Caminos Program: Former Mentor Fatima Lizardo Q&A
Caminos “is a transformative educational pathway program for Latina/o high school students to attend and graduate from higher education institutions.” The goal of this program to encourage this community to get a higher education. The program began during the spring of 2015. This program is a good example of ways Latinx students can be better prepared for college.
Fatima Lizardo has been one of many mentors that have participated in this program. Lizardo participated during the Fall of 2016 through the end of spring 2017. While interviewing a former mentor to this program I was able to gain some knowledge of the program and what it really is all about.
Beyond the Oval: Can you describe the program and what your role was in the program?
Fatima Lizardo: Basically… what it does is that it pairs CSU students… or it gives them the ability to be mentors for high school students at Fort Collins High School, specifically students that are taking… um needed Spanish classes. These students are native Spanish speakers. Every two weeks students get to go to Fort Collins High School and during these students Spanish class you do activities and get them to think about higher education.
You were just their mentor to these students? Did you help them in any specific way…?
Yeah! You’re like a mentor. Mmhm…, so we facilitated different activities. There was a specific activity that was very impactful to me. It was about… we google images of Fort Collins and we realized that none of those images like reflected Latinx community in Fort Collins, none of them either showed brown people at all. So. we got into small groups and… had a discussion about that and what that meant for us and how that made us feel. We did a lot of things in that way. We would do activities as a class and what a lot of mentors would do… is have discussions with the students in smaller groups.
What was your overall experience? Being part of this community, did you think it was beneficial?
I think it was beneficial for me because I saw so much of myself in a lot of those students and I mean like… being at CSU at that time, I didn’t have many friends or anything. So I just felt like being in a space with other latinx students felt really good to me. It was kinda an escape from CSU…
As a participant of this program, how do you think the students benefited from it?
I know they were exposed to topics and discussions on… I guess I just think that for example I didn’t begin to even think about until I got to college[says it with laughter]. Like that whole activity I told you about, in terms of like seeing that Fort Collins doesn’t reflect the Latinx community, little things like that that do have meaning that do make a difference.
They were exposed to things like that very early on. For me I didn’t start to think really race or think like that until I got college. I think that in that sense it was giving them the tools to have these difficult conversations… Also, at the end of the school year, in May they got to present some of the projects we did through Caminos. It was a gallery and invited a lot of people from the community.
It was a nice experience to see everything they learned and all the projects they did. Not only to learn about themselves and the community but also be able to present it to the public… and yeah just gaining those professionals skills. Overall, being a mentor and being able to talk to them about college. For me I think this was really impactful.
Do you think this program or similar programs like Caminos should be in other high schools, not only the Fort Collins High School?
Yes! I would have loved to have had something like this in my high school. Although, I know that wasn’t necessarily available because there wasn’t a university in my town but I think that in areas where there are universities and like the idea of pairing first generation with potential first generation high school students. I think it’s really beneficial. They have the option to see themselves through those mentors and then they get to envision them self at a university.
It was awesome that it is at the Fort Collins High School but I’m sure like at Pouder…there’s a lot of latinos at Pouder High School, so having something like that there would also be really meaningful, Rocky High School is also really close to the university, that would also be a good place.
Besides what Caminos already does, do you think there could be more to prepare these students for college?
I think Caminos does a pretty good job at maybe the first step preparing students, which is just gaining exposure, having difficult conversations. I think that it helps planting the seed to something that is possible. I think I did a lot to prepare myself but a lot of the things you learn as you go and are there (in college).
If you would like to know more how to support go to: https://advancing.colostate.edu/CAMINOS
