Parent Spotlight: Rocio Vargas

College enrollment and persistence is often not a straightforward path for students. This is also true for parents, who are on similar journeys of navigating higher education with their students, many of them for the first time. 

Rocio Vargas is the parent of a graduating high school Senior, rising college freshman Jorge. Like many of the students the LEAF Center for College Success supports, Jorge encountered challenges even before stepping foot on his college campus. Unfortunately, like many students in his situation, he did not turn to anyone for help, and though he was accepted into the LEAF Scholarship Program, was unresponsive to the LEAF Team for several months.

Luckily, this story is a positive one! As a LEAF Scholarship parent, Rocio was still invited to attend a parent meet and greet last month. Even though she thought that Jorge might have been withdrawn from the scholarship because he was not enrolled in school yet, she came to the event and brought Jorge along. Jorge explained to the LEAF Team that his enrollment application was put on hold by the school, and he was unsure about the reason. LEAF was able to support Rocio and Jorge in understanding why his enrollment was on hold and are happy to say that he is now enrolled and attending classes at De Anza College! 

The night after Rocio attended our parent meeting, Jorge and his parents had a conversation about expectations, responsibilities, and goals. Jorge was finally enrolled in school, chose his classes for the semester, and contacted LEAF to resume his scholarship. 

In the last few weeks, Rocio has attended our Bridge to College Series with perfect attendance. She has conversations with Jorge on a regular basis discussing what she has been learning at the workshops. Jorge inquires about where she is getting all this information and Rocio humorously replies with a “I am also going to school” . 

Rocio wished to have known all this information before to better support her oldest daughter.  She has seen Jorge more motivated to study.  She mentioned that with this experience she learned not to leave everything for the last minute, and not to blindly thrust her student will do everything he is supposed to do without any type of support.  She states: “Not all the students/kids are the same, Jorge needed more support than my oldest daughter and now I feel more prepared to support him.”

Rocio is recommending her sister to have her senior son apply for the scholarship next year because she sees the benefit of the information for parents with first generation college students.

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