Last year Pamela Flores, a sophomore nursing student at Mount St. Mary's College, went back to Hollywood High, which she attended for a year, to work as a "student ambassador." She encouraged students not only to stay in school but to go to college so they could have a professional career.
The experience was rewarding for the teenager, especially since she was able to convince two girls from low-income immigrant families that even though they were undocumented they could continue their education.
But Flores had an ace up her sleeve: She was undocumented, too.
She guided students step-by-step through a grueling application process of writing personal essays, gathering references and filling out forms for scholarships specifically geared for noncitizens. The arduous task took two solid weeks.
This year the 19-year-old from Honduras is working again with students, but at the Mar Vista Center, which serves needy children and has an onsite continuation high school for kids who dropped out or were expelled from regular school. And, again, the sophomore is using her own personal experience to give undocumented adolescents hope that they can radically change their lives through higher education.
"No one knows about getting into college - and then finding ways to pay for it - if you're undocumented, unless you've been through it," Flores pointed out recently at the Mount's downtown Doheny campus. "I'm able to make that impact on those students who are in the same situation as my own.
"They think that because they're not getting the help as other student citizens and permanent residents would, they feel that they're left behind and college is not an option for them. And because I'm able to go out there and give them my story - let them know that I did it and I didn't give up - it gives them hope that they can still keep going."
Mount motivators
Mount St. Mary's College started the Student Ambassadors Program in 1991 to motivate students to finish high school and then go to college. Assigned to a high school or community site, each ambassador, who receives a paid stipend, works at least eight-to-10 hours a week.
Armed with a thick binder of relevant information, the current 37 college ambassadors meet with both students and their parents, answering questions about college requirements and preparation, financial aid and college life in general. Along with high school staff counselors, they also help take students through the rigorous college application process.
Moreover, an essential element of the program revolves around peer counseling and role modeling. Many MSMC students come from similar backgrounds to those of the adolescents they're working with. Whenever possible, ambassadors are assigned to their old high schools.
"Being able to work one-on-one with high school students and guide them through the process of applying for college and moving to the next step is so rewarding in itself," said Lupe Salgado, 20, who works mainly with juniors and seniors at Bell High School every Friday. "There were also a few parents who came in and were concerned about their child not getting the right preparation for college or they didn't want their kids to go to college because of the expense.
"And I would explain to them the different financial options their kids were eligible for, and tell them about websites [through which] to apply for scholarships," the junior child development major from Downey added, before smiling. "Every parent that came in and I met with, we were able to change their mind. I mean, there was a lot they just didn't know."
Alma Nuņez, 21, and Johanna Rodriguez, 20, both work at San Fernando High School's college center in the "Project Grad" program, which offers $6,000 college scholarships to students who get good grades and fulfill other requirements. They encourage freshmen to sign up for the program, conduct information workshops (called "institutes"), give homeroom presentations, make posters, hand out applications and help the school counseling staff keep track of some 2,000 pupils.
"Most of them are first-generation students, so they don't realize many of the burdens that they're going to come across to go to college," reported Nuņez, an MSMC junior. "So when we tell them, you can just see it's an eye-opener for them. And then, right after, they'll ask us questions. They seek our help. I think that's the best part of it, knowing that you're helping so many."
Rodriguez, a third-year double psychology and sociology major at the Mount, graduated from San Fernando High School herself and uses that as a counseling motivator. "I always tell them, 'I know it's hard. I know the teachers that you guys are working with. I know what it is to be sitting in that classroom. But it's definitely doable to get good marks and go to college.'
"I give examples of my own experience and how I was just able to overcome, and you can, too," she reported. "When they say, 'Well, I can't go to college because ...', we say, 'No, we're going to find a way.'"
Role models
The four ambassadors point out that they come from the same socioeconomic backgrounds as the teenagers they're working with, and are all very close in age to high school students. As a result, they see themselves first of all as role models.
But they don't stress coming to Mount St. Mary's College. Their goal is to get high school kids who are convinced college isn't an option to realize it really is - whether that be at a UC or Cal State campus, private institution or community college. "We tell them, 'You can go anywhere and still receive a good college experience,'" Rodriguez said.
Still, the coeds concede they can't convince every high school student at their sites that they'll probably have a better life and more economic stability if they go to college. But they always tell them to remember that they might change their mind. "We always try to motivate them," Nuņez said. "We never just let them leave with no hope. We always try our hardest."
Being ambassadors has also changed the four MSMC students.
"The struggles that many of today's students have, I didn't have to go through," Salgado said. "From the parents not being supportive to the stressing about how to pay for college, I didn't have to deal with that. So it's opened my eyes."
For Nuņez, the counseling she's provided has made the sociology and graphics arts major think about a career in some kind of psychological service. "And with the presentations we give, it made me more comfortable with public speaking," she reported.
Rodriguez knows now that she wants to continue working with high school kids. "I like being around them," she said, "and I know I have a positive influence on them."
Being a student ambassador, says Flores, has brought out all her inner strengths - especially communication skills. "I always promised myself that if I found a way I would go back and let people like me who are undocumented know there is a way to go on to college and have a career," the sophomore said. "And this program has allowed me to do that."
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