[November 20, 2006]

Georgia universities trying to attract Hispanic students

(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) By Mayra Cuevas Nazario.

Athens, Georgia, Nov 20 (EFE).- As Georgia's college-age Hispanic population grows, the state's universities are becoming more and more innovative in seeking ways to attract Latino students.

Hispanic high school students had the opportunity to experience university life for a day during Latino Shadow Day at the state's biggest public institution of higher learning, the University of Georgia in Athens.

Last Friday, some 40 juniors and seniors from Clark Central, Cedar Shoals and Gainesville high schools came to UGA where they were received by volunteer Hispanic college students and representatives of the admissions office and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

"The main thing is for them to experience university life and that it's something that's fun and possible," Meggie Monette, who helped organize the event for Students for Latino Empowerment, told Efe.

Juan Guzman, of Peruvian origin and attending Cedar Shoals high school in Athens, participated in the project to learn how university life really is.

"I still don't know what I'm going to study: psychology or photography," he said during a tour of the university. His guide for the day was Jonathan Mayo, a psychology student whose parents are Argentine and a volunteer with the SLE.

During a trip on the campus bus, Mayo told Guzman a little about his university experience. "I was the floor leader on my floor of the dorm last year and I lost three or four guys because they couldn't balance their studies with having fun. They were goofing off too much!" he said.

Mayo said he became involved with the SLE's activities after a trip to Argentina on which he got acquainted with his Hispanic heritage. "I hope that these activities provide the opportunity for more Hispanic students to come to UGA," he said.

Currently, less than 2 percent of the student population of the college are Hispanic, a figure that the admissions office hopes to increase in the coming years, according to UGA spokesperson Christine Burgoyne.

"The Hispanic community is growing and we have to be more involved in its university education. One of the biggest problems is that parents are not familiar with the educational system and the university admissions process and so they don't know how to guide their kids," Burgoyne said.

With the aim of closing the gap, UGA designed the Steps to College Youth Recruitment program, of which Latino Shadow Day is a part.

"We're trying to diversify ourselves and represent with better precision this community in the state," she said, referring to the large growth in Georgia's Hispanic population over the past 10 years.

Burgoyne said that the idea of the program was to clear up doubts about the university process and offer motivation by pairing a high school student with a university counterpart to provide individualized attention and the use of Hispanic mentors.

As part of the day's activities, the students listened to chats about the admissions process and available financial aid to pay for their studies, and they were also taken on a walking tour of the university and had the chance to attend classes with their university guides.

When asked what the most valuable information he had received during Latino Shadow Day was, Guzman said without hesitation: "I didn't know that you could choose your own roommate!" EFE

mcn/bp

Copyright 2006 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.

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