Success Stories
Lane
Opens Doors for Minority Students
by Chris Cunningham
Hector
Cash's life spiraled downward after his father's murder in 1992 in El
Salvador's civil war. "I was on the wrong highway heading for the
wrong place," says the 24-year-old about the life he led before moving
to Oregon.
Cash left his native El Salvador to live with various relatives in Puerto Rico, then Hawaii, California and New York. By the time he moved to Eugene to live with his older brother in 1996, Cash had been expelled from high school and was hanging out with "the wrong crowds. . . . I was crying out for help, but no one would hear me," he recalls.
Cash enrolled in classes at Lane Community College in 1997, after completing the high school equivalency program at the University of Oregon. He credits Lane for providing him with "the tools for a better future . . . The school helped me to know what I wanted to do in my heart."
Connie Mesquita, Lane's Multi-Cultural Center coordinator, remembers Cash as daunting - a tall figure wearing a hair net, guarded and private in demeanor. She observed that Cash slowly began reaching out to others: A part-time tutoring job on campus and volunteer work as a Latino youth mentor off-campus gave Cash opportunities to shine.
Sylvie Florendo, Lane's Spanish tutoring lab supervisor, recognized that Cash was "self-motivated and a self-initiator." She promoted him as "master tutor" to train other Spanish language coaches. So satisfying was this teaching experience that Cash decided to pursue a bachelor's degree at the UO in Latin American Studies and Spanish.
He returned to Lane as a UO student intern with the Puertas Abiertas summer academy. Puertas Abiertas - or Open Doors - is the Latino component of Lane's seven-year-old Rites of Passage program, which aims to help minority middle and high school youth develop positive values and beliefs through classes and self-development workshops. Launched in 1996 for African American youth, Rites of Passage also includes Asian American and Umista Native American summer academies.
When Cash gave a lecture to the Puertas Abiertas teens on the history of El Salvador, he incorporated his very personal story, recalls Jim Garcia, Lane's diversity coordinator. The students' candid questions didn't intimidate Cash in the least. "I'm their friend and what they're struggling with I can relate to," he says. The fact that Cash has dealt with many difficult and tragic issues was not lost on the students, half of whom are immigrants, Garcia notes.
Cash also helped the students learn about their ethnic histories through the creation of an eclectic mural, 5 feet by 13 feet, which depicted historical and cultural icons from Mexico, South America and Central America. "The students got to know each other personally through the project," he says proudly. "Many have stayed friends."
" People like Hector, and the Rites of Passage program, . . . . validate what the students are feeling in the schools," says Garcia, who worked alongside Cash during the Puertas Abiertas kick-off last summer. "They can see that even when they make bad decisions, they can change their course of action."
Ongoing validation is vital to minority students' continued success, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics. The report indicates that the most effective early intervention programs - such as Rites of Passage - are capable of at least doubling the number of minority students who eventually attend college.
After earning his degree this spring, Cash accepted a position as the Latino programs coordinator and bilingual instructional assistant at 4J's Madison Middle School, where he is responsible for organizing and advising the Latino Student Club and serving as liaison between the school and its families.
Eventually, Cash would like to teach high school, but for now he's satisfied knowing he's on the right course, heading for the right place.
For more
information about the Rites of Passage program, call Greg Evans, program
founder and coordinator,
(541) 463-5340.
