The Power of Mentoring

I have been very busy lately as I transition back to my "normal" responsibilities.   I admit to a bit of trepidation about returning to the office after being away for 6 months.  My little bit of anxiety was immediately replaced with gratitude and delight when I found the welcome that was waiting.

I wanted to share a phenomenal trip I had to Olympia and Portland the last full week in June.  Mike and I traveled to first Olympia to meet with Maria Chavez-Pringle, Associate Professor of Political Science at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, and then we traveled onto Portland to attend the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  It was an amazing journey and a fitting finish to my sabbatical.  Each piece of the journey yielded riches I am honored to share here.  Today I will complete my piece on Maria.

I first encountered Maria at a seminar I attended at the University of Washington Tacoma Campus in May.  She was one of the speakers on a panel that focused on Immigration and Latino youth.  I began corresponding with her to try to get a time to meet and interview her and was happy after several mishaps including being stuck in a ten mile back-up on Interstate 5 on our first scheduled date to get a meeting set up with her in her hometown of Olympia last week.

Maria has an amazing story.  I was first drawn to her because she spoke clearly about the inequities in the immigration system and the trends from a political science point of view.  So much of what is wrong is related to policy.  I was further drawn to her when she said that she received her PhD from WSU.

We met at our favorite Olympia coffee house.

Maria at Batdorf and Bronson Roasters

Maria is working on her 3rd book.  She is interviewing first generation Latino professionals who are the first to graduate from college in their families.  It mirrors her own history.  Maria grew up in Orland, California, daughter of farm workers.  Her first language was Spanish.  She experienced daily prejudice in her home community and was subjected to a childhood of what she calls de-Americanization.  Her experience was not untypical for young Latinos.  She was tracked out of the college preparation courses.  She got pregnant at age 16, was rejected and ejected from her family home.  She married the father of her now 30 year old daughter and lived with him for 8 years, learning the trade of dental assisting and then moved to being a pharmacist's assistant.  Her journey to higher education began at a community college and  and then she applied to one college, California State University at Chico because it was close and familiar where she received her BA and teaching credential in Social Science.  She applied to graduate school at Chico and chose Political Science because it did not require her to take the GRE.  After completing her Masters in Political Science at Chico she found her way to WSU where she spent 4 years completing her degree.   She credits the difference in her life to wonderful mentors and helpful community supports that enabled her to get childcare for her daughter, access housing assistance, etc.  I think some of the credit goes to her own determination and desire to make the best life for herself and her oldest daughter and later for her new family (husband and three younger children).  She is very proud of her now 30 year old daughter who is working in Seattle.

Maria shared with me a link to her April, 2015, TedxTacoma Talk on the De-Americanization of Latino Youth.  I highly recommend that you watch her talk.  She talks about living the de-Americanized life and how her experience is different partly because she is a citizen.  She recommended we watch McFarland, USA, the recent movie by Disney.  She said there is much truth in the experience that reminds her of her childhood.  One of my California colleagues also recommended the film.  I think Mike and I will watch it soon (in between stages of the Tour de France..).

The wisdom Maria shared with me was the importance of exposing young Latinos who do not have a history of educational achievement in their families to the opportunities, responsibilities and rewards of completing high school and college.  She spoke of her mentors and the need for youth who are first generation college students (and high school students?) to have mentors that can coach, inspire, encourage and listen. Research shows how powerful mentors can be for youth development.  I spent some time yesterday visiting with Lindsey Karas at Sterling Meadows/Mercy Housing who I profiled on June 3rd.    Lindsey explained the difference that graduate students who spent a year mentoring the first generation Latino high school students in the homework club at Sterling Meadows make in the lives of the students.  The graduate students take the time to visit with the students in the setting of their high school and outside of their community center.

I left Olympia inspired and very glad that I had taken the time to meet with Maria.

I will close this post for today and write separately about the amazing experience we had at General Assembly.

Thanks for reading.