news@dailylobo.com
Students who come from agricultural families face a special challenge in their lives: the pursuit of higher education.
In order to assist people who are engaged in migrant or seasonal farm work to obtain a GED certification or other equivalent to a high school diploma, UNM has been awarded an approximately $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The grant, which will be used during a five-year period, was awarded to the UNM High School Equivalency Program. The program provides free GED instruction sessions, tutoring and support services to farm workers and their relatives to help them obtain a secondary school diploma. The program will allow participants to continue with higher education or have broader employment options.
HEP program recruiter Dayra Fallad said the grant is crucial for low-income New Mexico residents who want to pursue an education.
“There is a great need in New Mexico, especially in the South Valley area, where we have a lot of individuals who work on farms, and in Native American low-income communities,” she said. “So being able to have HEP for another five years through this grant allows us to continue to help individuals who work in agriculture, as well as their family members.”
Fallad said this is the third time UNM has been awarded this grant and that this funding is crucial because it is used to hire instructors and mentors and pay for GED tests.
“We definitively get a lot of support from UNM, but financially, the main income is coming from the five-year grant,” she said. “Without the grant, we would not be able to sustain it, so HEP would not exist.”
Jose Hector Garcia, a 31–year-old father of two, was one of the 80 HEP students who participated in the program last year. He said that before staring HEP, he was unemployed and never thought about earning a GED certification because he said he felt “too old and broken.”
“When I started the program, it was very hard for me to keep studying because I was 30, unemployed and still had to support my family,” he said. “So, that HEP is a free program definitively helped me a lot and that encouraged me to pursue a GED.”
Garcia said that after he received GED certification, he was able to find a new job, support his family and apply to UNM to pursue a bachelor’s degree. He said the program will allow him to achieve his goal of working in the medical field.
Garcia said that in addition to obtaining a secondary school diploma, this grant helps people be aware of opportunities that can change their lives.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“Those who sponsor HEP should keep helping people like us because this is the only way many people can change their lives and can open their minds to pursue more ambitious goals,” he said.
