Latinas and education: recognize issues and overcome
BY BRITTNI GUEVARA
From kindergarten through twelfth grade, American students are given the opportunity to delve into the public school system for free. Unfortunately for some students, the $0.00 pricetag on education is not enough to keep them in school.
In Latino communities around the nation, students are faced with both environmental and social issues that have overwhelming impacts on high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates and employment rates.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center– a Pew Research Center project that provides information on issues, trends and attitudes of Hispanics in America, based in Washington– the high school dropout rate for Latino students in the United States is at 21 percent, skyrocketing over the number for white Americans at 7 percent and black Americans at 16 percent.
Although the Pew Hispanic Center also reports that the college enrollment rate for Hispanics is seeing a significant rise of 32 percent in 2010, the high school drop out rates continue to surge.
“The key factors in low educational success are many times teen pregnancy, a lack of parental/household support, and additional household responsibilities for many young Latinas,” said Barlow Flores, a program director at the Latin American Youth Center in Washington. “
The Latin American Youth Center is a multicultural community-based organization which aims to support youth and their families through regional youth centers and charter schools.
“In my time working with our Latinas at LAYC, I have found that teen pregnancy is a rising epidemic amongst students from minority and low socio-economic backgrounds,” Flores said. “These young women are rarely dropping out of high school for academic reasons, which affects males at a statistically higher rate, but rather the unplanned pregnancies that force young Latinas from completing high school.”
While some Latinas are forced to deal with environmental and social issues simultaneously, others’ education is threatened by just one key issue: teen pregnancy. Still, the threat stands firmly.
How Being a Young Mother Makes Education Difficult
Jeidy Reyes, 21, grew up in a nice part of Richmond, Va. Gang violence and inadequate schooling were not issues that she had to deal with, but instead, she has to raise a son while trying to continue her education.
Although Reyes had graduated high school by the time she found out she was pregnant, she still had dreams she hoped to pursue, including attending and graduating college. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington, less than two percent of teen mothers finish college by the age of 30.
Reyes refused to be part of the statistic. However, the road was not an easy one at first.
“When my mother found out I was pregnant, she immediately kicked me out of the house,” said Reyes. “My son’s father’s family was definitely there for me through it all as well as my brother who has a child himself.”
Reyes, who attends the Medical Careers Institute in Virginia Beach, Va. and works as a hostess at Dave & Buster’s Restaurant in Richmond, said that it was this support that inspired her to continue her education.
“I knew a baby would affect my whole life, including my education,” Reyes said. “I knew regardless, though, that I was going to finish my education and continue it while I was pregnant.”
By the age of 20, approximately 52 percent of Latinas will become pregnant at least once, according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington. The National Campaign believes that through the prevention of teen and unplanned pregnancy, there will be less poverty, more chances for teens to continue their education and achieve their goals and a better country overall.
The goal of the National Campaign has yet to be completely achieved. Out of the 52 percent, for those Latinas who are still in high school while pregnant, more than half of them do not graduate.
The issue of teen pregnancy in the Latina community may be one of the most highlighted, but it does not stand alone in preventing young ladies in the community from getting an education.
“Other factors, such as lack of household support, comes more from a cultural background as young Latina women’s education is not given as much priority in the household as much as taking additional responsibilities within the household, either watching over and taking care of younger siblings or looking for part time employment opportunities,” said Flores.
How Household Environments Can Make or Break Education
For some Latinas, the language barrier and low-education levels amongst parents contribute to the hinderance in their education.
According to ASCD, formerly the Association for the Supervision and Curriculum Development, based in Arlington, Va., Latina students are more likely than any other students to come from homes where the parents do not speak English.
Additionally, studies done by the Pew Hispanic Center say that 49 percent of Hispanic children have mothers who have not completed high school.
Heidi Baptista, a social worker and counselor at Washington Lee High School in Artington, says that the structure of the household, along with the education of parents, has a great affect on a student’s education. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, an organization aimed at bettering the lives of disadvantaged children in the U.S., 40 percent of Latino households are single-parent.
“If you’re growing up in a single-family, you have to take on more responsibilities,” Baptista said. “If you’re doing all these parent roles, you might not be focused with school, but that’s the reality.”
Baptista also said, however, that some Latina students that come from single-parent homes have “a better work ethic because of household responsibilities.” Still, with a single-parent household comes with only one income, which Baptista also credits as a hinderance towards education.
“You might be limited to some of the activities you can do,” said Baptista, about lack of financial resources in one-parent homes. “You might not be able to sign up for any type of team sport because that costs money. And then when you get to the point where you’re in high school, some school systems are charging for certain tests. Some school systems are charging for driver’s education, SAT prep classes. So all of that impacts their education.”
How Joining an Organization Can Help
Aside from being a counselor and social worker, Baptista is also the coordinator for the Washington Lee chapter of Latinas Leading Tomorrow, an organization aimed at promoting positive Latina identity and empowerment through leadership meetings, workshops and activities.
Many of the middle and high school students involved in Latinas Leading Tomorrow are the first in their family to aspire to go to college.
Jhoxelin Portillo, a senior at Washington Lee and member of Latinas Leading Tomorrow, believes that education “is really important.”
“Education is basically you’re career, your life,” said Portillo. “It’s how you make your own family, and you do your own job, your own thing and you get to stand out more.”
Although Portillo says that the environment at Washington Lee “really helps her out,” she has seen the education of her friend, also a senior, become affected by another factor: being pregnant twice in high school.
Portillo is of Salvadorian descent, the Hispanic origin that held the highest drop out rate of 28 percent in 2000, according to Pew Hispanic Center studies, but she intends on not being part of that statistic.
“Right now, what I’m thinking is going to community college for two years to work on my grades,” Portillo said. “Then hopefully going to George Mason [University].”
Another member of Latinas Leading Tomorrow, sophomore Rocio Villalobos, also of Salvadorian descent, thinks that the necessity of secondary education “depends on who you are,” but credits her drive to stay in school to being a member of the organization.
“All of the girls in LLT are my friends and we have a lot in common,” said Villalobos. “We talk about how school’s going and all that and I don’t feel left out because we’re all similar.”
Villalobos joined Latinas Leading Tomorrow to give herself an activity to do after school. What she got from it was not only a group of new friends, but a mentor who she says “checks our grades and school attendance and checks on how we’re doing.”
Portillo agrees that the organization has influenced her to stay in school.
“The way LLT helps me with school is that we actually talk about our grades,” she said. “Sometimes we talk and then during that conversation, we’ll talk about what we’re going to do, what we want to become.”
Baptista not only serves as a leader to the 15 members of Latinas Leading Tomorrow at Washington Lee, but also as someone confide in and by motivated by.
“We tend to talk to teenagers a lot, but not talk with them,” said Baptista. “If we can make a personal connection with these girls, with our youth, I think they can come a long way.”
