Program works to counter low Hispanic attendance
Rachel McDaniel
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
"It seems that most people I talk to find it really rare and quite an accomplishment for me to be a student here," she said, "not because I had to compete with the largest incoming freshman class at the time, but because I am a Latina."
Maria Ibarra, a junior movement science major also from Diamond Hill-Jarvis, said one of the main reasons she came to TCU was because it's close to home.
"I'm very family-oriented, and I didn't want to go to a school that was too far away," Ibarra said.
Although TCU is less than 15 minutes away from her home, she said, she still suffered from a little bit of culture shock coming from a high school where the majority was Hispanic to TCU, where Hispanics are the minority. But Ibarra said that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"I think it offers a different outlook on American culture for students like me who come from primarily Hispanic communities," Ibarra said. "You're forced to interact with people outside of your culture."
Getting Here
Despite the odds against local Hispanic students who want to come to TCU, there are students who make it here - many of them thanks to a program put in place to bring minority FWISD students to TCU.
The Community Scholars Program is for high-achieving minority students from nine participating local high schools - seven from FWISD, one from Arlington ISD and one from Dallas ISD.
"It was initially set up to go after high schools within FWISD that we didn't really get a lot of applications from," said Trevino, who works with sophomore and junior students in the Community Scholars Program.
"We were losing a lot of quality students to schools like Baylor, SMU, Rice, Stanford and Harvard, which are phenomenal schools, but the students weren't even looking at TCU," Trevino said.
Right now, the Community Scholar Program has 96 students, 52 of whom are Hispanic, Trevino said.
"This is one way that we're trying to make inroads with the Hispanic community, by trying to increase the number of Hispanic students here," Trevino said.
Maria Ibarra, a junior movement science major also from Diamond Hill-Jarvis, said one of the main reasons she came to TCU was because it's close to home.
"I'm very family-oriented, and I didn't want to go to a school that was too far away," Ibarra said.
Although TCU is less than 15 minutes away from her home, she said, she still suffered from a little bit of culture shock coming from a high school where the majority was Hispanic to TCU, where Hispanics are the minority. But Ibarra said that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"I think it offers a different outlook on American culture for students like me who come from primarily Hispanic communities," Ibarra said. "You're forced to interact with people outside of your culture."
Getting Here
Despite the odds against local Hispanic students who want to come to TCU, there are students who make it here - many of them thanks to a program put in place to bring minority FWISD students to TCU.
The Community Scholars Program is for high-achieving minority students from nine participating local high schools - seven from FWISD, one from Arlington ISD and one from Dallas ISD.
"It was initially set up to go after high schools within FWISD that we didn't really get a lot of applications from," said Trevino, who works with sophomore and junior students in the Community Scholars Program.
"We were losing a lot of quality students to schools like Baylor, SMU, Rice, Stanford and Harvard, which are phenomenal schools, but the students weren't even looking at TCU," Trevino said.
Right now, the Community Scholar Program has 96 students, 52 of whom are Hispanic, Trevino said.
"This is one way that we're trying to make inroads with the Hispanic community, by trying to increase the number of Hispanic students here," Trevino said.
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