Program Supported by Boston Banker Puts Hispanic Kids on Path to College

The daughter of Guatemalan immigrants who didn’t finish high school, 18-year-old Wilma Barrios saw how the process of applying to college overwhelmed her older sister. So when a local philanthropist said he wanted to help talented Hispanic students like Ms. Barrios gain admission to top universities, she jumped at the opportunity.

For two years, she and eleven other honor-roll students have been receiving academic coaching, SAT preparation, and advice on college from employees of a local charity in this immigrant-heavy town north of Boston.

Known as La Vida Scholars, the program is supported by Robert Hildreth, a Boston banker, through a nonprofit group he started this year to advance immigrant advocacy and help low-income students attend college.

The effort is designed to demystify the college process. But it comes with a catch: Families must put aside a small sum (usually $50) for college each month. The money is matched by Mr. Hildreth.

He hopes the financial incentives will convince more poor families of the importance of college. Few immigrant parents know much about the college process or saving money for higher education, says Mr. Hildreth. Often they are focused instead on sending money back to relatives in their home countries in the form of remittances. “Latinos aren’t spending what they need to spend on the education of their children here in the United States,” Mr. Hildreth says. “This gets families’ skin in the game.”

Savings Plan

Mr. Hildreth hopes that other charities — not just those that support immigrants but ones that work with low-income students of all backgrounds — will adopt the savings idea, and he’s already having some success. This fall, 100 students in Chelsea, a relatively poor suburb of Boston, enrolled in a similar program. He has also persuaded a charter school in Fitchburg, Mass., and a charity in Boston’s Chinatown to copy the idea.

Experts in Hispanic education say efforts like Mr. Hildreth’s to help teenagers and their parents navigate the college process could make a difference.

“What he’s doing is very consistent with what the research says needs to be done,” says Patricia Gandara, a professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles and the co-author of a recent book, The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies. “It’s not really surprising kids don’t stay in school, because if you’ve never seen a vision of what schooling can do for you, it’s very hard to stay with it.”

Scholarship Winners

Students will graduate from the La Vida program with $4,000 in savings, a significant sum but too small to make a dent in tuition at private colleges. The program’s founders, however, envision the money going toward incidentals — application fees, a laptop, books — that scholarships and loans might not cover.

They say the students, who are bright but lack means, will have a good chance of winning scholarships. Some already have: Three students won state scholarships that pay $60,000 each.

Mr. Hildreth has won some money from a local bank and is applying now for support from foundations. The recession will make his fund-raising attempts especially challenging.

But people in the nonprofit world say national foundations that promote access to higher education, as well as local grant makers concerned about helping their communities respond to immigration, will at least recognize the need.

“There’s certainly a lot of will in the philanthropic community for this,” says Andrés Henríquez, program officer in urban education with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which gives to immigration and education causes.

Emphasis on Impact

Mr. Hildreth says he is more concerned about making the La Vida Scholars program as effective as possible than he is about winning donations. Some of the money could come from government programs such as individual development accounts, which match savings for low-income families, he says.

The first La Vida Scholars are applying to colleges now, so it is too soon to know if they will gain admission to competitive institutions and excel once they are enrolled. But the students, who attend the after-school program twice a week in the charity’s brick building a block off of Lynn’s somber downtown strip, say their readiness and confidence have soared.

“I can’t even put it into words,” says Ms. Barrios, who dreams of attending Amherst College. “They teach you how to network, how to speak to people. I am the biggest advocate of this program.”

Putting money aside for the savings program is proving difficult for some families, particularly in light of the deep recession. A few parents have missed payments, says Frances Martinez, executive director of La Vida, the nonprofit group that runs the program.

“But the good part,” she says, “is they’re actually communicating, letting me know if they’re going to be behind for a month or two, and figuring out ways to make it up.” No students have dropped out for financial reasons, she says.

Adrian Rodriguez, a high-school senior whose mother is from the Dominican Republic, says he thinks families feel fortunate to be participating. About twice as many students applied for the first class of La Vida Scholars as were accepted and more than 80 students applied the third year.

“They don’t complain about the fact that they have to do it,” says Mr. Rodriguez, who works at Sears to help his mother make payments. “They’re very glad for the fact that Bob writes half the money.”

The students say they appreciate having a benefactor who is so engaged, and say his involvement pushes them to do better.

“Sometimes I think about it and it’s unbelievable to me,” says Ms. Barrios. “What do you get out of me being successful? It’s really amazing that he has that interest in all of us.”