2008 Woodie Awards
Higher hispanic dropout rate than would be expected
By: Gloria Guerra
Issue date: 5/7/08 Section: News
Julio Ortiz has watched many of his friends drop out of college because "they find work and like making money or they want things like a car, so they quit going to school."
Ortiz, a liberal arts major at California State University, Stanislaus says he is still in school for several reasons, the most important being family.
"I'm the oldest. I have to set an example. I have to finish."
However, statistics show Ortiz is the exception. The dropout rate for Hispanics is 75-percent - 25 percent higher than the dropout rate of whites, according to CSU Stanislaus' Fact Book, which is published by the Institutional Department of Research and can be found online.
But Ortiz is not alone in citing family as the main reason for completing college. Sibling relationships helped Gabriela Castillo get here.
"My parents don't care one way or another. They said if I wanted to go, fine. If not that was fine, too," said Castillo, a junior majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology. Her older brother went to college before her.
Other students did cite their parents as important reasons for them being in college.
"I want to make my parents proud," Alfonso Hernandez, a junior criminal justice and Spanish major, said.
His father works in construction and his mother works in a canning factory. Hernandez has seen how hard his uneducated parents work and he wants a better life.
"I want to help my parents pay their mortgage," Maria Ramirez, a sophomore math major with a minor in Spanish, said. She said she wants a good job, the type that comes with a college degree.
"My education is very important to my mother," Gabriela Dureun, a junior psychology major said. She credits her mother with getting her to college. However Dureun's said her father saw things differently. "Work is important, getting a job, making money."
Jessica Insell, a senior English major, contributes her husband's support of her as the key to her success at CSU Stanislaus.
Ortiz, a liberal arts major at California State University, Stanislaus says he is still in school for several reasons, the most important being family.
"I'm the oldest. I have to set an example. I have to finish."
However, statistics show Ortiz is the exception. The dropout rate for Hispanics is 75-percent - 25 percent higher than the dropout rate of whites, according to CSU Stanislaus' Fact Book, which is published by the Institutional Department of Research and can be found online.
But Ortiz is not alone in citing family as the main reason for completing college. Sibling relationships helped Gabriela Castillo get here.
"My parents don't care one way or another. They said if I wanted to go, fine. If not that was fine, too," said Castillo, a junior majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology. Her older brother went to college before her.
Other students did cite their parents as important reasons for them being in college.
"I want to make my parents proud," Alfonso Hernandez, a junior criminal justice and Spanish major, said.
His father works in construction and his mother works in a canning factory. Hernandez has seen how hard his uneducated parents work and he wants a better life.
"I want to help my parents pay their mortgage," Maria Ramirez, a sophomore math major with a minor in Spanish, said. She said she wants a good job, the type that comes with a college degree.
"My education is very important to my mother," Gabriela Dureun, a junior psychology major said. She credits her mother with getting her to college. However Dureun's said her father saw things differently. "Work is important, getting a job, making money."
Jessica Insell, a senior English major, contributes her husband's support of her as the key to her success at CSU Stanislaus.
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