Café Con Leche encourages higher education Posted On: Sunday, Nov. 22 2009 05:37 AM By Rebecca LaFlure
Killeen Daily Herald

Jose Lucio, a Central Texas College student who moved to Lampasas from Mexico when he was 5, is the first person in his family to attend college.

Lucio, now 20, spent most of his childhood living in a cramped, one-bedroom apartment with his parents and five siblings. He couldn't speak English fluently until seventh-grade, and worked 35 hours a week at a small Tex-Mex restaurant throughout high school to help support his family.

"I wanted something better for myself," said Lucio, who serves as a student ambassador at CTC.

Texas educators hope to increase college success stories like Lucio's through the Café Con Leche program.

Between 50 to 60 percent of Hispanic students in the state graduate high school on time, but nearly 90 percent of Hispanic Texans older than 25 don't have a college degree, said Gonzalo Robles, college access coordinator at the University of Texas System.

These numbers prompted UT officials to launch Café Con Leche, a program that encourages Hispanic students to pursue a higher education.

Created two years ago, Café Con Leche holds open forums in schools across the state, aimed to educate Hispanic students and their parents about applying to college and obtaining financial aid.

Meeting in Central Texas

This week, the P-20 Council, a group of educators from local colleges and school districts, brought Café Con Leche to the Killeen and Temple area.

"It's kind of like bilingual group therapy," said Robles, who held a workshop Thursday at Central Texas College in Killeen to train educators and volunteers to host the events.

The majority of the state's population is expected to be Hispanic by 2027, yet Hispanic students make up only 4 percent of the college population, Robles said during the training workshop.

"We need to empower parents and the community to change these numbers," he said. "We hope to create a college-going culture."

Parents and students gathered over cups of coffee at Hector P. Garcia Elementary School in Temple Thursday evening for the area's first Café Con Leche event. Sixty-eight percent of students at Garcia are Hispanic.

During the events, presenters share the basics of the college application process, including how to write letters of recommendation or apply for SAT and ACT fee waivers, and educate people on the vast amount of financial aid opportunities available to them.

Attendees are allowed to ask questions and address concerns.

"We are creating connections among their own community, and providing them with information that they were not aware of," Robles said.

The P-20 Council will hold its next Café Con Leche event in Belton and plans to organize events in Killeen and Copperas Cove.

"The more you tell the story, the more people believe that it can happen," said Bill Alexander, deputy chancellor of CTC and chair of the P-20 Council. "We've got to be telling this story over and over and over again. It has to be an ongoing process."

Now in his second year at CTC, Lucio said he plans to transfer to Texas State University this August to study education. He wants to be an elementary school teacher.

"I feel like I have to succeed to give back to my parents," Lucio said. "I'm having the opportunity to do something with my life, I better take it."

Contact Rebecca LaFlure at rlaflure@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7548.