Fernandez helps West Side students reach new VISTAs by degrees – (a San Antonio pre-admissions program called “VISTA” which helps under-privileged Hispanic students apply and receive acceptance to college)

It’s hard to aim at something you can’t see. So Maria Fernandez is raising the sights for a growing number of San Antonio high school students. Literally.

Fernandez founded VISTA, Spanish for “sight,” a little over six months ago to overcome the prevailing conventional wisdom that keeps many West Side students from even considering college as an option.

She started small, with only five students last Spring. She helped them win only more than $250,000 in scholarships to only some of the country’s best schools including Dartmouth College, Loyola University-Chicago, Columbia College-Chicago, Baylor University, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.

During the summer, another 25 kids signed up for the program making tough demands on Fernandez’ time but putting a college degree squarely within the reach of each student.

VISTA partners with the Guadalupe Street Coffee House, a community development project of Baptist Child & Family Services, which provides the computer connections and space for the weekly sessions.

Fernandez doesn’t ask any student to do something she hasn’t already done.

“I am a product of the San Antonio Independent School District, the same district many of my students attend. Like most of them, no one in my family had ever gone to college” she explains. “The expectation for me in the 70’s was to graduate from high school, get married, and have children. Unfortunately, this attitude still prevails today for many students from the West Side.”

She lived up to those expectations, marrying the day after she turned 18 and having four children. But she also went far beyond the norm: an associate of arts degree from San Antonio College and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UT-San Antonio.

“I was lucky enough to have a husband who believed in education and who inspired me to keep going to school,” she says. “My journey connects me with the bright young people in VISTA because I know what it’s like to go to class with children in tow.”

Fernandez had the dream of VISTA before she had all the resources needed to put it into action. Meanwhile BCFS put resources in place but unexpectedly had no way to fully utilize them.

When the coffee shop opened in October 2006, “we put in eight computers with internet connections and wi-fi, intending to offer after school tutoring,” Jeremy Everett, who headed up the launch of the West Side’s first internet cafe says. “What we didn’t know was that the kids don’t have homework because they are not issued textbooks they can take home. Then Maria shows up and we have a perfect match. VISTA benefits from the coffee shop and the community benefits from VISTA.”

Fernandez agrees, seeing “the empowering of students with choices and college admission as a true avenue in how we can work to change the cycle of poverty one student at a time.”

VISTA and the GSCH offer a quality, one-on-one advising program for students who need assistance with the college application process, including SAT/ACT tutoring, financial aid and career advising.

“By giving these students long term goals and the means to accomplish them, we are ensuring that they meet their basic short term goals of graduating from high school and getting accepted to college,” Everett points out.

Students eligible to participate in the program must be enrolled in grades eight through twelve, have at least an 80 grade average with good school attendance, be committed to attending VISTA advising sessions and have the desire and determination to go to college. Most importantly they must be following a dream to be the first person in their family to attend college.

“I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to applying for college and VISTA has really helped me prepare by having one on one attention from counselors,” John F. Kennedy junior Jackie Sanchez said. “VISTA helps us see that college isn’t just for those students in the top ten percent, but that anyone who wants to further his or her education can go to college.”

Individual counseling partnered with convenient scheduling and location is what sets the program apart. VISTA works with students, parents, school counselors and universities to bring them together for the benefit of the student.

“College advisors love the coffee house because it is a practical setting for recruiting and similar to many of the popular hangouts used for studying around college campuses,” Fernandez says. The recruiter for Texas A&M spent a lot of time there last Spring. Two of the five VISTA graduates wound up in College Station and a third enrolled at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Those first graduates are not forgotten. Fernandez continues the student mentoring into the first year of college to ensure that the students not only receive acceptance to the University of their choice, but also graduate. Students from this past year’s VISTA class have already volunteered to mentor future VISTA graduates planning to attend their university.

“The GSCH is a great location to meet because it’s a calm and relaxed atmosphere to meet with our mentor, use the internet to research universities, study SAT material and drink coffee,” agrees Kennedy high school junior Maria Villasenor, part of the Vista Class of 2009.

Though stretched thin by the rapid growth of the program, Fernandez’ goal is to continue spreading the word about the availability of this free service within the community, as well as being joined by other volunteers to involve even more students.

In the future, she hopes to receive the funding and volunteers for a program where under privileged students can earn educational travel, such as visits to Washington D.C. and college campuses through community service and other activities necessary for college admission.

“That kind of exposure gives students the desire to go away for college,” points out Fernandez, who has more than a decade of experience in college admissions advising and is a regular participant at the National Association of College Admissions Counseling Conference.

To learn more, students can contact Fernandez at collegevista@bcfs.net or stop by the Guadalupe Street Coffee House (1320 Guadalupe Street, a half block from the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center) during VISTA sessions 4-6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

BCFS and Fernandez continue to seek partners to share in their vision in making college admission possible for under privileged students. BCFS program director Jeremy Everett can be reached at jeverett@bcfs.net or 210-863-0506.

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