Motivating migrant students
By RAUL GARCIA JR | The Mercedes Enterprise
Students from across the Valley participated in a leadership conference, and learned about migrant farmworker success stories.
The organization Migrants in Action led the activities for the students and connected the them with a former migrant students with its program “Harvest to Harvard.”
The students met in Mercedes and also learned about college readiness opportunities available to students who come from families who are migrant farmworkers or are farm workers themselves.
This year the organization brought down Laredo native, Sulema Lopez, a Michigan State University graduate to share her story and talk to the students.
Lopez was featured in a national documentary about her work in the fields titled “The Harvest/La Cosecha”.
The students met with her and watched her movie at the Mercedes Civic Center on March 5.
She was there to tell her story and motivate the students.
“Just because we are migrants and we work in the fields doesn’t mean that we don’t have dreams to pursue our education and go to Ivy League schools such as Harvard,” Lopez said. “With determination and hard work you can go from the harvest to Harvard.”
In the past the organization has also brought down McFarland USA and Jose Hernandez, a NASA Astronaut.