The Guide:Thoughts from Twenty Years in the Educational Trenches

By Bob Howitt

My belief is that fundamental long-term changes in society are opening up an unprecedented opportunity for Latino students, particularly given the probability of either comprehensive immigration reform or DREAM Act-centered legislation.

Simply put, the BILINGUAL, BICULTURAL LATINO STUDENT has the country coming his or her way—if fully-prepared: academically, culturally, and with documentation. This material is dedicated to assisting that student and all those involved in his/her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Howitt
• Release date: Oct 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311579096

Bob Howitt

Bob has had a varied career: partner of a respected Wall Street firm, Executive-Director of a well-known youth agency, initial funder of what became Uncommon Schools, board member of a longstanding non-profit organization, and leadership of the WKBJ Foundation. WKBJ has assisted over 250 financially challenged young people to attend college. The diversity of both his books and the subject matter of his essays is indicative of the breadth and depth of his interests.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Presuming the prospective Reader—whether a Latino student or his supporters or a stray masochist—has given the Table of Contents at least a cursory look, his or her reaction probably falls into one of three basic buckets:

You must be kidding—who wants to wade through all this material.

You must be kidding—it looks like every imaginable component of higher education is covered to a greater or lesser extent. An aspiring Latino student and his supporters can easily locate the subsection on which they want to focus.

You must be kidding—is the writer of GUIDE seeking to dump all his education files into a so-called book before the day, which is coming soon, when his grandchildren have to constantly remind him not to go to the mailbox on Sundays?

I confess to not being overly concerned with how the votes would be distributed among these reactions (although I have a certain affection for bucket number two), nor with the criticism that GUIDE has too many threads (I think that means lines of thought).

Besides giving me the opportunity to make some sense out of my multiple education-related experiences, the purpose of this book is to provide a college GUIDE for Latino students.

The inevitability and implications of demographic changes which favor the Latino population underscore my optimism that there will be substantive growth in opportunities for educated bilingual, bicultural Latino students.

The key role of Latino voters in the re-election of President Barack Obama adds to that positive view, both in general and in reference to the chances for a true DREAM Act, with or without comprehensive immigration reform. Such legislation would enable currently undocumented students to become documented and thus be able to fully participate in, and contribute to, the unfolding of a new America.

Yes, there are multiple threads.

The manner in which GUIDE is laid out, as delineated in the extensive Table of Contents, makes it possible for the student to either get many of his questions answered or identify the websites which can provide the necessary information.

Before diving into Getting to College, the opening chapter of Part Two and the beginning of what might be considered a more conventional GUIDE, I begin with a lengthy discussion of Latino Family Culture and A Succinct Overview of Education. I believe both are additive to a GUIDE, albeit in different ways.

The dominant percentage of my time and energy relevant to students pursuing higher education in the past twenty years has been spent in the context of Hispanic culture, and an understanding thereof cannot be excluded from any source offering college assistance to students from these families.

It is not equally necessary to have well-developed thoughts on the state of education in this country, but those concerned with connecting the dots between big picture characteristics and implications at the individual student level should find that chapter somewhat helpful.

First, some thoughts and information which fit under the logical heading of:

Background

At La Sierra, one of a half-dozen panaderias open at 5am in Dover, New Jersey, I wait in line with the dayworkers to get my coffee. The Latina server puts it up without any direction, reflecting my countless visits; besides, I take no sugar, unusual hereabouts.

Add a delicious pandebono or arepa or buñuelo, and I am good to go—to my office around the corner, above the Benson Thomson Insurance Agency and next to Three Brothers restaurant. For lunch or dinner, I may go to Sabor Latino, where I should be a shareholder with owners Wilson and Trini Vasquez, given the number of times I have eaten there with Latino students or others from the community.

Economically, Dover may be the hole in the affluent donut of Morris County, a phrase I have used as a succinct summation for complete outsiders, but more importantly this 75% Hispanic, urban rhythm town of over 20,000 people (a better number than the Census count) is my comfort zone. It is where I have had two decades of one-on-one conversations with collegians: prospective, enrolled, and graduated. These students typically have been the first in their family to enter an American college and/or would be considered financially challenged and/or are English language learners. More times than I want to count, the issue of documentation has been a critically important part of our dialogue.

I do not speak—okay, I do know a bunch of words—or write Spanish, although I can negotiate an understanding of the numerous posters which dot the restaurant and social service windows on the streets of Dover. I do consider myself quite conversant with Hispanic culture, the benefit of not only the education interactions but also the result of having frequently socialized over the years with Hispanics of all ages, in and outside of my programs. In addition, I have traveled extensively in Central and South America, often staying in the homes of families connected with students known from my Dover activities.

(Sorry, you will find zero in GUIDE about the two Latinas I fell in love with, although I will assure you they were not at the same time. I am not Junot Diaz’s fictional character from This is How You Lose Her.)

Organizationally, since inception in 1991, I have been Executive-Director of the WKBJ Foundation. WKBJ has been the source of both external grants (the foundation provided the initial outside funding for North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, which evolved into Uncommon Schools, arguably the leading non-profit charter school management organization in the country) and home to multiple internally-generated programs aimed at prospective collegians.

While GUIDE is not an attempt to go through each endeavor, the book embodies the experiences, gained knowledge, and emotions of being involved in a positive way with the large number of students who have participated.

On the following page is a statistical snapshot of the internal programs conceived and managed by the foundation/myself. In a sense, it is this set of data, coupled with all the non-quantifiable aspects of providing educational assistance, which has given me the courage to write a book that I simply refer to as GUIDE.

Given that most of the time, the staff has consisted solely of me—those who want to drill way down on the data will not be satisfied. Those who want to know the human detail behind the numbers will be happier.

This was an extremely fluid program as it involved adults both new to the country and working multiple jobs; probably an equal number were temporary participants in the program.

MADE (Make a Difference Educationally) in Dover was a modification of the well-publicized I Have a Dream model. Students came into the program at the beginning of eighth grade. Through participation in activities, including the publication of an extensive newsletter, they earned points which translated into financial assistance for higher education. I WILL WALK! was aimed at older students, the majority of whom were relatively new to the country (and the multiple pressures under which they labored created more mobility in the membership count). Participants were required to volunteer at non-profit locations; in doing so, they earned financial aid for higher education.

Project 2050 was the most diverse effort as I reached out to different area high schools for different ethnicities: African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian. The name referred to the projected date (at that time) when there would be no ethnic majority in this country. Members were required to write for our quarterly Forum magazine and received substantial college funding.

Project 2015 encompasses nine students from the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, New York; the title refers to the date by which they are expected to have finished a four-year college education. The Other Program is my tongue-in-cheek descriptor for a series of individual situations with a single common logic—young people with more education and life aspirations than money.

Contextually, the brief descriptions above are where I am coming from in writing GUIDE.

Now—back to the real subject:

The Latino Student

On page one of the dummy manual for the leader of a non-profit education program/foundation who is writing a book, it says to begin with the heartwarming story of an individual who has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds—of course with the life-changing assistance of the organization and its incredible staff—to become the star of the universe. This poster student’s story is guaranteed to elicit complete amazement, tears, and, most importantly, big checks from funders.

The only commonality of GUIDE with this standard opening gambit is that if somebody with discretionary income wanted to buy a bunch of GUIDES (all the net proceeds would go to assist college students) and distribute them to potential Readers, I would not object. But seriously, there are simply so many stories I could tell about individual Latino students that to identify one as a generic representation of both my world and that of the Latino student is an exercise of questionable intellectual honesty.

Nonetheless, demonstrating my utter flexibility, I will proceed to generalize.

When I think of the Latino student in my office, I see a young person who, in no order of importance, is more likely than the average student seeking higher education to:

■ Have attended a subpar public high school

■ Be the first in his/her family to attend college

■ Be in an environment where the use of debt has been shunned

■ Have a family involved in every decision of each of its members

■ Attend a two-year college if going on to higher education

■ Attend a university close to home, if enrolling in a four-year school

■ Be relatively new to the United States

■ Have parents drawn to a college because of its recognizable name

■ Be surrounded by people who have a strong belief in fate

■ Have an innate advantage in being both bilingual and bicultural

■ Have documentation issues, which affect every aspect of his life: education, language acquisition, career path, family formation

■ Have parents who grew up in a country with a national education system

■ Have DNA which is skewed toward collaboration

■ Find, upon visiting his home country after a decade away, that his psyche has shifted to that of being an American

■ Be conversant with every new piece of electronics, but not as eager to Read

■ Revere futbol, a fascinating game long on process but short on closure

■ Be Catholic

■ Be in a family with below-average income

■ Understand that if he or she succeeds educationally, the benefits accrue to themselves first, but also to their family and future generations as well

■ Wonder on dark days whether returning to their home country, which they may not no longer know well, is the more comfortable place to live

■ Be with people who have come to the United States with an inadequate understanding of its challenges

■ Ponder the pros and cons of a business marriage when the years go by and falling in love with a documented spouse wanes in probability

■ Come from a culture where the Ps—priests, parents, police, politicians—are more important to an individual’s daily life

My belief structure is that the Latino student on average has:

■ A greater need for sheer information about higher education options

■ An unclear understanding (like many of his peers for sure) of the link between actions and consequences

■ The tailwind of demographic change at his back

■ An above-average probability that non-credit remedial and/or English language courses will be required in college

■ A need for help on how to apply, finance and graduate from college

■ Reduced options because of the high cost of attending a four-year college

■ A struggle with respect to understanding the importance of self-advocacy

■ A need, when college is either not feasible or not sought, to know that learning a marketable skill is a valid path to a sustainable economic life

■ A need to be aware of lesser known colleges which are as good academically as those with household names

■ To be shown he can profit from more planning and less in-this-moment thinking when it comes to making decisions

■ To determine a path to become documented, where relevant. This has been an on-going and difficult process, but President Obama’s Executive Order for Deferred Action renewed hopes for a true DREAM Act, which now seems more probable, either as part of comprehensive immigration reform or separately.

■ To better understand the education system, with its minimal national standards

■ To define a degree of individualism which is comfortable and rewarding

■ An advantage over peers as employers come to realize that hiring a bilingual person only helps them to understand language, whereas having a bilingual/bicultural person in an important position helps them to grasp how their customers or clients or patients think and make decisions

The final point above emphasizes for Latino students this thematic message:

In the flat and diverse world economy which is evolving, Latino students who have bilingual and bicultural competencies, who understand that both individual critical thinking skills and collaborative capability are integral to success—regardless of the sector of the society/economy in which they are involved—are in a truly advantaged position. Notwithstanding residual anti-immigration sentiment in some areas, opportunities in this country will be there to be capitalized on when Latino students complete their college education or develop a marketable skill…and are documented.

Now that I have established at least some understanding of the issues pertinent to the Latino student—and maybe even added a few not on the conventional list, or at least opened the conversational door to topics to be discussed later, I can proceed to explain:

How and Why GUIDE was Written

Perhaps this endeavor to at least semi-logically display the thoughts pertinent to two decades of functioning with dirty fingernails (a positive attribute in my experience) should have been divided into three books: one a conventional college guide, one devoted to individual stories about Latino students, and one which brought together an entire collection of my rants about a long list of issues connected to the American education system, contemporary culture, and the demise of Reading and writing.

Maybe a fourth book would have made sense—detailing my prior life on Wall Street, which in a circuitous fashion led to a multi-year stint as a New York City homeless shelter volunteer and a book-length manuscript. Since I have been Executive Director of a prominent New York City youth agency and have played a significant role in the charter school world as well—more books?!? Entirely too much work and too conventional, dividing up a life into theoretically separate/definable components.

Instead, this is how GUIDE happened.

It started as a how to essay for prospective Latino college students, to be done on a time-availability basis given the demands of my various endeavors and my rule that there is no clock on the wall when I am talking with a student. Then GUIDE grew, and grew, and grew some more as it seemed both appropriate and additive to include the voices of Latinos who have been members of my foundation’s various education programs. Moreover, along the way, I opted to use GUIDE as a home for some of that terribly helpful collection of information and ideas formerly resting comfortably in my files and/or in one of the 39 editions of our Forum magazine.

The writing challenge was magnified—for good reasons—as the country came to a better place concerning immigration, including the possibility of substantive reform; the onerous level of college costs and associated debt finally reached the front page of major media outlets; and education reform continued its transition from intelligent speculation to widespread implementation.

Certainly the inspiration for the commentary portions of GUIDE comes from my experiences with several hundred college students, about 75% of whom have been of Hispanic background and virtually all of whom I knew (some longer than others) before they set foot on a college campus. When I look at the program data in the previous table, I conclude that the college completion rate for members of my education programs has been quite good. Whether this is a function of money, support, selection, or better understanding of Latino culture, I leave to the analysts.

Throughout this time, I have had the immeasurable benefit of on-the-ground involvement with the leadership and rank-in-file of various non-profit entities serving ethnically diverse constituencies, both at my home base in Dover and in New York City and Boston. As a modest caveat, my experiences do not have the benefit of substantial interaction with older Latinos who occupy important positions in corporations; perhaps their viewpoints would have caused me to modify some of my assertions. Certainly the dialogue would have been interesting—another day perhaps.

From a process standpoint, the terms college and university are used interchangeably; the accreditation differences are irrelevant to 99% of prospective students with whom I have dealt. Throughout GUIDE, the singular Latino refers to both genders, and is followed by he, except where usage makes it obvious that the meaning is solely male. The terms Latino and Hispanic are used interchangeably, intermittent political controversy notwithstanding. In twenty years, I have had only a handful of young people pointedly voice their thoughts to me about who uses the term Latino and who uses Hispanic and why; perhaps they were being polite to the checkwriter. (According to a 2012 Pew Hispanic Center poll, about half of Hispanic adults do not identify themselves by either Hispanic nor Latino, but by their country of origin.)

***

I realize the vocabulary used in GUIDE is a stretch for many student Readers; is this not a good thing? Teachers and other adults love students who ask questions, who are curious about learning new words. I know most Readers will Google unknown words but long-timers in the United States may provide added insight on contextual usage of those words. My guess is that wanting to improve a vocabulary is correlated with graduation from college, but alas the numbers are not available to prove my theory.

Years of extensive old-fashioned Reading—three physical newspapers daily plus various magazines—provided much of the factual material in GUIDE. I do not watch television excepting sports and Law and Order (and, more recently, an occasional Family Guy). Mostly I have been peddling a stationary bike when tearing out articles in a haphazard fashion and historically I was not compiling a professionally scripted bibliography, a procedural defect of GUIDE which I hope the lawyers will overlook given the non-profit, open-sourced nature of this entire endeavor. Many of the references correctly/completely footnoted are when I was attempting to bring GUIDE to fruition.

Surfing the web as a starting point for GUIDE was virtually nonexistent. However, websites obviously were referenced in numerous print articles and information from a good number of the websites is included in GUIDE, particularly to document the statistical part of educational life for Latino students. Every website was checked out during the first half of 2013 to ensure it was functioning; no endorsement is implied.

Regardless of the websites, a student will search forever to find instant answers to the core questions: what do I want to do with my life, and how do I get prepared? The college process is a marathon requiring the student’s heavy involvement and an informed understanding by parents and supporters. As will be demonstrated, it is a ten-year drill, not a video game offering virtually instantaneous satisfaction.

***

While GUIDE represents an attempt to put down on paper a collection of thoughts about the higher education process, with the specific contextual reference being the Latino community, the information provided is not intended to be complete. If one Googled the available pages relevant to each section, it would be in the thousands and defeat the purpose of GUIDE. From a practical standpoint in doing the writing, with education inputs coming literally every day, there had to be an arbitrary no mas date; with minor exceptions, I used August 1, 2013.

The philosopher Descartes once said, He is most creative who adapts from the greatest number of sources. GUIDE might approach that definition; indeed, portions of it have aspects of being a compilation, such is the variety of excerpted material. Personal opinions which wander away from the immediate topic are apparent I believe. And, as is normal, some Readers will disagree with the level of emphasis on certain aspects and they may be taken aback by a few rants about different components of the education system. GUIDE will:

■ Be somewhat provocative in the way it views the dynamics of Latino culture and educational aspirations, though not at the expense of causing someone to doubt my affection for the vast majority of individuals with whom I have spent the past 20 years.

■ Provide many interesting data points, while not drowning the Reader in heavily footnoted, longitudinal research about the socioeconomic underpinnings of the Latino educational situation.

■ Supply the Reader with an unusual variety of insights on virtually every facet of the road to college or a marketable skill.

■ Explicitly advocate passage of the DREAM Act, which is now constituted as part of comprehensive immigration reform; its adoption is so desirable that I cannot conjure up a rational opposing argument.

■ Include prior writings from Latino students and from myself.

■ Reveal the writer’s cynicism about colleges as businesses. I believe this must be recognized for the student to most productively function in an education world that is frequently unknown to him or her.

■ Provide research and experience-based recommendations.

Within GUIDE, Latino students will be confronted by some negative data points, but they have the direct power to change those numbers in future years by being resolved and graduating from college or developing a marketable skill. The latest data on Hispanics pursuing higher education are quite positive in fact. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics are now the largest minority group on four-year college campuses. Increases are being shown as well in college completion rates. Moreover, the better outcomes being reported are before any impact from the 2012 implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and they are being accomplished despite the absence of any opportunities pertinent to a DREAM Act.

***

If I have had any influence on the lives of Latino students and contributed in a very small way to these improved numbers, there may be some simple reasons:

■ I always have had my office in the small town of Dover.

■ I listen well and tie my questions in conversation to what I have heard, not to a prepared script.

■ My office phone number and e-mail address have never changed.

■ As the check writer, I have been in a unique position to take action.

■ I am comfortable talking one-on-one with students, undocumented and otherwise, and they trust me, even as I question them about every aspect of their lives and those of their parents.

■ Regardless of my reservations about the education system, I have a can-do attitude with every student. I am more interested in a good communication flow leading to productive decisions than obsessing about a GPA hurdle.

■ My orientation toward volunteering, as represented in the specific formula for funding in one of our programs, has resonated well with the vast majority of individuals helped by the foundation.

■ The WKBJ foundation was designed from the outset to aggressively use all its assets to accomplish mission objectives and then fold its tent. It will be 95% done by the end of the 2013-14 academic year.

■ Not trying to create anything sustainable enhanced my ability to focus on individuals, not aggregates, and on specific circumstances, not systems.

■ There has been no attempt to solve all the challenges of a student and/or his family. I have bit my lip when surmising that some scholarship money was indirectly finding its way into the family sugar bowl.

■ My house, only four miles from my office, has been the site of numerous program member activities. The walls are covered with related photographs and the bookshelves are full of mementos.

■ Not only have I been at college graduations, but weddings of members as well, and baby christenings as those members grew their families. One wedding took place at my house and a second, between program participants, was officiated by a third member.

In the words of one newlywed--

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your attendance on our special day. We can honestly say it would not have been the same without you. Thank you for being there and for guiding us throughout our life together. You are definitely someone special in our lives and we hope that as we enter this new chapter, you will continue to guide, encourage, and motivate us like you have done in the past.

Nice.

***

In addition to the factors listed above, students may have sensed that like them, I do not believe that most comfortable white adults who come from a world of success get it with respect to what Latino students, at least those in my experience, are going through as they function and attempt to grow in this society.

On a given day, I may regard these blancos as basically innocent, going through life with their heads down and oblivious to what is going on around them. Another day may find me believing that they know what is going on and are frightened about the changes represented by the unfolding demographics of this country. And then there is the day of real darkness, when any residual naiveté of mine is wiped away as I see people willing to fight demographic change in any way possible—from immigration legislation at the state level which strikes at the heart of America’s traditional openness and purported values—to a willingness to accept an education system which has been wonderful at creating a large low-paid service class available to the affluent, still largely white, power structure.

Thank goodness my natural personality is to operate at the micro level. This attitude puts the macro negatives in a different place, it is good for the students being given a boost in their quest for higher education, and it keeps my therapy bills to a minimum.

With all due humility, I have not functioned as a role model (enough people know of my occasional outbursts of frustration, typically over institutional opaqueness, but sometimes over individual situations), an aspect of the lives of many Latino students which often is more apparent by its absence than its presence. However, all blushing inside, there are students who have said they have learned some things from me, typically attitudinal and procedural approaches, as well as some specific suggestions which have emanated from seven decades on the planet and an interesting blend of Wall Street, non-profit, and education experiences.

In evaluating the validity of my cultural and educational conclusions, the Reader should know that my education programs, while including individuals from a dozen Hispanic countries, at times have skewed heavily toward Colombians, a consequence of geographical coincidence, not a deliberate plan. I am not oblivious to the fact that frequently the discussion of immigration elsewhere is truncated to mean Mexicans, who represent two-thirds of the 50+ million Hispanics in the United States.

In my programs, the number of Mexicans seeking involvement has been quite small, as has the number of Puerto Ricans. In Dover, the former are normally young and not-so-young men with unfinished educations whose focus is on earning money, which they then repatriate to their families back in the home country. Puerto Ricans, because of their country’s unique legal relationship to the United States, do not have documentation issues and thus have access to conventional financial aid. Self-selection is obviously a factor in terms of those specific students with whom I have interacted; our programs have always aimed at higher education aspirants, regardless of country of origin.

***

As has been apparent in my office, integral to any discussion of Latino educational attainment is the issue of undocumented students. GUIDE will tackle this subject in a separate chapter; New Jersey has the fifth-largest unauthorized population and has been home to numerous protests. Leaving aside any commentary about justice and human rights pertinent to undocumented students, by turning its back on these individuals, society has been ill-advisedly throwing away needed economic assets.

The mid-2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, while a big step forward, did not fully address the issues confronting these students: it did not include a path to legalization and had no direct relevance to the pursuit of higher education. However, the current Immigration Modernization Act (to be discussed later), as passed easily in the Senate, would include true DREAM Act provisions, with currently undocumented young people having the opportunity to become citizens in five years.

Relative to the tenor of only a couple of years back, the political support is surprisingly widespread, beginning with tremendous pressure from the Hispanic community after providing critical re-election support for Obama and continuing through bipartisan committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has led the charge on his side of the aisle, with a major assist for immigration reform coming from Silicon Valley companies who have lobbied hard for a major expansion of visa allotments aimed at engineering and scientific talent. (As GUIDE was being finished, the above prospective legislation was stuck in the House, as many Republicans there have taken an antagonistic stance, to be commented on later.)

***

Moving from the national political scene to where I function on a daily basis:

Dover, New Jersey: Home Base for the Writer’s Direct Experiences

The quick history behind Dover’s ethnic composition is that about 50 years ago, people from Aguadilla, a town in the western part of Puerto Rico, came to the Dover area seeking factory jobs which increasingly were being shunned by residents. Subsequently, Latinos coming to this general section of the country unsurprisingly tended to gravitate to a town (about 35 miles due west from New York City) which already had an Hispanic presence, especially if they knew somebody who lived there. Fast forward—today the town’s population is believed to include comparable proportions of those with Puerto Rican, Colombian, and Mexican backgrounds, coupled with representatives from a dozen other Central and South American countries (which becomes noisily and colorfully evident when the World Cup is being played).

Half of Dover’s population was born outside the United States, which is triple the proportion in its Morris County. One in seven adults over 25 years old has at least a Bachelor’s degree, about one-third the educational attainment level of the county. Median household income is less than two-thirds the average.

Dover is a town where the Federal Express box is opposite, not a major corporate building, but the health clinic. And when a new bridge opened in 2013, it was named after a motorcycle policeman who unfortunately, and fatally, hit a pothole while providing an escort for Charles Lindbergh’s father-in-law as he campaigned for political office in 1930. I am not making this stuff up folks.

The political administration of Dover is almost entirely Caucasian, and there are ethnic tensions, but not of the level represented by street protests. The political savvy of the mayor is quite high, as demonstrated by his ability—over the objections of his police chief, to not only hire a $90,000 Civilian Public Safety Director, but to also give him a car so that he could commute from his residence some 50 miles away. The mayor additionally was able to skirt some state rules on what constitutes a resignation in order that he could take back a former town policeman, who will be paid over $100,000, an amount which would have meant two cops at a decent wage.

A good chunk of these monies could, in the eyes of many, have been better deployed in some form of community-minded endeavors instead of sending another message to the Latino populace that it does not really count when it comes to the polls—and therefore has no say in how priorities are established for the expenditure of the town’s limited budget.

Perhaps the mayor was reacting to a string of fights at a popular Latino restaurant/club, one of which involved students from a nearby college who had been bussed into the town for some heavy drinking. Usually the requirement for police attention in the early morning hours springs from alcohol-infused conversations about the merits of different futbol teams, particularly national squads, or some fellow trying to make time with another guy’s female friend. Drug activity is an issue as well, which is true everywhere in the country.

These various descriptors of Dover are not articulated to represent excuses for anything, but simply to tell something about the landscape in which I have functioned during this period of time. Ironically, Morris County is one of the wealthiest in the nation, and its politics are predictably Republican.

Closing Comments

Several years ago, before it became a more widespread notion, I came to think of colleges as businesses. Today, this characterization is shared by over two-thirds of those surveyed.

If pressed, I would plead guilty to being somewhat skeptical that 25 years of vastly increased college budgets, aka expense to the student, has meant anything incremental to the education of undergraduate students unless you count fancier dorm rooms, increased physical fitness facilities and more diversified cafeteria menus.

The good news is that many items on the lengthy list of fundamental issues pertinent to higher education have moved from think tank publications to both the front pages of the nation’s press (that part which still exists) and the newsfeed for both conventional broadcasts and the newer forms of social media:

■ The federal government itself has become concerned that the level of college tuition and fees is having an adverse impact on access to higher education by those students most in need of its benefits.

■ Everybody is alarmed about the escalation in student debt.

■ People are finally aware of low college graduation rates.

■ Society is attempting to figure out how to hold colleges more accountable, both educationally and with respect to their lack of transparency when extremely questionable decisions are made.

■ Demographics, among the most predictable statistics, are now part of everyday discussion, propelled in part by the 71% Hispanic vote for the re-elected Obama.

■ Education reform, while still capable of sporadically generating more heat than light, increasingly has been recognized as a necessity throughout the K-12 system, which has an impact on everything happening beyond high school graduation.

■ Undocumented students have gone completely public: The DREAM is Now. It is certain that DREAM Act provisions would be part of any overall immigration reform, or a DREAM Act by itself could be the survivor if House Republicans are successful in blocking a complete Immigration Modernization Act.

Anybody functioning in the trenches knew about these issues and their impact on college students well in advance of when they became common knowledge. Before the curtain was pulled back, it was implicitly assumed that well-known colleges were doing a great job academically and deserved every penny they extracted from the student and their parents, or from the government, or from other funders.

***

When I am in a bad mood, I want to warn prospective Latino college students that if they think changing their status on Facebook 42 seconds faster with their newest digitizer is more important than spending time on preparation for higher education or a marketable skill, they should not bother Reading GUIDE. On the other hand, I am quite positive about the outlook for Latino students and therefore will ignore appearing to be anti-technology, instead closing with this statement: if the student wants assistance in understanding how he can move himself and his family ahead, GUIDE is worth a Read, even if—or because—it can be done selectively.

Note One: For a variety of reasons, beginning with the fact that my office has always been in Dover, GUIDE’s references to specific colleges inevitably are skewed to those located in New Jersey and New York State. Nonetheless, from a college process standpoint, GUIDE is relevant to every student, regardless of where they live, and, true confession, most of the basic material is usable by any ethnicity.

Note Two: Chapter one will reveal why all derivations of the word Read in GUIDE are deliberately capitalized.

Note Three: In case my time-outs from optimism confuse the Reader, I do feel good—really good—about the past two decades, especially when I receive letters like this:

"Dear Bob, Sometimes we are surprised of the people God puts into our lives. I don’t have the words to express my gratitude; I feel an enormous amount of respect and admiration towards you. It’s hard to believe it has been two years since (student’s name) started college and she’s now moving on to better and bigger things, thanks to you. If it weren’t for God putting you in our paths, all this would not have been possible. With your generous and kind heart, you helped plant a strong foundation for my daughter’s future.

You gave her support, unlike her father. Your help means the world to me. Please forgive my not so perfect words but I just can’t find a way to express how thankful and blessed I am. I thank you with all my heart for everything you did for us. My only wish is that God always brings blessings and prosperity to you and your family."

Note Four: I almost forgot to mention a Reader-friendly feature which will be seen sporadically throughout GUIDE. Instead of either splitting a statistical table and making it harder to Read or having substantial unused white space when the student might well have the urge to take some notes, I have provided the Reader the chance to fill in his own thoughts in sections marked:

Chapter One: LATINO FAMILY CULTURE

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss multiple factors at work in the lives of Latino students and to raise a few questions pertinent to the interaction among these students, their culture—and that of the wider society, and the pursuit of higher education.

Portions of this section, like several others in GUIDE, are not inherently part of assisting a high schooler interested in pursuing some form of higher education. However, in my two decades of involvement with Latino students in a predominantly Latino locale, there has been almost no aspect of their lives and education paths which can be readily separated from the combination of cultural background, documentation, and some broad societal issues. Moreover, I wanted to say a few things about topics which I have not seen discussed in conventional guides, and this seemed like the right place to do so.

In the middle of the chapter, I pose some questions for the Hispanic family and make a few suggestions. Much of what follows after that section, i.e., the balance of the chapter, is informative material supportive of these questions and suggestions. You might call it evidence, albeit certainly not foolproof, of the soft conclusions being drawn by myself.

The good news, which will be pointed out in several places in GUIDE, is that the latest college data indicate Latino students are moving ahead—more are attending, more are graduating—and this is before the jump which would ensue if a DREAM Act, with or without comprehensive immigration reform, were to become law.

If my recent fortune cookie is correct, that encouragement is nine-tenths of education, it means the Latino community relevant to these aspiring students is providing more of the necessary support and requisite adjustments to cope with the demands of the American higher education system. Originally, I was going to get dewy-eyed, labeling the Latino community akin to an extended family, but then I remembered the tensions between people from different Hispanic countries, as well as the crab bucket story (the person who is trying to get ahead is pulled down by the others around him), told to me by a prominent Latino leader whom I have known for many years.

***

These observations in no way change the bottom line—the lead entry in a description of Latino culture is always about:

The Paramount Importance of Family

The inscription in VIDA, an award-winning book by Patricia Engel about the experiences of a young Colombian woman as she attempts to find her way in the mysterious culture of America, says it all:

EVERYTHING IS FOR MY PARENTS

And the wish of an aspiring Latina collegian in one of my education programs is apropos as well: I want to marry a guy with a good job; he will pay all the bills. Then all of my income can be given to my parents.

Certainly nothing in my own experiences during the past two decades, both in and out of the office, in the United States and in my travels in Central and South America, contradicts the universal view that Hispanics are extremely family oriented. Understanding the dynamics that come with this ingrained mind-set is important to discussion of the Latino student and the process of securing a college education or marketable skill.

To quote a community college student in one of my education programs,

"I’m trying my best to bring my family together right now. I’ve realized that they’re the last thing I have left when everything else is gone and I cherish them with everything even though we don’t discuss it much. I just want to have a real spot in my family, that’s why I was frantic trying to get a job and pay for my bills and rent so I can earn a spot.

I feel like as if me not having a job was the main factor in us fighting and not being together. I was just a zombie this summer; I was dazed and confused and lost my way but the cloud is clearing up and I have done a lot of thinking these past few days and I feel like myself again.

The main factor has always and will always be school, but my family plays a big role too. I want to have a great engineering career which I know I will get one way or another, so I can retire my mom and help out my brother whenever he needs it. That’s the only thing I really want, and I want us always to be together.

I’m gonna make everyone proud of me, I promise."

Many non-Hispanics, including myself, are envious of the close-knit Latino family: the deep and openly expressed cariño, the continuous communication flow, and the feeling of filial obligation which is demonstrated in regret-free decision-making of the type which an outsider at times might find puzzling. Daily expressions of warmth are not confined to the home or to immediate family and friends. In a single year, I receive enough embraces, kisses on the cheek, and handshakes from Latino students to make me temporarily forget a Baptist upbringing devoid of music and dancing (and alcohol).

When my mother and father passed away six years apart, members of my education programs, completely at their own volition (and, except for a handful, without knowing my parents) organized special commemorations which were quite moving, including the planting of a tree at my home.

Embarrassing as it may be to admit, I probably would not have thought of doing any of these activities. What this says about my understanding of my own family culture could be the subject of a visit to my therapist (I have not consulted her in many years—maybe it’s the impact of my Latino immersion).

Culture of course is a broad term, encompassing a long list of moving parts.

The Many Facets of Culture

The objective here is to comment on the connections between Latino family dynamics and the route to college or a marketable skill. To open, The Latino’s Guide to College, a cerebral book that is particularly focused on Latino culture and socioeconomic conditions, portrays the family dynamic in the context of a college student as follows:

For Latinos, la familia is not just a concept; it is a way of life. Families do make the success of individuals possible and worthwhile. … As you travel into the world of advanced schooling and work, people…will look at you in a completely different way from that of your family. …They will judge you in terms of what you do. ….Your family treasures you because of who you are [not what you do]. For others, being is not the issue; doing" is. …You should