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The Claremont Colleges were close to home, and
had a great academic reputation. So when it came time for Patti
and Ricardo Briones to send their oldest son, Roberto, to college,
there was never any discussion about going somewhere else. Off he
went to Pitzer, followed several years later by sister, Carolina,
who enrolled at Pomona. Younger brother, Juan, chose CMC, and Elena,
the fourth daughter in the Briones family, entered Pomona, as did
sister, Ernestina, in succeeding years. By that point, the education
of the Briones children at The Claremont Colleges had cost a small
fortune, but for Pat and Ricardo, teachers and local college grads,
the investment was worth every penny.
Still paying on three of the five loans that got
their children through college, Pat Briones says the commitment
to educate her children in Claremont was 'big,' if not impossible,
had it not been for financial aid from each institution. “We
would never have been able to do this without the grants that The
Colleges provide,” she said.
It wasn’t long before the Briones family tapped
into another resource available to The Colleges: the Chicano Latino
Student Affairs Center. As a mixed family (Patti Briones hails from
a German/Irish background), “I was involved and impressed with
the work the Center did in supporting my children’s culture,”
she said. “I am a retired Spanish teacher and my husband taught
Spanish, but we raised our children in an English-speaking home.
So the fact that the center supported them in their culture was
a positive thing, as that wasn’t necessarily the case of our
family. Especially when it came to education, we had relatives who
weren’t supportive, who were pushing for the kids to get jobs
so that they could make money right away, rather than go to college.”
“One of the things we strive to do is to work
with students and make sure their four years of college are successful,”
says Chicano center Dean of Students Maria Torres. “We want
to make sure that the students use the resources we have to achieve
those goals, whether it’s an academic goal or a personal one.”
The center, operated by the Claremont University
Consortium since 1969, is the second-oldest of its kind in the nation,
Torres says (the oldest is at California State University, Los Angeles).
Its academic and support services include mentoring and tutoring
programs, cultural programs, personal and career development sessions,
and leadership development.
“One thing we've found with our students is
that they take great pride in their college, so we like to pair
them with a peer who can help them,” Torres says. “Our
mentoring program is similar to the program that is already in place
at CMC, but we provide a Chicano/Latino mentor because we find that
students who are Chicano or Latino are more intimidated by the campus.
When they’re paired with a mentor, they’re less afraid
to ask questions that they think might be perceived as 'silly' by
other people.”
In addition to daily services, the center gets
to know and celebrate its students through annual activities including
an open house, a new student retreat, sponsor activities, and a
family day.
The center‘s staff tracks just under 500 students
overall, Torres says, most of them first-generation students born
to either Chicano parents (Mexican-American), or to Latinos, who
represent a broader demographic including Mexican-American and South
American cultures. Ironically, statistics show that the longer these
cultures are in the country, the less likely they are to go to college,
says Torres. For instance, about 36 percent of third-generation
Latinos attend college, compared to nearly 43 percent for second-generation
students. Less than 5 percent enroll in private colleges and universities
such as CMC, Torres says.
Thus, seeing Latino students through their educations
at The Claremont Colleges is not a mission the center’s staff
take lightly, Torres says. Beyond the usual transitioning into college
life, they face issues specific to their heritage. “For instance,
there is the whole familial apsect of Latino students---the whole
cultural dimension is a very different tradition,” Torres says.
“Sometimes our Latino students are coming from schools where
they were more the majority than the minority. Our Latino students
have those issues regarding cultural values, cultural expectations.
Many of our students still have responsibilities at home, and there
are obligations to stay in touch with the family.
“Sometimes they may have a question such as,
‘How do you handle your family when they want you to come home,
but you have all this work to do at school?’
“We don’t talk about it often,”
Torres says, “but we’re here to be a cultural support
group in a lot of ways. Students come to this office and may have
a private conversation during which they say, ‘My grandmother
is very ill,’ or, ‘My father is worried about this or
that, which affects my academic work, and this is how I have to
deal with it.’ Sometimes just being able to have those conversations
helps them go on to focus on their midterms, or continue a paper,
or even show up for class.”
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The brick building that houses the CUC Chicano Latino Student Affairs
Center was once the Francis Bacon Foundation Library. The Bacon
collection, which included more than 14,000 volumes, was kept under
lock and key until five years ago, when it was moved to The Huntington
Library in San Marino, Calif.
The library's conversion into office space for the Chicano center
included a comfortable lounge for student studies (here, Danny Solis
POM). Amenities include computer stations and a TV.
Karina Ramos '05 holds her own winning entry in
the center's pumpkin carving contest. "CLSA is one of those
places you can go to when you need someone to talk to. It's one
of those places where you feel comfortable because you know someone
will care," Ramos says.
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