by: Bill Somerville, Founder

We are sponsoring East Palo Alto mothers of middle school students to visit four-year colleges in an effort to make real the possibility of their children going on to college. So far the mothers have been bussed to Stanford and San Francisco State University for half-day visits and lunch.

Part of the visit is to hear from college personnel. At Stanford the mothers heard from an official whose job it is to enroll the low-income youth, a professor who speaks Spanish, and a student who himself is from the same background as the mothers. All of them spoke enthusiastically about coming to Stanford with a warm welcome and the real possibility of enrolling their children in the future.

At SF State the school official responsible for campus visits stated that for years they have been trying to get mothers from low-income communities to visit the campus, and this was the first visit of such mothers.