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Union School Program to Outline College Finance Options for Hispanics

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By David R. Million World Staff Writer

When Shawna Taylor asks immigrant Hispanic English Language Learner students what careers they are considering, most laugh at her response to their answers.

"I'll get answers from welders to doctors, and I tell them they'll need to go to college," said the Union Public School's Intermediate High School ELL teacher.

"Most of them just laugh, because their families are almost always on limited incomes. Many of our immigrant students work part- time jobs to help supplement the family's income, and most of those students and their parents have never even considered college until we present OHLAP," she said.

Officials from the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program will explain the program to Hispanic students and their parents during a 7 p.m. Monday meeting to be held at the intermediate high school, 7616 S. Garnett Road.

Also known as Oklahoma's Promise, the program is for students of all races, Taylor said. However, 99 percent of her ELL students are Hispanic, she added.

Monday's session is for Hispanic students and families from Union schools.

OHLAP will pay a student's tuition at Oklahoma public two-year colleges and four-year universities, or a portion of tuition at accredited Oklahoma private colleges and universities. It also helps with tuition at public technology centers.

The scholarship does not cover such items as books, supplies, and room and board, so students are encouraged to apply for other forms of financial aid.

To qualify for the program, students must register for the program during their eighth- ninth- or 10th-grade years, must have no felony criminal record, and their parents or guardians must earn less than $50,000 annually.

Students must maintain a 2.5 grade-point-average from ninth- grade through graduation.

Taylor said that not all schools with ELL programs hold evening sessions to explain the program to parents.

"This is a favorite project of mine," said Taylor, who is in her first year at Union. After graduating with an emphasis in Spanish education from Oral Roberts University in 2004, she taught English in a private school in Monterrey, Mexico.

"I first became interested in working with immigrant Hispanics when I was 15 attending a church camp in south Texas. A friend told me that he grew up in a mix of Spanish and English and was never comfortable in either language.

"Since then, Oklahoma's Hispanic community has been growing, so the need to help students like him has moved north," Taylor said.

Principal John Chargois said Taylor's work and the scholarship program are important.

"Anything that informs parents of the resources that are available is a win-win situation. It helps our students, their parents and the school district," he said.

EVENT

What: Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program information meeting

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Media Center at Union Intermediate High School, 7616 S. Garnett Road

For more: For more information about OHLAP, call the program's office, (800) 858-1840; e-mail ohlapinfo@osrhe.edu; or visit www.okhighered.org/ohlap.

Source: Tulsa World

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