Children of migrant workers swap farm work for homework. A University of South Florida program is raising their aspirations.
By ADRIENNE LU
Published June 26, 2003
[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys]
Students at the Academic Migrant Summer Institute, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, study on June 13.
TAMPA - Most days after school for the past five years, Maria Corona, 18, has headed to the fields to pick cucumbers.
It is dusty, repetitive, backbreaking work, filling buckets then emptying them into big boxes. Each box pays $25. A typical workday lasts six hours, so by the time Corona gets home at night, all she wants to do is fall into bed and sleep.
Homework is a luxury Corona's family simply can't afford.
This summer, though, Corona will have six full weeks to concentrate on school at the Academic Migrant Summer Institute at the University of South Florida, a residential program where at-risk migrant students can take classes for credit or study for the important FCAT away from the stresses of migrant life. It's an opportunity Corona is grateful to have.
"I just want to graduate," said Corona, who needs to pass American history and algebra this summer to enter her senior year at Lakewood Ranch High School in Manatee County in the fall. "Instead of picking cucumbers."
Altogether, about 550 high school students from migrant families throughout the state are expected to enroll at the four campuses hosting the Academic Migrant Summer Institute this year.
Graduation is one goal
The migrant institute is now in its 18th year at USF, where it originated. Over the years, the program has quietly expanded to help more students from migrant families make up classes they've failed during the year or get ahead on schoolwork. Some students who complete the credits they need, or pass the FCAT on another try, will graduate from high school when they finish the institute.
This year, the state will receive about $3-million from the U.S. Department of Education for the institute. There is no cost to students. For some, however, the institute still represents a significant sacrifice, since families must give up the income their children would have earned otherwise.
Florida's Department of Education counted 56,213 migrant students in 2000-01, the most recent year for which data is available.
Although Florida has made progress in educating migrant students, there's still work to be done. Migrant students had an average high school GPA of 2.2 in 2000-01, compared to 2.5 for other students.
Many migrants face daunting difficulties at school.
In addition to working on the farm, Corona, the Lakewood Ranch High School student, must travel several times a year to follow crop seasons. From March through June, Corona picks cucumbers in Florida. From July through September, her family is in Michigan, also picking cucumbers. In the fall, they return to Florida, where the school year has already begun. She works in the fields through December. In January and February, she finally gets a break from the farm work.
At the migrant institute, Corona's schedule is not unusual.
Children and teenagers may learn the message - sometimes spoken, sometimes not - that work and contributing to the family are more important than school.
Language is another problem. According to the Florida Department of Education, Spanish was the native language of 68 percent of the state's migrant students in 2000-01. English was the native language of just 26 percent; Haitian-Creole, just less than 4 percent; and Vietnamese, less than 2 percent.
No shortage of motivation
The students at the Academic Migrant Summer Institute may not be working in the fields this summer, but they're not slacking off, either. They are in class or studying for more than eight hours a day, including three class periods and another period for homework, tutorials and learning study skills. They wake up at 6 a.m. Lights out is 10:30 p.m.
Although some grumble about doing schoolwork during the summer, most take their work seriously.
"They're really good kids," said Jessica Denison, a teacher at King High School in Tampa who is working as a tutor at the USF institute this summer. "They're really motivated."
At USF, the goal set by administrators was to have 90 percent of the students who complete the institute improve their grade point averages and FCAT scores. The institute has met those goals every year.
Earlier in its operation, the institute had an impressive success rate. Of 230 high school students who completed the institute between 1988 and 1991, 89 percent had graduated or were still in school, compared to 54 percent of a control group who had not attended the institute. Diana Sen, educational program director with the state Department of Education, said no current statistics are available, although one study was started last year.
In addition to USF, the migrant institute is taking place at the University of West Florida, University of Miami and Florida Gulf Coast University. The University of West Florida and Gulf Coast University offer leadership programs, intended to prepare students for college. This is the first year the University of West Florida and the University of Miami are participating.
First thoughts of college
Lathesia Callahan, 19, who attends Lake Placid High School in Highlands County, is back at the USF institute for her third year.
"It's like hands-on," said Callahan, whose father picks fruit for a living. "You don't have that many kids in class. You can concentrate."
One of the main goals of the program is to give the students time to concentrate on academics full-time, even when they're having fun. At USF, teachers issue progress reports every week and the students compete for pizza parties. The team with the highest GPA wins.
For some students, simply living on a college campus where academics comes first is life-changing.
Patricia Boiteux, a recent USF graduate who is working as a residential counselor, said some students arrived at the institute this month saying they had never considered higher education. But by the end of a week, their perspective had changed.
"They've been here for not even a week and some of them are already talking to me about college," Boiteux said.
Some students are lucky enough to arrive with the support of their families to stay in school.
Elizabeth Maldonado, 18, has all the credits she needs to graduate from Lakewood Ranch High School but has yet to pass the reading portion of the FCAT. The youngest of six, Maldonado hopes to be the first in her family to graduate from high school. Her mother got as far as fifth grade in Mexico; her father, third.
Today, Maldonado's family works in a pickle packing plant. She worked at the plant for a week before going to the institute, going in at 10:30 in the morning and leaving at midnight. It was hard work, Maldonado said, standing all day, picking out the bad cucumbers from the good. At the end of the day, her legs were swollen - incentive enough to stay in school. Maldonado wants to become a nurse, and she said her family is behind her.
"They don't want me doing the same thing they're doing, so they all support me."
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
