New SLO County program seeks to guide Latinas toward their dreams. ‘It’s a whole puzzle’
A new initiative aims to provide Latina students in San Luis Obispo County middle schools and high schools with personalized career guidance — including help getting into college or jobs.
Created by Somos USA magazine founder Veronica Macias and Latino Outreach Council President C.R. Lara, Madrinas para Latinas is a mentorship program that aims to help Latina teenagers better benefit themselves, their families and their respective communities, Lara wrote in an email to The Tribune.
“When fully implemented, with help from the community, young Latinas will experience support and resources to assist them in their personal, educational, and professional endeavors,” Lara said.
The program, which launches in the fall, will be completely free and rely on volunteer mentors and committee members.
Madrinas para Latinas will pair girls and women of Latino descent in eighth through 12th grade, with madrinas, or, godmothers —in this case, Spanish-speaking university students or young professionals who will act as academic, social, emotional and family mentors for the young women, Macias said.
“The point is for madrinas to be people who are guiding them, and for the Latinas to be the ones who are making the choices,” Macias said and added that the priority was to a sense of independence in the teenagers. “The madrina will say, ‘You have all these options and you can choose from them.’ ”
The program aims to help younger students find guidance in whatever careers they’re interested in pursuing, Macias said.
The young womens’ parents will also be involved in the process, she said, through meetings with their daughters and their mentors.
“What we’ll do is evaluate what are the likes and aspirations of a Latina to then find a madrina who can connect with her,” Macias said.
So far, she said, the organization has contacted 10 potential madrinas.
Madrinas para Latinas has a tentative start date of September 2022 .
Macia said the group is in talks with SLO County Superintendent of Schools James Brescia to be able to implement the program by then.
“We’re still in our early stages,” Macias said. “We’re in the process of creating our web page, our logo a committee and looking for advice on how to organize a nonprofit. It’s a whole puzzle.”
Macias said that Madrinas para Latinas is looking for more people who want to participate in the project, either as madrinas or as members of the committee.
She said that volunteers don’t necessarily have to be of Latino origin, but that a knowledge of Spanish is preferred.
SLO County program plans to solve structural problems
Lara and Macias said they decided to create Madrinas para Latinas after years of observing and experiencing some of the academic, language, cultural and social barriers that people in the Latino community encounter when venturing into higher education.
“The need for educational resources and opportunities for the children of the Latino families relocating in this county presented unique challenges for educators, elected officials and community leaders,” Lara said.
One of the biggest challenges for Latino families, according to Macias, is the fact that many parents don’t speak English, so they aren’t aware of how to best support their children.
“When you come to this country and your two parents are Mexican or Colombian or Guatemalan for instance, you don’t have many of that (academic) knowledge so you lose a lot of opportunities,” said Macias, who moved to the United States more than 20 years ago.
When her son Stuart was applying to colleges, Macias said she was surprised to learn about the importance extracurricular activities played into college admission when her son Stuart was applying to college.
“There were many things I didn’t know as a first-generation (immigrant) mother,” said Macias.
Macias said the process was “like running a marathon” for the family.
By having Spanish-speaking mentors guide Latinas that involve their parents in conversations, Macias hopes that parents will be able to better support their children in their academic pursuits, and be more aware of what is happening to them.
The program is also an effort to combat issues such as unwanted teenage pregnancies, drug use and involvement with gangs, Macias said.
“When girls don’t know what to do with their lives they sometimes fall into other options that aren’t beneficial to them and that stunt their lives,” Macias said.
To her, the program is necessary to help Latina teenagers move forward.
Eventually, Macias said that she hopes to expand the program to include all teenagers in SLO County’s Latino community and eventually communities in other states and Latin American countries.
Those interested in volunteering with Madrinas para Latinas can email Veronica Macias at vemacias@madrinasparalatinasusa.org.
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 5:05 AM.
