Breaking Down Barriers

Laura Palencia turned down Harvard. And she said no to MIT, USC and Columbia--not to mention four of the best colleges in the University of California system.

In the end, the 18-year-old senior at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard chose to attend Stanford University in the fall, relying on a stellar academic record and working-class roots to earn a full ride at the state’s most expensive university.

So what does one so smart and in demand have to be nervous about? Only the gnawing, not-sure-you-can-hack-it feeling that comes with being the first in your family to go to college.

“I don’t feel like I’m academically prepared,” said Palencia, a shy honor student and Mexican immigrant who next month will graduate third in her class with a grade point average well above 4.0.

“But I’ve learned you don’t have to be a genius to get [to college],” she said. “You just have to know the way.”

That’s a lesson she learned at Upward Bound.

For 20 years, the federally funded program at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks has been charting new paths for students such as Palencia, and the low-income sons and daughters of immigrants who have the potential to be the first in their families to earn a college degree.

Starting when they are sophomores, students sharpen their academic skills through Saturday school and a five-week summer session--all in pursuit of higher education.

There are 550 Upward Bound programs nationwide, and the one in Ventura County is open to 60 students at high schools in Santa Paula, Oxnard and Camarillo.

Nearly 100% of Upward Bound graduates have gone to college and 80% earn degrees.

“I really try to showcase those kids, to hold them up as examples to the younger students of what can happen when they work hard,” said program Director Oscar Cobian, who last week watched three Upward Bound alumni participate in graduation ceremonies at UC Berkeley.

“I think the best thing we provide them is a social network of kids who are motivated and who want to go to college,” he said. “That can make all the difference.”

It is not uncommon for Upward Bound graduates to get into some of the best universities in the nation, Cobian said. But even by those standards, this year’s graduating class is something special.

Hueneme High School senior Alejandro Elias is headed to UC Berkeley. Karina Arellano, a senior at Channel Islands High, will enroll at Loyola Marymount. Rio Mesa senior Evelina Ochoa will choose between offers from the University of San Diego and Chapman University in Orange.

Then there is 18-year-old Channel Islands High School senior Johanna Torres, who once figured the toughest thing about going to college would be getting in. She was wrong.

The daughter of onetime immigrant farm workers, Torres enrolled in Upward Bound during her sophomore year. She never doubted that she would go to college, but had her sights set on community college, or maybe a state school.

Math Whiz Wooed by Major Schools

That was before Upward Bound counselors got a hold of her, pumping her full of ideas that she could do better. After sending out a flurry of applications, she was accepted in mid-March to UC campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara.

In the following weeks, acceptance letters flooded in from Notre Dame, Duke, Cornell and Brown.

The universities wooed her. Notre Dame flew her out for a campus tour, complete with a candlelight dinner for new recruits. Other schools sent hats, shirts and bumper stickers in a mad scramble for her promise to enroll.

In the end, Duke won. The math whiz, who will graduate fourth in her class with a 4.3 grade-point average, plans to major in engineering.

“I would not have aimed so high had it not been for the program,” said Torres, who this summer will trade her family’s cramped two-bedroom trailer in south Oxnard for a North Carolina dorm room.

“My parents, I don’t think they really know how big a deal these schools are,” she said. “But they came here from Mexico and worked hard all of their lives to try to give us whatever they could. If I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, it just wouldn’t be right.”

In fact, at the Upward Bound graduation ceremony earlier this month, Roberto Torres acknowledged that he doesn’t know much about the university his daughter will attend.

“But some of the people I work with have told me it’s a very good college,” said Torres, who is an agricultural pesticide applicator for an Oxnard company. “I am a very proud father. We may be poor, but my family is rich in other ways.”

The Upward Bound graduation was a warmup for June ceremonies. About 80 parents, family members and friends filled the pews at Samuelson Chapel at Cal Lutheran, wiping away tears as the youngsters talked about the transformation from being unsteady high school students to confident college-bound graduates.

Ventura County prosecutor Gilbert Romero, an Upward Bound graduate from the class of 1990, delivered a keynote address detailing how the program had provided a safe haven for him at a time when his life was dominated by alcoholic parents and poverty-choked surroundings.

He urged the youngsters to go forward and soak up everything they could about art and philosophy and architecture. And he asked, when they were done, that they return to lift up those coming behind them.

Parents then took the stage. Oxnard resident Laura Burwick, mother of Cal Lutheran-bound Amanda Burwick of Hueneme High, told how her daughter’s success had inspired her to re-enroll in college.

A Bumper Crop of Good Students

Of the 25 Upward Bound graduates, 17 were girls--a trend that Cobian says is on the rise.

In fact, at Channel Islands High School, Principal Michael Martinez said he has about 10 Latina girls--most the daughters of immigrant parents--who are headed to major universities.

“These are outstanding kids, very impressive,” he said of Palencia and Torres. “But we just happen to have a bumper crop this year. It seems to me like we are seeing more and more young women who want to better themselves and are using education as a vehicle to do it.”

Palencia and Torres know all too well the dismal tide of statistics that show young Latinas are less likely to graduate from high school or college than females in any other ethnic group. And they know about the other barriers, including cultural expectations that they should stay close to home, get married and raise children.

“I’ll be glad if anybody sees [my story] and it makes them decide they can do it too,” said Palencia . “You don’t have to do it alone; I’ve gotten help from a lot of people,” she said. “I’m now getting an opportunity to go out and see life from a different perspective. But it’s my responsibility to come back and tell others what it’s like and how to get there.”