The power of role models is what one non-profit is banking on in its mission to bring more students from underserved communities to higher education.
In 26 schools from Greenfield to Santa Cruz, the Avanza Network, a nonprofit devoted to promoting higher education, is visiting the Monterey Bay area this week, with plans to share success stories from underserved communities with thousands of middle and high school students.
Though the Texas-based nonprofit has hosted conferences in cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Albuquerque, El Paso, Chicago and Kansas City, the idea was born in Salinas 15 years ago.
In 2011, a group of Mexican-American alumni of Massachusetts Institute of Technology met for a reunion in Salinas.
Rene Gonzalez, one of those alumni, recalls a question being raised during their reunion: why couldn’t more kids from communities like theirs go on to schools like MIT?
“We were talking about how we were inspired by someone in our path when we were young,” Gonzalez said. “Many of these kids don’t have a mentor or a role model or an example of someone who has gone above and beyond, gone outside of the community.”
“A lot of us had done great things and thought, ‘it’s time for us to go back and pay it forward to the next generation,’” Gonzalez said.
Hence was born the Avanza network. Avanza aims to inspire students with role models from communities similar to theirs, showing them what’s possible.
“We grew up in a similar community, most of us come from underserved communities and worked our way to where we are today,” Gonzalez said. “So we try to relate that so that it creates a bridge to possibility for the younger generation.”
Doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs and scientists are just some of the speakers that Avanza has planned for local schools this week. All from underserved communities themselves, at each school these role models will share their stories with students, with plenty of time for Q&A’s and even one-on-one mentorship, said Gonzalez.
Soledad High will have the biggest presentation with an estimated 1,400 students participating on Friday, when Senator Alex Padilla will be presenting his story.
“The Salinas Valley is home to incredible talent and resilience,” said Padilla in a statement. “When students see people from communities like theirs succeed through education, it sends a powerful message: college is possible, and their futures are worth investing in.”
The scope of Avanza’s mentorship is by no means limited to inspiration, however. Gonzalez said giving kids and parents tangible advice on overcoming barriers to education like financial insecurity is every bit as important to their mission.
“The gap of financial insecurity was in my family and I know it’s in their families so we try to overcome that with examples of what can be done,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said many parents and students are undereducated about the array of strategies, like scholarships and grants that can make the seemingly impossible financial burden of a college education become a reality.
Avanza’s visit culminates with a conference on Saturday morning from 8 to 11 a.m. at the National Steinbeck Center. The conference invites parents and students to join for free breakfast as they meet with one-on-one college counselors and more than 30 career mentors, from mechanical engineering to oceanography.
“If a student is interested in one particular area they’ll find a table to go and talk to a professional about that,” Gonzalez said.
