Economedes teaches parents of undocumented students the college process

EDINBURG — After being featured in The Monitor, University of Texas -Pan American student Alex Garrido received threatening e-mails, phone calls offering help and the opportunity to help other undocumented students at an Edinburg high school.

Sixty families of undocumented high school seniors gathered for a private meeting at the Economedes High School Library Tuesday to learn about the steps their children have to take in order to continue their education at a post-secondary institution.

“We want the parents to be informed and be on the same page as the students,” said Marissa Guerra, Gear-Up Community Liaison. “A lot of times the students have questions or the parents don’t know the process.  In this case, with these parents, a lot of them may not have even graduated from high school, and for them this is a big thing for their kids. So we want to make sure that they know what the process is.”

To achieve this, the school invited a financial aid representative from UTPA and South Texas College to speak to parents about the financial resources that are available to their children. 

“It’s a question that people like us, who have limited resources, have to think about almost daily,” parent Araceli Escamilla said in Spanish about paying for college tuition. “The time is approaching for our daughter to go to college and we know it’s expensive, so it’s definitely a preoccupation.”

Both financial aid representatives from the schools talked about the long process, beginning with enrollment requirements and ending with some advice: ‘Don’t wait to apply for aid. Do it now.’

School officials also invited Garrido after reading the Sept. 22 article titled, “Tired of Hiding” that highlighted his push for the DREAM Act — legislation that would help students like him, who were brought to the country as children, begin a path for residency after either enrolling at a university or serving in the military for two years.

“Give yourself the opportunity to be the best person you can be,” he said to both parents and students. “Go the extra mile and become valuable to the country.”

Garrido encouraged students to enroll in dual credit courses as way to cut costs at the university. Olivia Moreno, 17, said she was already enrolled in advanced placement courses, which can count as college credits if she passes an assessment test at the end of the year. Moreno, who wants to be a third-grade teacher, has already applied for admission at UTPA and STC.

“We hope there’s more (meetings) because there are things that we as parents don’t understand,” her father, Jose Alfaro said in Spanish.  “We’re starting to learn and to educate ourselves, but we have to continue coming to the meetings to keep up.”

Guerrero said the school will continue to host meetings once or twice a month where they will sit with parents individually and help them fill out forms that are mostly in English only.

“This is their last year and our last step is to get them into college,” she said. “The goal is to make sure that all of them are enrolled and become successful in whatever post secondary institution they chose.”

Garrido, whose article received a mixture of approval and opposition, said he was happy to have been given the opportunity to speak to other students about a topic dear to his heart.

“We’re already behind,” he told the audience. “Help yourself get ahead. What kills a person is not falling into a river, but staying in it.”

Naxiely Lopez covers PSJA and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4434.