Rosemary Ybarra-Hernandez was on a mission. The CEO and founder of AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute, which has provided holistic college access services to underserved youth since 2004, had learned that one of the students in the program, who wanted to go to nursing school at Arizona State University, was having trouble getting her chemistry scores released.
Ybarra-Hernandez knew exactly what to do—and she also knew the vice principal of her student’s school. She went to his office to find out what the problem was, and he explained that the student was better suited for community college because of her family’s lack of financial resources.
“I said, ‘No, she wants to go to ASU. Who are you to make that decision?’ And he argued with me. By the end, I said, ‘Look, if you don’t send the scores, I’m going to leave here and go to the Department of Education and report you,’” Ybarra- Hernandez explained.
Although this may seem above and beyond what you’d expect from a program like AGUILA, Ybarra- Hernandez notes that advocacy is just one way the organization provides students with a personal touch. And as someone who has worked with troubled youth in the past, she sees it as a way to make a change in people’s lives at a crucial time in their lives.
“I’ve always loved working with teenagers,” she said. “My Ph.D. research was about youth and violence, and juvenile justice policy, and I specifically was working with Latino male gang members. I just saw a lot of wasted talent and I wanted to create change on the ground.”
Another love of hers is working with Hispanic students. Although the program does serve those from other demographics—such as African-American, Caucasian, Native American, and Asian students—Ybarra-Hernandez has had a long-time passion for working with Hispanic young people as a Latina, first-generation college student who has experienced many of the same struggles as those she serves.
“I came from a low-income family and received a substandard elementary and high school education. I was not properly advised about college by my high school counselor, who referred me to vocational school. Despite being a divorced, single parent during my undergraduate years, I went on to become the only woman and only person of color in my Ph.D. program,” she explained. “I am passionate about what I do because diversity is just a word if it is not put into real action.”
Since AGUILA started taking real action almost 20 years ago, the organization has worked with over 4,000 students. Currently, AGUILA partners with 14 schools in two districts, and is currently looking to add an additional four schools in two more districts, as well as a private Catholic school in an underserved community, to its roster.
AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute offers a program, called the Institute, which helps students in the ninth through twelfth grades with college preparation through a series of monthly Saturday seminars that stress personal growth, leadership, confidence, resilience, and college success. In addition, through the programs’ supplemental Pathways sessions, students become familiar with different careers and academic paths, from law to business to humanities to STEM. For example, the Pathways pre-law program is in its fourth year and the pre-health program is in its third year. Both of these programs are led by college faculty who help students learn more about these career fields.
Ybarra-Hernandez uses this analogy: “When you want to get into the water, the lake, the river, the ocean, a pool—anywhere, even the shower—you touch the water. You dip your toes to see before you dive in. That’s what I want you to do with these areas of study, dive into one of these pathways and see if that’s where you want to go.”
Other parts of the program include College Conversations, where students meet with college representatives in personalized sessions; the Oral History Project, which allows students to work with professors to research their own family history and culture; and the Circle Tour, when students visit ten college campuses in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado over the course of five days.
And through these kinds of services that AGUILA provides, students have gone on to pursue various careers, such as health care, technology, and legal professions. One successful student, who went on to become an educator, came back to AGUILA to give back: He developed AGUILA’s Academy program, which works with middle school students to prepare them to become successful in high school and lay the foundation for attending college later.
“He was in the high school Institute and went off to Gonzaga University. He taught for Teach For America in a low-income school in his community and said to me, ‘Why can’t we talk to these eighth graders about college? We have to do something for them,’” said Ybarra- Hernandez. “So, he developed, designed, and implemented our first eighth grade academy.”
Since AGUILA has been so successful in expanding the reach of its students, Ybarra-Hernandez also has big plans to expand the organization’s reach even further in the future.
“We want to continue to provide students with their desire to attend college. We are looking to expand the eighth-grade program, and eventually move to the sixth grade,” she said. “Also, we want to expand to New Mexico, since there is a great need there.”
Kenya McCullum is a freelance writer based in California.
All photos courtesy of the AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute.