Released April 6, 2011
URBANA, Ill. - For Maria Villamil, being the tenth of 11 children born to a middle-class Latino family in southern Argentina carried certain expectations. Like her sisters and friends, she was expected to get married and have children. But she believed she could accomplish other dreams, too. Unfortunately, going after her dreams meant leaving family and friends behind.
"For many Latinos like myself, family needs come before individual aspirations," said Villamil, an assistant professor in the University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences. "It's tradition that you take care of family first. Children are encouraged to go out and earn money to help support the family — education (especially for women) is often not encouraged because of more pressing concerns."
Family attachment can become a barrier for students pursuing an advanced education unless the family is involved and supportive of the decision, Villamil said. Combine this with challenges common to students in the fields of math, science and technology, and the result is a shortage of Latino students in these growing fields.
College students don't represent increase in Latino population
In the U of I College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), nearly 6 percent of undergraduate students are Latino. Meanwhile, the state population is 15 percent Latino and increasing. In the 18 to 24 age group, the Latino population is 19 percent.
This disproportionate Latino population spurred a group of faculty members in ACES to take action. Two years ago, Elvira de Mejia, professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, sat down with a group of her peers and discussed a set of USDA calls addressing Latinos. This meeting resulted in the creation of the Illinois Advocates for Latino Advancement in Science (I-ALAS) to help meet the needs of Latino students in Illinois.
"We simply want our population of students in ACES to reflect the state's Latino population," Villamil said. "We decided if we were serious about this, we needed to do something."
U of I sets goals
De Mejia said their goal was to identify grants for Illinois Latino students, develop a model for increasing the Latino student population in ACES over the next five years, and find innovative ways to address this need.
"We had strong support from Dean Hauser, the associate and assistant deans, and the department heads," de Mejia said. "We were even offered matching funds from some departments to help us reach our goals."
Sandra Rodriguez-Zas, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, said she believes their approach to start this plan of action at the faculty level has helped them achieve success.
"We feel a calling to help," Rodriguez-Zas said. "I think the faculty are the best people to start this project. You can wish and wish, but if faculty aren't committed, these programs won't happen. As Latino faculty, we understand better than anyone the challenges these students face."
I-ALAS is reaching out to Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) and community colleges to connect students to the U of I. They will promote science, technology, engineering and math career opportunities while training students to be successful in the workforce.
"We are unique in the College of ACES to have this group," said Gustavo Caetano-Anolles, a professor in the Department of Crop Sciences. "We meet regularly, think actively and are determined to make this happen." The group has already obtained funding for two grants through NSF and USDA and created a key partnership with Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) who also received two USDA awards with shared goals.
"Ultimately, this will be a discovery process," Caetano-Anolles said. "We will provide research experiences to bring many areas of science, bioinformatics and agriculture together so students can be in a better position to find a job someday. Our goal is to help them learn 'science' — not pigeon-hole them into one area or another."
Margarita Teran-Garcia, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, said she is excited to help connect students to mentors who can help give them an edge in their field of study.
"I-ALAS and our faculty collaborators across ACES and Northeastern Illinois University will mentor these students during this educational process," she said. "We want to show students that they can make it — that there is a place for them in these areas of study."
Villamil said she appreciates the value of mentors in her life.
"Most of us in I-ALAS realize that at some point, it's random chance that we have gotten to where we are today," Villamil said. "So why not take the random chance out of the equation? We know that Latino students have different realities in their families. We want to step up and show them the vast opportunities available to them so their lives don't have to be dictated as much by random chance."
Villamil said Argentina has a free university system; survival is the key. She credits her success to her ability to persevere despite the "kicking around" and low self-esteem she experienced during her college years. In a similar pattern, Illinois Latinos also have to balance their responsibilities to the family with their dream to become educated. The frustration many experience to find this balance often causes them to abandon their schooling, she said.
"We all know perseverance is the secret," said Ricardo Diaz, program coordinator in the U of I Graduate College. "It's how we all made it here today — will and perseverance. Since then, we've developed concrete steps that students can take to achieve various career paths."
I-ALAS is continuing to expand and is not limited to the College of ACES or Latino faculty.
"It'd be great if similar groups happened in other colleges on campus," Caetano-Anolles said. "Every college has different realities that respective groups can address. We envision other professors adopting similar models in their colleges and unifying our group at the university levels so our capabilities can become greater."
Caetano-Anolles said their group has more depth because it's multidisciplinary. Group members represent engineering, crops and soils, animal sciences, food and human nutrition, Extension, and water quality.
"Of course, we all get excited about our own area of science," Teran-Garcia said. "But, ultimately we are all passionate about meeting societal needs through science. We want to transmit our enjoyment and the possibilities of science to students."
For more information about I-ALAS, go to http://www.ialas.org or e-mail info@ialas.org.
--30--
University of Illinois, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news5666.html
Source: Maria Villamil, 217-333-4690, villamil@illinois.edu
Writer: Jennifer Shike, 217-244-0888, jshike@illinois.edu
