Yes, She Did: Houston Educator Funds Scholarship for First-Gen Students

By Sarah Gonzales

Reporting Texas

 

 

 

 

When Yurisa Garcia comes home from her full-time job as a high school counselor, it’s time to get to work on her other priority: helping students pay for college.

To honor the legacy of her late father, Severo, Garcia took his mantra “sí se puede,” which translates to “yes we can” in English, and created a scholarship to give back to first-generation college students like herself. 

“I’ve been doing pretty good as far as pace and how much I’ve raised so far with the help of the community and so I think it’s beautiful to be able to just involve the community,” Garcia said.  “That’s the main thing. I want to be able to involve the community.”

Garcia, a counselor at Yes Prep Northline charter school in Houston, was the first in her family to go to college, earning a full-ride scholarship to Texas A&M University. She worked at Rudder High School in Bryan for two years as a college counselor through Texas A&M University’s Advise TX, which pairs recent graduates with low-income and first-generation students.

That experience led Garcia to her current job as a counselor at Yes Prep Northline in Houston — where she used some of her increased salary to start the Sí Se Puede scholarship.

”The whole purpose of the Sí Se Puede scholarship was I wanted it to be able to help first-generation, low-income students, but I really wanted it to reach the community,” Garcia said.  “I really wanted to encourage the community to find something that they’re passionate about and be able to act on it.” 

Helene Patterson, Harlingen region president of the Texas State Teachers Association, said that  teachers invest their personal money for their students due to the lack of support and poor leadership from school board members. 

“These people need to step up and follow their own words out of their mouth and enforce what they’re saying they want to do,” Patterson said. “I think the major push back for (my) district is a school board.”

Julia-Paz Garza, an English teacher at Santa Maria High School in Edinburg,  has also contributed personal funds to invest in her student’s success. Garza also wanted to take action and offer her students support similar to what she received as a student.

“When I started as a teacher, I was still pretty young and it was really easy for the kids to talk to me and I realized that even though the schools were getting prettier because of funding a  lot of my students still didn’t have everything they needed to be successful in class,” Garza said. “That’s when I knew I had to do something. So I started raising funds, asking for donations, and donating my own time, funds, and efforts to get extra supplies for the students.”

Garcia wanted the Sí Se Puede scholarship to start in the Rio Grande Valley as a way to give back to her hometown, Alamo. She knew she had no plans to return to the Valley, so the scholarship serves as her giving back to the community she grew up in. 

She awarded $500 scholarships to two students last year at the high school she graduated from, PSJA Memorial Early College High School in Alamo, and one to a student at the school she currently works in Houston.

This year, she plans to open up the next round of scholarships in March and plans  to disburse $500 to six students. She organized a T-shirt fundraiser and used community outreach to reach her goal of $3,000. 

Garcia’s scholarship application doesn’t center on grades because she does not want students to feel the pressure of needing to perform at a certain academic level. Instead, Garcia is looking for a student who is determined to go to college and shows they are in financial need. 

“I knew specifically that my scholarship didn’t need a GPA requirement. I never want to put a GPA or a number on a kid.” 

Garcia has noticed that the biggest gap for students is middle-class students not receiving financial aid or not receiving enough to cover their costs.

“Working as a college counselor, I realize that a lot of the students that go to college their freshman year may be paid off, but then the next year they’re struggling to have financial aid,” Garcia said. 

Luz Romero, a freshman at the University of St. Thomas and last year’s Houston recipient, is the type of student Garcia hopes to award the scholarship to. 

Romero, the oldest of five siblings, is a first-generation student whose motivation to attend college stemmed from her parents’ hard work and dedication to offering her a better life. Romero was able to achieve this goal through Garcia’s guidance and encouragement to apply for the scholarship. 

“I met Ms. Garcia at the start of my senior year,” Romero said. “She took it upon herself to truly get to know me as a person and understand all of my ambitions and goals for my future. Going into her class was a constant reminder that I am capable of anything as long as I set my mind to it. Her famous quote is ‘If a tortilla can rise, so can you’ and it’s something I think about daily.” 

Romero says Garcia’s passion for her job and dedication to her students has made the difference for her and other students. 

“For me, that is a story that signifies ‘Sí Se Puede.’” Garcia said. “Their junior year, they really skyrocketed. They ended up applying to a pre-law program here in Houston and I was able to help her.”

As Garcia prepares for the application for this year’s scholarship to launch, she’s looking back at what attributed to “Sí Se Puede” becoming more than a concept. 

“What really helped me keep it going was, of course, my dad’s motivation of ‘sí se puede,’” Garcia said. “But also I truly do believe if you really are passionate about something, you will definitely do something about it.”