Fatima Saldana Oropeza walked into the Columbus Learning Center Friday morning, nervous about the thought of college.
How would the Columbus North High School senior pay for it? Would her classes be too difficult? How would she manage her time?
After attending Exito Latino, a one-day event at the Columbus Learning Center, Saldana Oropeza detached from the unease and walked out of the building feeling confident about her choice to hopefully attend IUPUC in just one year.
"I wanted to get more information about college and gain a view of how it is, what kind of people are here, how it’s going to be," Saldana Oropeza said. "It gave me more hope, like college might actually be my thing."
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Saldana Oropeza was one of 170 Latino students from area high schools in Columbus, Seymour and Shelbyville who attended the annual event, where students can attend discussion sessions about finding scholarships, navigating college, overcoming obstacles and paying for college.
The event is the brainchild of Matt Souza, IUPUC’s special assistant to the vice chancellor and dean for strategy, who created a scholarship fund for undocumented Latino high school graduates to pay for college. The fund was created after he began to notice more and more Latino students graduating from high school than ever before.
"I had the idea of creating an opportunity for only Latino students to come and experience college, but with a twist," Souza said.Â
Instead of a traditional program where students would interact with older, more experienced adults, Souza envisioned an event where local Latino high school students could meet local Latino college students who navigated the same barriers themselves.
"The idea is for high school students to hear from people they either know or who are telling stories they can totally identify with that come from the lives they’re living, that can tell them about the barriers they have overcome because these high school students are facing the same barriers in our society today," he said.
Maryjane Rojas, a Columbus North High School junior, said she appreciated hearing from college students, not adults, because they understood where she was coming from and told her things that other people often don’t.
"I know what to expect now when I get ready to go to college," Rojas said.
Having an event like Exito Latino as a resource, Columbus North senior Christina Ortiz said, makes the Latino population feel more noticed in the community and offers more opportunities for "people like us."
Souza said several resources exist throughout Columbus and the surrounding areas for students who want to go to college, but not many of those resources are tailored to speak the language of Latino high school students.
What IUPUC and its community partners are trying to do is tailor the experience so it speaks to the students in a series of languages, through verbal language, visual language and active language.
Throughout the day-long event, students can choose from a list of several discussion sessions led by current college students from IUPUC, Ivy Tech and Purdue Polytechnic, and professionals from many of Columbus’ leading employers including Cummins Inc. and Columbus Regional Hospital.
Each participant also receives a free lunch and can participate in a baile, or dance, during the lunch hour.
This year’s event featured two keynote speakers, Monica Sandoval Narvaez and Jorge Garcia Alvarez, both graduates of Ivy Tech Columbus and IUPUC.
Sandoval Narvaez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, grew up in Columbus and graduated from Columbus North in 2010. She went on to complete nursing degrees at Ivy Tech Columbus and IUPUC and works as an emergency department nurse at Columbus Regional Hospital.
Garcia Alvarez, a native of Michoacan, Mexico, also grew up in Columbus and is a graduate of CSA – New Tech. Garcia Alvarez works at Cummins Inc. as a global services analyst in the Cummins Business Services group in Nashville, Tennessee.
The two spoke to the students about their individual journeys to get to college and ultimately find success in their careers.Â
"We’ve created an opportunity to link the students who have taken the leap and are being successful with the students who might take that leap, and if they hear about these successes, might be more likely to take that leap and go to college," Souza said.
"We want them to understand that they also can aspire to a college education and the things that come with a college education if you complete it successfully."
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Exito Latino is a one-day event created for Latino high school students from the Columbus, Seymour and Shelbyville school districts who are considering their next step after graduating from high school.
"Exito" means "success" in Spanish.
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To learn more about Exito Latino, visit facebook.com/exitolatinocolumbus.
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The following institutions and individuals assisted in planning Exito Latino:
- IUPUC
- Latino-American Organization of Volunteers in Education
- Seymour Community Schools
- Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
- Shelbyville Central Schools
- Cummins Inc.
- Su Casa Columbus
- Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County
- Community Education Coalition
- Megan Shaff, McDowell Education Center
- Whitney Amuchastegui, Su Casa Columbus
- Marsha Vannahman, IUPUC
- Joe Heltzel, IUPUC
The following institutions participated in the Exito Latino College Fair:
- Ivy Tech Community College – Columbus
- Purdue Polytechnic University
- Marian University
- Butler University
- Franklin College
- Hanover College
- University of Indianapolis
- IUPUC Division of Education
- IUPUC Division of Health Sciences
- IUPUC Recruitment and Admissions
- IUPUC Mechanical Engineering
- Indiana University
- IUPUI
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