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CMAS works on $5M endowment

Center gives hope to students who may face challenges in completing education

By Saba Jamali
The Daily Cougar

Hispanics are expected to make up the majority of Houston's population by the end of the decade, but the percentage of Mexican-Americans earning college degrees remains well below the national average -- and UH's Center for Mexican-American Studies is attempting to improve that.

In addition to offering a minor in Mexican-American studies, one of CMAS' principal goals is the recruitment and retention of Hispanic students at the University. The center has already raised $1.5 million of a $5 million endowment fund to help ensure those programs' futures.

"There are endowed professors and endowed chairs, but there is no center in the country that has its own endowment to help fund all of its projects," said Tatcho Mindiola, the director of CMAS and associate professor of sociology. "We don't see the endowment as replacing the state budget, we see it as supplementing the state budget -- but we're also hopeful that over time, the endowment will continue to grow."

CMAS' work begins at the high school level through programs like Students Aspiring to a Better Education at Stephen F. Austin High School, which works to increase the number of graduates who go to college through workshops, mentoring and tutoring programs, and leadership retreats.

CMAS' Urban Experience Program is a University-level extension of SABE that offers students need-based scholarships. Beyond that, CMAS provides retention programs, career days, courses and graduate student fellowships to an estimated 5,000 students a year.

The endowment fund will be a secure source of money for scholarships and services. CMAS has been approaching corporations, businesses and individuals in its campaign and is accepting help from anyone who might support the cause.

"Raising the money for the Urban Experience students is a full-time job," Mindiola said. "Given the way the budget has been in the state of Texas for the past decade or so, we felt that we needed to stabilize our source of funding revenue."

Urban Experience Program Manager Rebeca Treviño said she is concerned about funding for scholarships.

"I think that our biggest worry is always that we're not going to have enough money to provide scholarships for our students ... we're very limited," Treviño said.

Seventy-five students in the Urban Experience Program receive four-year, $10,000 scholarships.

"There are very few programs within the University that actually provide competitive scholarships," Treviño said. "We are not limited only to Hispanics. We're open to any student that needs the services, that needs the help."

CMAS also offers programs designed to generate research into the Mexican-American culture through its Graduate Fellowship Program and Visiting Scholars' Program.

"The educational needs of the Hispanic community are very great," Mindiola said. Hispanic students make up about 18 percent of the University's enrollment, according to 2003 enrollment figures, and the 2000 census showed Hispanics make up about 37 percent of Houston's population. By 2010, Hispanics are expected to become the majority ethnicity in the city.

Despite a growing Hispanic community nationwide, census figures report only 7 percent of Mexican-Americans have college degrees, compared with 25 percent of the general population.

"If we don't educate our kids, then we have a great problem on our hands. You need to have a population that is really educated," Rosanna Moreno, chairwoman of the CMAS endowment campaign and vice president of international private client services at Wells Fargo, said.

Ruben Morales, a mathematics junior who was in SABE at Austin High, joined Urban Experience when he came to UH.

"In high school, the SABE program got a lot of us thinking about college," Morales, who now mentors high school students in SABE, said. "A lot of our students come from very bad neighborhoods, but little by little, they're encouraged to do a lot better instead of giving up."

Francis Escamilla, a senior computer science major who is the first in her family to attend college, was planning to go into the military rather than pursuing a degree.

"(Urban Experience) is a great program and it can do a lot; it's just that it doesn't have enough money," Escamilla said. "I know there are a lot of students out there that would like to be a part of the program, but because of our limitations, only so many people are able to take advantage of it."

Mindiola said students may come into Urban Experience with low test scores, but they usually improve their grades and graduate more quickly and at a higher rate than other Latinos.

"(That) means in essence we're doing a good job, and I'm very proud of that," he said.

"I see it as an incubator for our kids, for Hispanics," Moreno said of CMAS. "It makes them proud of who they are and their culture, their history."
 

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