Migrant education program unites Oregon students

Many kids look forward to summer as a way to get away from school, but kids in the Migrant Education Summer program can't wait to get back in the classroom.

Lane Education Service District's Migrant Education Program, in partnership with local school districts, recently wrapped up its annual four-week summer program, uplifting culture, exploring nature and learning. This year, 260 students in preschool up to 12th grade from across Lane County spent the month of July at Fairfield Elementary in Bethel, cooking foods from different cultures, sewing, dancing and learning to ride bikes.

Maria Juarez has had five of her children participate in the program over the years.

"(As soon as the program) ends, she says 'When does it start again?' and I tell her 'It's only one time a year,'" Juarez said about her six-year-old in Spanish. "(She says) 'I want to go again.'"

For Juarez and other migrant families, finding community and a place with shared language and culture is invaluable.

Students learn about everything from science to booking to math to dance. In the second-grade class, students sculpted Alebrijes, which are fantastical animals from Mexican folklore. In the kindergarten class, students drank smoothies they helped make after learning about the food pyramid. In the eighth grade class, students wrote responses to prompts like "Who comes to mind when you think about magic?," which they could answer in English or Spanish.

Sol Ornelas, who will be starting fourth grade in the fall, has been attending the summer program since she was in kindergarten.

"I feel more welcome (here)," Ornelas said. "I'm not the only one that speaks two languages. Not even a bad way, it's just like, 'What you speak, Spanish? That's crazy.' (I'm) different than everyone else, not in a bad way. It just feels weird."

Later, Ana Quintero-Arias, Director of School Improvement at LESD and leader of MEP, said Ornelas expressed that feeling perfectly. This is one of the main goals of MEP, bringing students and families together in a place where they feel at home.

"It's this feeling of othering," Quintero-Arias said. "In our program, you're not other, you just are. That's what makes our program so special.

"It's literally magic," she said. "Magic that happens (here)."

What is the Migrant Education Program?

MEP and its summer program have both been ongoing for over 20 years according to Quintero-Arias. The federally-funded program offers year-round resources and services, but the summer program is a highlight for community members. MEP works with districts in Lane and Douglas counties throughout the school year.

According to the Oregon Health Authority, an estimated 174,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers, and related family members, support Oregon’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry.

Quintero-Arias said that Springfield has one of the biggest populations of migrants locally. While in the past, the majority of the migrant population has been Mexican, recently they've seen a rise in Colombian and Venezuelan migrants entering Lane and Douglas counties. In Cottage Grove, there is a growing Guatemalan community.

Quintero-Arias said when one family immigrates, they start a new community, and then can offer connections for work and housing to others.

However, the nature of migrant work is constant movement. Quintero-Arias said many of the students they serve bounce between schools or districts throughout the year. MEP's summer program offers a place where they can reconnect.

"Every time you go to a new school, it's challenging, and I think we can all identify with that," Quintero-Arias said. "Here, it's like, 'Oh, I'm back home. It's a school for us. It's a school made for us, by us and with us in mind.'"

Exploring education and careers

Through MEP and the summer program, the students go on several field trips. This year's excursions included Mt. Pisgah Arboretum, the Parker Learning Gardens, Willamette High School's woodshop and Oregon State University.

"There's just a lot of opportunities for them to see themselves in situations that maybe they didn't get a chance to," Quintero-Arias said. "The majority of our families are migrant themselves, so there's been some limitations to their possibilities. How do we remove those barriers? Showing our students all the options whether it's CTE (career technical education), whether it's college, whether it's additional leadership skills."

For the older students, they could visit Southern Oregon University, where Anahi Castaneda, who will be going into ninth grade this fall, took her first academic visit to a college. The high schoolers stayed in the dorms for a week, getting tours, making connections and going to classes. In Ashland, Castaneda also saw her first Shakespeare play.

Castaneda hopes to visit SOU again next summer, and then go onto "leadership," in which high schoolers can become leaders within the program and guide younger students.

Castaneda, who has an older sister who also participated in MEP, has been a longtime attendee of the summer program. One of her legacies is the inclusion of tajín, a Mexican chili and lime seasoning, at all mealtimes.

"I told her (Quintero-Arias) to bring some tajín, because I had a little bottle, and I ran out of it," Castaneda said. "She bought three whole big tajín bottles, and we use them now for fruits, everything."

Now each grade level has their designated tajín bottles that they pass around during mealtimes.

Quintero-Arias said this is just one example of how the students guide their own activities and learning.

She pointed to a group of boys playing soccer on the field. Last year, a group of boys said there were no goals for when they play soccer, so Quintero-Arias went right to the store to buy portable goals.

This year, one of the high school student leaders, who loves music, expressed an interest in teaching some students how to use instruments, so Quintero-Arias said she has the year to figure out how to make that happen for next summer.

"Our goal is that students know that they are students and that they can learn, that they will always be learners," Quintero-Arias said. "It's about them and what interests them and what captivates their own imagination."

Roberto Roblero has four kids who have all been in the summer program. Both Roblero and Juarez sent their children on MEP's summer excursion to Washington, D.C. two years ago. Juarez said this was an opportunity that they wouldn't have been able to afford without MEP's assistance.

Roblero, who is originally from Guatemala, said he likes that MEP teaches the students about different cultures and traditions across Latin America. He said it's a way to keep his kids busy, active and learning during the summer.

"(My children) have always been very excited to go, they like it a lot," Roblero said in Spanish. "They also try to take advantage of everything there is, for example, the Academia Latina, and (my daughter) went to a week (at OSU) in Corvallis.

"They are so, so happy and we only encourage them to take advantage of everything they can."

Representation matters

Throughout Fairfield Elementary, a mix of English and Spanish chatter, or "Spanglish," could be heard.

The majority of the teachers and educational assistants were Latino. Quintero-Arias said although the lead teachers weren't required to speak Spanish, the assistants were, so students had an opportunity to express themselves in their preferred language. In addition to the local educators hired for the program, MEP bring four Binational teachers from Mexico, who stay in Eugene for the month and teach the students about their culture. This year, the exchange teachers taught the students about Seri, an Indigenous people in Sonora, Mexico. The students made traditional cloth dolls, created sculptures of sacred sea turtles and will be performing a Sonora-style dance during the upcoming Mercado.

"They teach us about our cultures," Ornelas said. "(We have) really nice teachers. I enjoy seeing people that have black hair and my skin ... I barely meet people that speak Spanish."

Although she grew up in Oregon, Ornelas' family is originally from Guanajuato, Mexico. Day-to-day, she speaks English at school and Spanish at home, so MEP offers a rare opportunity to speak Spanish in a classroom setting.

"It's not just about learning culture, you can learn about nature, species of animals, it's about science, art," Ornelas said.

One of Ornelas' favorite projects this year was the mural that was displayed at the Mercado event.

The mural centers around "Nuestro Mundo Mágico," "Our magical world." It depicts a globe surrounded by birds as well as a stock of growing corn, which represents Latin America and the students' own growth.

Juarez has known about MEP for over 20 years. Five of her six children have participated in the summer school.

Maria moved from Mexico to the U.S. in 1991; she stayed in Washington for 14 years and has now been in Springfield for 20 years. Juarez said she largely made the move because she already had siblings in the area. She said without them being here, she might not have left Mexico.

"When I came here, I didn't know anyone, I didn't know how to drive, I didn't know anything," Juarez said. "It's very different to come to a city where you don't know the language, too. Those first couple years, I didn't go out on my own. I went out with my siblings, my family. But as time went on, little by little I started."

Juarez said she had been a seasonal farm worker for years, but recently began working for Springfield Public Schools. She has been volunteering at MEP's summer program nearly every day, helping with costumes and decorations.

"It's not only an opportunity, for the for the children, it's also for the parents, if they want to come and volunteer," said Alma Lopez, one of the educators with MEP.

All MEP family members were invited to the Mercado event, which was held in front of Fairfield Elementary. There was food and activities, dance performances and music. The students were looking forward to showing off the projects they had been working on for the past month.

"I hope many people see the benefits that this (program) has," Juarez said. "I hope other people join the program because it's very good for the children and us as well. We both learn, big and small."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Cultural diversity shines in migrant education program