Reinforcing MSU's commitment to migrant and seasonal farmworker students

Cindy Villarreal-Medina wanted to attend an out-of-state university after high school, but struggles and barriers awaited the Latino and first-generation college student as she prepared to begin her career in higher education more than 1,000 miles from home.

Villarreal-Medina is from Edinburg, Texas, a city on the Mexican border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley that is home to a sprawling seasonal farmworker community, including her family. Her parents travel the country and work in the fields during harvest time, most recently in Indiana for potato season, before returning to Texas.

The school district where Villarreal-Medina grew up featured farmworker support programs in each school. Those programs host a college fair during students’ senior year, where they can learn about colleges and universities with farmworker support initiatives such as the College Assistance Migrant Program, known as CAMP. The residential program assists seasonal farmworker students with academic, social and financial support to help them complete their first year at the university.

“I have done a lot through CAMP,” she said. “I wouldn’t have accomplished as much as I have during my years here at MSU if it weren’t for CAMP.”

CAMP and other programs offered by Migrant Student Services at MSU that provide direct support to Michigan farmworker students and communities, were highlighted during Provost Laura Lee McIntyre’s Oct. 8 visit to the unit, continuing a recent tradition of university presidents and leaders visiting the department and talking with students and staff over lunch.

“At MSU, we are proud to support students from seasonal farmworker backgrounds. Migrant Student Services plays a critical role in this work by providing programs, resources and events rooted in creating a strong sense of belonging,” McIntyre said. “Having the opportunity to directly connect with the students who benefit from these programs — as well as the professionals who provide this support — reinforces how crucial it is to maintain and strengthen these programs on campus.”

McIntyre, along with College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Dean Matthew Daum, visited Migrant Student Services and learned more about CAMP and how the historic program support Spartans.

A community for you

For many of the students it serves, Migrant Student Services and CAMP provide a second home, a second family and a support system that offers resources and tools geared toward helping students from farmworker families succeed.

Over tacos and Mexican cuisine, McIntyre and Daum listened as several students explained why CAMP is so critical for them.

“It's one thing for myself or my staff to articulate or to write up a report saying this is why it's important,” said Luis Alonzo Garcia, long-time Migrant Student Services director, who is preparing for retirement in January. “But I think it's very different when you hear directly from those folks that day in and day out, they know that they would not be here if we were not around. The program has become an essential piece for their presence here at the university.”

The resources and community offered through Migrant Student Services and MSU’s CAMP program convinced Villareal-Medina and her family to choose a university halfway across the country.

Elias Lopez, interim MSS director and Aleida Martinez, CAMP student services coordinator, flew to Texas to talk with Villareal-Medina and her family and other students in her CAMP cohort.

“It was very family-oriented,” she said. “My parents said if you're going anywhere out of state, it's going to be MSU, because we trust them and we can see that there's a community there for you.”

Not only does CAMP feel like a family to the students, but for some, they have seen other family members come through. Adilene Martinez-Carmona, a senior from Sturgis, Michigan, who studies social relations and policy, sees CAMP as a generational program, as her older brother also went to MSU as a CAMP scholar, along with six other family members.

Seeing the impact CAMP had on her brother and family members made attending MSU and becoming involved with CAMP an easy decision for Martinez-Carmona.

“I knew I was going to have that support to be able to navigate a higher education space. My parents only have their GEDs, so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, but CAMP really helped with that,” she said. “They have advising here, they have tutors, they give you advice. If you have a concern, they find a way to solve it. Knowing that a lot of the staff here are first-generation college students too and knowing they have been through the same experience, I found it comforting to find a way to navigate this space.”

Over lunch, Martinez-Carmona, Villareal-Medina and the other students had the opportunity to share their stories with McIntyre and other MSU leaders, expressing how critical CAMP and Migrant Student Services are to their community. The students established a relationship with the MSU leaders, building a connection through the stories and sacrifices they and their families made to be at MSU.

Building those relationships and hearing those stories reaffirmed for MSU leaders the importance of continuing to invest in programs that help students and families navigate the path to higher education.

“Senior administrators should take the time to engage the communities so that they firsthand feel those concerns that they might have and the challenges,” Garcia said. “We were thoroughly thrilled with the provost and her approach as she engaged the students. It was very, very genuine.”