QUINCY VALLEY POST-REGISTER |
PARTNERS |
AFFILIATED SITES |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Copyright 2008 World Publishing Company. All rights reserved. |
|||||
Helping students migrate to success
submitted
Alicia Sanchez, migrant program coordinator for QHS, walks the Central Washington University campus last spring with QHS seniors Blanca Quintero and Myra Camacho, who are now both attending college.
Just a while back, Alicia Sanchez talked another student out of quitting high school.
“The student said ‘Miss Sanchez, why is it that when I come into your office you always talk me out of this?,” recalled Sanchez.
For Sanchez, it is all part of the job. Alicia Sanchez, head of the migrant program at Quincy High School, has high expectations for seniors in the program. The migrant program is designed to help students whose families have moved within the last three years while working in agriculture.
“The percentage of students who graduate and go on to college from the high school migrant program is 75 to 80 percent,” said Sanchez. Last year, 11 out of 12 of the students who were listed as migrant graduated and went on to college.
The program was born with the realization that many migrant families lacked access to services such as housing, tutoring and college advising. Sanchez helps families of migrant seniors at the high school level overcome obstacles to graduation and college. Sanchez acts as an advocate for these students, many of whom are first-generation college students. Sanchez said she wants to help migrant students envision college life. Sanchez takes them on college tours, and helps them to apply for scholarships and other government aids.
“A lot of parents haven’t ever been to college, so they don’t know what to expect,” said Sanchez.
The biggest challenge for Sanchez is emphasizing the importance of the credit system. “We are on a trimester system, and if a student has been gone, they have lost credit. I try to get the parents to understand that these credits represent whole classes, and if the student misses credit, they get a ‘0,’” said Sanchez. Sanchez holds parent meetings for seniors in the program to focus on this credit issue, as she figures out where they are at on the road to college.
Sanchez said she looks forward to seeing more students in her program attend college and earn their degrees.
