San Fernando High.

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[Maria’s] been very great. I want to become a teacher and come back to my school. She has made me realize that women can go a lot further than they are told they can go in our community.

When you look around, there’s not a lot of women we can look up to. She’s been there for me. She answers questions I have. She’s been a great role model. That’s what I needed. I wish more kids at San Fernando High School could have that. I am planning to go to college. I want to go to either UC Berkeley or USC.

[Maria and I] have gone on trips. We went on a picnic. We saw the Rockettes. I call her when I can. We talk about school and what’s going on with my life. It’s changed me. There are a lot of people that get out of here and they don’t ever come back. She’s showed me that you can be successful and come back and help your community at the same time.

You look around and you want to see people that are like you that have gotten far. And you just don’t see them. [But] my generation is getting more chances and more experience and knowledge that we can go to college and find a job.

I plan to stay with [the mentoring program] until I am a senior--and then I want to join [the organization]. The women I’ve met in it are really great and I am hoping someday to be one too.

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For information about the organization’s local chapter, call Maria Reza at 818-896-7677.