Futuro Latino Helps Students, Families Prepare for College

A club at Niles West High School is helping both Latino students and their parents with a little college preparation 101.

Futuro Latino welcomed more than 50 people on Sept. 23 to its first family gathering of the year, a potluck dinner where each family was invited to bring a dish from its country of origin. Teacher Luisa Karimighovanloo – known as Senora K -  and counselor Andrew Johnson said they want to bring the families together with the goal of facilitating the college preparation process.

Senior Alyssa Alvarez said the group’s visit to DePaul University helped her decide that’s where she wants to go to school, with plans to study business administration. Alvarez’s parents are from Ecuador, and neither has a college degree. They have always encouraged her to go to college, she said, but they didn’t really know where to start.

Earlier:

When Futuro Latino students visited DePaul, the admissions staff member suggested they apply to take a summer course by writing an essay.

“Senora K made us all write the essay, and rewrite it, and rewrite it,” said Alvarez, who was accepted to the summer program.

Alvarez and Christina Leon were both in Senora K’s Spanish for Native Speakers class as freshmen and were among the founding members of Futuro Latino.

Leon is hoping to gain admission to an Ivy League college or Northwestern University and plans to pursue a career in medicine. Her parents, both born in Mexico and raised in Chicago, made it clear that she and her brothers were expected to go to college.

But her mother, who is studying to become a teacher at National-Louis University on a fellowship that she found with the help of Johnson and Senora K, said that Christina always knew what she wanted, and would do what ever she could to achieve her goals.

“She’s known since she was five,” her mother said.

According to Niles West’s 2010 Illinois state school report card, about one in 10 of the school’s 2,520 students are Hispanic or Latino. That’s less than half the state average. Christina Leon said that it helps when the students band together so they know they aren’t alone.

Senora K said she started the group to help Latino parents who did not attend college in the United States prepare their children with things like which classes to take to the importance of participating in clubs, sports and other activities.

“They need to know that they need to take honors classes and advanced classes,” she said.

Johnson is the counselor for many of the students in Futuro Latino, and he told the parents in Spanish that even if their child is assigned to another counselor, he would be happy to help in any way that he can.

The group also provides a forum to disseminate information that might be of interest to residents. Also at the dinner, Lincolwood resident Maria Ugarte-Ramos spoke about a series of six workshops on “Taking Control of Your Health” she will offer in Spanish.