Latino youth get career boost, success tips from Nike mentors
Jonathan House / Beaverton Valley Times
LEARNING — Ezequiel Lopez Jr., 20, said that he is learning a lot about the corporate world from his Nike mentor.
Seven Latino students at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus are getting a jolt of business savvy from Nike workers, one meeting and piece of advice at a time.
As part of a mentoring program that partners the Nike Latino and Friends Network with students from the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), each of the students – all first-generation college scholars from migrant-worker backgrounds – work with a Nike employee at honing crucial job skills and creating networking opportunities. The mentoring program officially kicked off on June 18.
The seven students who made it through the application and interview process include: Roy Gomez of Beaverton; Isidro Interian of Aloha; Sandra Soto, Maria Rebolledo Salgado and Ezequiel Lopez Jr. of Cornelius; Jose Lopez of Forest Grove and Juan Ramirez Alonso of Hillsboro.
Students involved with the program say that, even halfway through, the partnership is already paying huge dividends.
“Before, I only had an idea of what the corporate world was like,” Lopez Jr. said. “I’ve learned the reality now.”
The mentorship program will officially end in September. Along the way, students will use their mentors’ professional knowledge to work on topics like presentation giving, resume and cover letter writing, and interview tactics.
Students spent the first part of the program preparing a presentation introducing themselves to the Latino and Friends Network.
“My presentation skills have definitely improved,” said Soto. “That was overwhelming because I’ve never given a presentation like that before.”
The Nike partnership was the brainchild of Teresa Alonso, Rock Creek’s CAMP director. She said that a mentor program like this had been in her mind since starting her position, but didn’t come to fruition until she met Cynthia Escamilla, chairwoman of Nike’s Latino and Friends Network, at the El Poder de la Mujer (The Power of Woman) conference in February 2008.
After presenting program goals to the Nike organization, Alonso went about launching the program. Last April, nine students applied to be in the program, and seven were selected and matched with like-minded mentors.
“I wanted to help create a program that was going to help our students not only with retention, but to help their career development skills at a very young age,” Alonso said. “It would either help them get more passion for what they were studying, or they would decide, ‘that’s not what I want to do.’”
Alonso said that she hopes to expand the mentorship opportunities next year, both at Nike and, hopefully, with other businesses.
“Having a mentor in a field you’re interested in is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Alonso said. “It helps (the students) understand what they need to be successful.”
Escamilla agrees. She also hopes to see the program continue into the future.
“College graduates go through a major transition when they enter corporate life,” Escamilla said in an e-mail. “Their world has completely changed with a new set of responsibilities and accountabilities.
“The mentors are providing a glimpse of that life to the students, but what’s most important is how the graduate responds to their life change – in their adaptability, learning agility, and communication. The CAMP students are gaining insight into those ‘soft skills’ that will help them in their future endeavors.”
Besides collecting knowledge from Nike employers in their prospective careers, students in the mentorship program are benefiting from professional contacts – meeting people both in and outside Nike – and adding numbers to their list when it comes time to find jobs.
“She knows a lot of people,” Soto says of her mentor. “My network has definitely grown from doing this.”
How CAMP helps
According to the organization’s website, “The College Assistance Migrant Program is a federally-funded program designed to support students from migrant and seasonal farm worker backgrounds during their first year in college. The program provides students with both financial assistance and support services, with the goal of preparing them to continue their education at a four-year college or university.”
It started at PCC Rock Creek during the 2006-07 school year, and has funding to run until 2012. The program provides both financial and other types of assistance and serves about 50 students annually.
Lopez Jr., a 20-year-old who is studying marketing and advertising, hopes to pursue a doctorate or master’s degree in psychology. He said that students like him often struggle just to make it to college. And even though his parents were “iron-fisted” about pursuing higher education, he almost didn’t go.
“In our culture, we’re stubborn sometimes. College just isn’t always that important,” Lopez Jr. says. “But that’s what the CAMP program provides. It teaches you about scholarships and the advantages of being a good student.”
Soto, 19, who wants to pursue a career in broadcast journalism, agrees on the importance of CAMP. She too, almost decided to take a year off from college, but ended up at Rock Creek because of the program’s benefits.
“They bring out leadership skills,” she says. “(CAMP students) just get a better shot, a fair chance at being successful, that they might not have had.”