Ellington

The trip from Wapato High School in the Yakima River Valley to the UW campus lasts only a couple of hours by bus. Yet, for the Hispanic high school seniors who attended the Adelante Con Educacion (ACE) convention this weekend, the trip could take them light-years from home.

The UW chapter of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) hosted the ACE convention over the weekend to expose the benefits of higher education to graduating high school seniors from Mexican-American communities. Historically, these communities have faced difficulty in advancing students into college. The National Center for Policy Analysis reported in 1997 that the dropout rate for Hispanic high school students is roundly 30 percent.

MEChA at UW was first started in the early 1970s to address the problems and issues of the Hispanic community, mainly the low number of students from those areas advancing to universities, such as UW. Shortly thereafter, MEChA began developing retreats for area Hispanic students to urge them toward continuing onto college after high school. thirty years later, the retreat has grown into a three-day workshop with over a hundred participants from across Washington state.

Teresa Mosqueda, a senior international studies major who was a coordinator for the event, said she believed the conference is a great success.

"Every year more and more Mexican-American students are attending college and becoming active in the community," said Mosqueda. "Each student who took part this weekend will be required to file application for enrollment in UW to ensure they begin the college admissions process."

Students attended UW classes on Friday and collaborated in a variety of UW departmental workshops, including the School of Health Sciences and the School of Law, throughout the duration of the weekend. The workshops were designed to promote career aspirations among Hispanic students, and their content ranged from financial aid and race relations in America, to UW student-led workshops on how to write entrance essays for college admissions.

Dr. Nancy Barcelo, vice president for the Office of Minority Affairs, who was a pioneer Mexican-American activist at the University of Iowa in the late 1960s, urged the students to set high academic goals for themselves.

"Higher education must become a priority in the Hispanic communities around the country. We can make a difference one student at a time," Barcelo said.

Cecilia Valencia, a senior from Wapato High School, felt the ACE convention provided her with ideas about what it takes to graduate from college.

"It is great to know that colleges, such as UW, want to help students from the Hispanic community make it to college," said Valencia. "This provides a chance for information and opportunities we might otherwise have never received."