West Texas A&M officials report that the campus has long had federally sponsored initiatives, such as TRIO programs, to support first-generation college students with academic support and counseling. As the progeny of migrant workers, De Leon currently participates in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), a federal program that targets the children of migrant workers for tutoring and academic workshops.
“Students in the CAMP program tend to be first-generation students. We’ll have 20 to 40 students a year who come into the program,” says Dan D. Garcia, vice president for enrollment management at West Texas A&M.
Although state and federal funding has been critical, campus officials recognized that West Texas had to evolve its own set of programs to effectively serve a student body that is predominantly first generation. Lowery- Hart says that although Hispanics make up 20 percent of the student body, its firstgeneration programming has been driven more by class-based outreach efforts than one defined by a push for racial diversity. He adds that West Texas A&M wants greater racial diversity on its campus and has largely focused on recruiting Hispanic students in west Texas.
“I think we’ve given (first generation) a new focus in the last two years where it has really become a centerpiece of our programming and in our conversation,” Lowery-Hart says. “When 68 percent of your students are first generation, you can’t ignore it.”
--Ronald Roach
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