Mentorship program gives migrant students brighter future

By Meryl Lipman
The Portland Upside
July 2009

Director Teresa Alonso (left) explains new Nike mentorship opportunities with two students in the CAMP program at Portland Community College. (Photo by James Hill)

Teresa Alonso, director of the College Assistance for Migrants Program (CAMP) at Portland Community College, believes anything is possible.

She also believes in hard work and follow-through.

So when she met Cynthia Escamilla, chair of Nike’s Latino and Friends Network (LAFN) at El Poder de la Mujer (The Power of the Woman) conference in February 2008, Teresa wasted no time following up.

That spring, Teresa and her students, all from migrant worker backgrounds, took a tour of the Nike campus, courtesy of Nike recruiter and LAFN member Jenny Salgado. At the end of their meeting Teresa pitched the idea of a mentorship program. Jenny asked her to submit a formal proposal and again, Teresa followed up. She later received a call from Alma Garza in the company’s retail marketing department. Alma liked the idea of the mentoring program and she sat down with Teresa and Jenny to develop a pilot project for the summer of 2009.

Teresa, no stranger to recognizing opportunity, began her life on an earthen floor in a house with no plumbing. She spent her first four years in San Jeronimo, a tiny Michoacán village in Mexico, before moving with her family to the U.S. In Oregon she and her parents shared a mobile home with another family and worked in the berry fields. By the age of 10, Teresa was juggling school, sports, field work, and the care of her younger siblings. As her parents’ financial situation remained dependent on the capricious conditions of agriculture, Teresa says she “saw education as the antidote to poverty.”

“Mentorship was key for me,” says Teresa, who was offered a mentor through a program at Oregon State University. Indeed, her mentor helped her mother understand the benefit of Teresa finishing high school.

“My mother was always very supportive,” she says, but she admits that her father was somewhat bewildered by his daughter’s ambitions. After completing the University of Oregon’s High School Equivalency Program (HEP), “I basically told them I was going to college,” Teresa chuckles. She transferred to Lane Community College and then Western Oregon University.

Teresa began working for PCC in January 2007 and in the space of two years she and her team created one of the most innovative and successful of the 35 CAMP programs in the nation. CAMP—a federal grant program located at the Rock Creek Campus in West Portland—sets up mentorship, academic support and community for the children of migrant workers during their first year in college. The program has enjoyed full attendance and Teresa beams when she mentions that most of her original group is still in college. They are beginning to transfer to four year universities, mentor new participants and nurture increased parental involvement.

“Many of our students are the first in their families to finish high school, let alone go to college” Teresa explains. “Parent say is so strong in the Latin community. If we can get parents on board with regard to education and help them understand the [long term] economic investment, it will be so much easier for young people,” she says.

Seven students were chosen to be mentored in the Nike summer program—Roy Gomez (Hermiston), Isidro Interian (Aloha), Sandra Soto (Cornelius), Maria Araceli Rebolledo Salgado (Cornelius), Jose Lopez (Forest Grove), Juan Ramirez Alonso (Hillsboro), and Izequiel Lopez Jr. (Cornelius).

Alma and Teresa paired them with Nike mentors based on their goals, and their mentors’ professional backgrounds, which included finance, retail, marketing and childcare.
CAMP student Isidro Interian comes from Yucatan, Mexico and arrived in Oregon at age four. His parents were originally agricultural workers, though his mother now works in production and his father works as a janitor. Isidro made both Dean’s List and Honor Roll. He wants to major in education and teach kindergarten someday.

“I’m interested in physical activity as part of education, particularly for young children,” he says. “And Nike’s creativity can help me later on in working with kids.”

As a next step, he would like to volunteer for Nike’s soccer camp. “This is networking for the future,” he says. Through the Nike program, Isidro hopes to learn time management, communication and leadership skills.

The mentors met their students at a kick-off ceremony on June 18 at the Nike campus in Beaverton. The pairs will attend monthly group meetings all summer to complete three professional development projects. The program finale will be a Latino Heritage Celebration with LAFN in September.

Teresa, recently selected as one of Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 business leaders, is thrilled that the relationship between CAMP and Nike has come to fruition.

“I am beside myself with gratitude,” she says.

Teresa hopes the program will expand next year and eventually involve student internships at Nike. Networking with companies like Nike plays a critical role in her investment strategy for her students and proves that with a little hard work and some mentoring, indeed, anything is possible for migrant students in Oregon.

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Meryl Lipman has a masters in writing from PSU and has worked for Portland Community College since 2003. In her spare time she loves to travel and jump out of airplanes.