Success Stories in Smaller Cities
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hispanic and Latino students make up the fastest-growing population among undergraduates, particularly in Texas and California.
While they are no more or less likely to be student parents, compared to other undergraduates, there’s an estimated 634,000 Latino student parents in the U.S.
Being a student can be time-consuming and economically challenging. Having to balance your studies with caring for a child – emotionally and financially – can be overwhelming.
It can also be a barrier to completing college unless you receive support. 30% of Latino children in the U.S. have a parent with some college experience, but no degree.
Santa Fe Community College, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), is nationally recognized for its support of student parents, who make up 30% of its degree-seeking students.
Its Kids Campus—which provides childcare and early childhood education to children under five years old—gives student parents priority placement. It’s also available to employees and the community, and currently has a waiting list of 800, according to the school.
Additionally, the college has a program in which student parents are provided one-on-one parent and academic coaching, as well as a community network. It’s an effort to bring together a population of students that often feels isolated.
School officials are working with other colleges in New Mexico to make their own campuses more family friendly. Ultimately, the goal is to spread the idea nationally to other higher learning institutions.
Liberal, Kansas
A major population shift has happened over the past 30-plus years in Liberal, Kansas.
In the 1980s, just about 20% of the residents were Hispanic or Latino. Today, more than 66% of the people in this small town of just 20,000 are Hispanic or Latino.
“Our population has very much been first-generation immigrants whose kids grow up here, go away to college, then maybe come back, raise a family,” says Mayor Jose Lara.
He says it’s important for community stakeholders to work collaboratively to make Liberal a place that residents want to call not only their present home, but their future home, as well.
Economic opportunity can be a powerful motivating factor.
In 2022, Latino founders received only 1.5% of total U.S. venture capital funding. In Liberal, local leaders are working together to increase access to capital for small business owners and startups.
To do that, the Seward County Development Corporation created a business incubator program to support the city’s aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as access to the EMPOWER Loan Fund, a small cash infusion for business owners who have difficulty accessing funding.
“We are trying to be as proactive as possible…to let people know if you bring an idea into Liberal, we’re going to try and find a ‘yes’ for you. It’s no longer the place where ideas go to die,”
Mayor Jose Lara
Lara, during his visits to the area high school, often asks students if they plan to leave Liberal after graduation. He says up to 90% raise their hands.
But of the 10% who plan to remain in town, he says, “The ones who want to stay always say that they want to make the community better.”
Tempe, Arizona
“Education is obviously huge in the city of Tempe. We've got Arizona State University (ASU), the nation's largest public university right in our backyard,” says Mayor Corey Woods.
Tempe is a city of about 200,000 with about a 23.5% Hispanic or Latino population. Nationwide, Hispanics and Latinos make up little more than 17% of all college students.
In an effort to increase the number of first-generation local Arizona women and women of color qualified to attend ASU, the university started the Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program (HMDP) in 1984.
“We graduate tons of people with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.”
Mayor Corey Woods
Through the program, a parent and child make a five-year commitment to attend classes during middle school and high school to prepare the student to apply and attend ASU.
And although the name hasn’t changed, over the years, the program has opened its doors to participants of all ethnicities, national origins, and genders, and has served more than 2,300 parent-student teams.
Of HMDP, Woods says, “I know plenty of people who've actually gone through the program and talked about how absolutely life-changing it was.”
He adds, “While we're all equal, I think it's important always to acknowledge the differences in those cultural backgrounds, in those experiences, and not just expect that we've all just done the same things.”