Strongly encouraged by his migrant worker parents to seek an education beyond high school, Alexander De Leon made up his mind at an early age to go to college. After moving from Texas to Mexico with his family as a fourth-grader, De Leon made a conscious effort to keep up his English speaking and writing skills so that he could eventually rely on them to apply to a U.S. college.
Fortunately for De Leon, his parents returned to the Texas panhandle region with him and his two younger brothers just prior to his ninth-grade year. The move allowed him to resume an English-based education in Tulia, Texas.
“My parents have been behind me going to college all the way,” De Leon says.
This fall, De Leon is a freshman scholarship recipient at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) in Canyon. Over the summer, De Leon got a head start on college classes in a program called the University Success Academy (USA). The six-week program allowed De Leon and 17 other students to take two courses for credit while giving them the opportunity to adjust to college life. Aimed at students who are among the first in their immediate families to attend college, the academy has helped increase the school’s retention of them, according to West Texas A&M officials.
“There are things we’ve created plus orientation programs that target (first-generation) students and their families that are just for them and are specific to the issues they’re facing,” says Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, the associate vice president for academic affairs at West Texas A&M.
