In the early ’90s, when Con Mi Madre got its start, a Texas demographer reported that a Latina girl born in the state had less than a 1 percent chance of going to college.
Twenty-five years later, those odds have improved for some: Over half of Latinas who graduate from high school in central Texas will enroll in college in the state.
But Latinas still trail their white peers when it comes to college attendance, and only 15 percent of Latina high-school students in central Texas will earn a college degree.
Helping moms and dads help their first-generation students succeed
Those are the statistics that Con Mi Madre, an Austin-based college-prep program that works with mother-daughter pairs, is trying to change, duo by duo.
The program’s name means “With My Mother,” and it aims to strengthen the mother-daughter bond that has been shown to increase a girl’s chances of going to college. Starting in sixth grade, girls and their mothers volunteer on community-service projects together, tour colleges together, and attend Saturday seminars where they learn strategies for maintaining good grades, dealing with peer pressure, developing healthy self-esteem, and setting goals. Each conference begins with a bonding activity like yoga or jewelry making.
While most college-prep programs focus on academics and paying for college, Con Mi Madre puts equal emphasis on socioemotional growth and interpersonal communication. That’s in part because Latina adolescents have the highest rates of depression and suicidal thoughts of all female teenagers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In order for these girls to succeed, they need for their moms to support them,” said Teresa Granillo, the program’s executive director. “And a lot of the moms want something better for their girls, but they don’t know what it takes.”
The program is also trying to change cultural attitudes about girls and college. In the past, Latino boys were encouraged to go to college, while girls were expected to stay home and learn to cook and take care of the children. That’s no longer the norm, “but we do still encounter some of that,” Ms. Granillo said.
For some of the mother-daughter pairs, their first meeting with Con Mi Madre will be the first time they’ve discussed the possibility of college.
Con Mi Madre grew out of the Hispanic Mother-Daughter program, a community-based program created by the Austin Junior League, in Texas, in 1992. In 2008, when the program got too big for the Junior League to sponsor, it became its own nonprofit, and changed its name. Today the program serves more than 750 students in six Austin-area districts and has plans to expand beyond the city.
More than 80 percent of the mothers speak only Spanish, and the program celebrates Latino culture throughout, in “Soy Latina” (I am Latina) conferences, where students sing Selena songs and dance Flamenco, and in nutrition classes that offer healthier versions of traditional foods.
The program requires a big commitment: Parents have to sign a contract that they will participate fully with their child, and girls have to attend 80 percent of the bimonthly meetings at their schools. If they miss that target, they are put on participation probation and given six months to prove their commitment to the program.
But statistics suggest it is worth the effort. Girls who complete the program have a 260 percent better chance of attending college than do their peers. For every 100 students who finish the program, 100 will graduate high school, 77 will go on to college, and 54 will earn a college degree.
There are ripple effects, too. Ms. Granillo says parents will often recruit siblings and cousins into the program.
Ms. Granillo says Con Mi Madre has considered licensing its curriculum, but now it’s leaning toward creating chapters, in part to ensure that the program maintains its cultural component.
Her advice for nonprofit groups and colleges that want to copy Con Mi Madre’s approach is simple: “Don’t treat parents like they’re the vehicle to get the student to the program.”
“You have to make sure parents feel that they’re part of the process, that they have skin in the game, and that their opinions matter,” she said. “The parent cannot be secondary.”
Kelly Field is a senior reporter covering federal higher-education policy. Contact her at kelly.field@chronicle.com. Or follow her on Twitter @kfieldCHE.
