By Julie Rasicot
Special to the Washington Post
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Alex Morataya was a student on a mission as he walked around the National Hispanic College and Career Fair last week at the Universities at Shady Grove Conference Center in Rockville.
"I'm trying to get that education," said the 16-year-old junior at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring. "I want a school that I really want to go to."
Morataya was not alone. More than 1,700 Montgomery and Prince George's county high school juniors and seniors took advantage of the opportunity to learn about college and scholarship options.
The event, featuring more than 60 colleges as well as the military, was organized by the National Hispanic College Fairs Inc., a Belle Harbor, N.Y., company, in conjunction with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to Latino students, and school officials from both counties.
Organizers said the purpose of the fair was to provide Hispanic students with information about the variety of higher-education options available to them.
"Data and research continually show that the number of Latinos attending college is much lower than it should be," said Nancy Carlson, a high school counselor specialist for the Montgomery County schools who helped organize the event. "We really want to let folks know these opportunities are available."
The fair capped three days of events focused on raising awareness about higher education and financial aid opportunities among Hispanic students and their families, Carlson said.
On Nov. 4, more than 400 students and parents gathered at Gaithersburg High School for a two-hour discussion in Spanish on issues that included college readiness and financial aid that was co-sponsored by the scholarship fund, said Teresita Vergne, a program director for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
The following day, about 100 parents and students attended a pre-fair informational session on some of the same topics at The Universities at Shady Grove.
Sam Granirer, executive director of National Hispanic College Fairs, said that the company has been running the fairs since 1998 and that they are usually held on college campuses so that students can see what one looks like. "It gives them an eye-opener to some degree," he said. "Hopefully, with this push, we're getting students to understand the value of higher education."
Maria Garcia, a counselor for students studying English as a second language at Gaithersburg and Watkins Mill high schools, said the fair teaches students, many of whom are first-generation Americans, what kind of information they should look for from prospective schools.
"For many of them, this is their first experience," Garcia said. "So we encourage them to do these things because we know how intimidating it can be. We want them to be comfortable."
More than 1,000 students from 16 Montgomery County high schools and about 700 from 14 schools in Prince George's rotated through the seventh annual college fair last Tuesday.
Students, who were given white plastic bags and a sheet of questions in English and Spanish about college admissions, were allowed about an hour to visit with admissions officials stationed around a large conference room. They picked up brochures and filled out information cards while visiting tables representing such local schools as Montgomery College and American University as well as more far-flung colleges such as Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.
Pausing to chat with friends, Blake junior Tyler Gates, 16, of Silver Spring, said he thought the fair was a good idea "so people know what's out there. A lot of these colleges people probably never heard of."
The table manned by Montgomery College officials was one of the more popular stops. Students stood two- to three-deep waiting to fill out information cards and talk with the officials.
Maria Davidson, coordinator of admissions recruiting, said the community college is popular with county high school students, drawing 25 percent of seniors each year. Low cost, a diverse student body and an open admissions policy are some of the attractions, she said.
"We just want them to be aware of everything we have to offer," Davidson said.
The school's open admissions policy is particularly appealing for students who have limited English skills and would have difficulty achieving the SAT scores necessary for admission to other institutions, Garcia said. If students do well at Montgomery College, they can transfer to another school.
"Students know it's a school where they can begin," she said.
The U.S. Army Reserve Recruiting table was another popular spot as students flocked around the young men wearing combat fatigues and handing out black carrying bags.
As one student questioned whether he would be sent to fight if he joined, Staff Sgt. Stephen Ramos of the Army's Rockville recruiting station office answered him frankly.
"You're probably going to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," he said. "I've been twice."
Ramos said he also explains to potential recruits that joining the Army is a life-changing decision that should be more about choosing a career than just about earning money for college.
"It's too big a decision to base it solely on getting money for college," he said.
Some students attending the fair said they wished that more schools had been represented. Watkins Mill junior Michelle Almeida, 16, of Germantown, said she was surprised by the number of students who had come.
"I see a lot of Latinos are really interested in college," she said.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.