TORRINGTON Conn.

Maria Gonzalez spends Friday evenings in a church basement, surrounded by 30 teens chattering in a mix of English and Spanish, because she has assigned herself a mission: to improve graduation rates and college attendance of Torrington and Winsted's Hispanic youth.

Gonzalez, 50, hauls around a briefcase full of pamphlets about local colleges, job training and healthy relationships. Everywhere she goes, whether to a community meeting or to Wal-Mart, Gonzalez explains what she is doing to people she runs into. She asks community leaders and college professors: "Will you talk to my kids?"

She fears immigrant teens may be unaware of resources available and believe college is out of reach. Gonzalez gives them the push they might need to succeed in school and continue to college.

"Do something so you don't have to be stuck in a factory," she tells them. "You have the opportunity. Take advantage of that."

Gonzalez started her program, which she calls "Youth Opportunities," in January with a grant of a little more than $3,000. That money has almost entirely run out, spent on things like tutors, buses to college fairs, and a Torrington Twisters game this summer.

She plans to apply for more money but even without funds, she says, "I'm not going to stop."

The national Hispanic high school dropout rate is 21 percent, compared to the national average of 10 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based research center on the nation's Hispanic population.

Additionally, students of color, those from low-income backgrounds and first-generation students are less likely to prepare for, apply for, enroll in and complete postsecondary education, according to the center.

Hispanics more commonly than their non-Hispanic White peers have parents without high school diplomas, low family income and siblings who drop out. They are also more likely to be held back in school, have a C average or lower, change schools, and become pregnant in high school, according to the center.