Alejandra’s family started the immigration process soon after her father was granted amnesty. They were almost completely through the process when Alejandra was in high school, but the paperwork was lost in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services system. The family had to start the process again from scratch. Alejandra finally got her green card in December, 1998, just six months before she was to graduate high school.

Level of education attained by foregin born Hispanics
Chart data courtesy: Pew Hispanic Center

Alejandra told her guidance counselor that she wanted to go to KU after graduation. She said she had dreamed of going to KU since she moved to Kansas in fourth grade and saw the Jayhawk. The counselor discouraged her, and other Hispanic students, from going to the University, Alejandra said. He told them they were better off going to community college or getting a job at the local meatpacking plant.

Alejandra didn’t take his advice. She enrolled at KU anyway. But she had a hard time once she arrived in Lawrence. She was eligible for financial aid, but she wasn’t aware at the time that it was available. She took out loans and maxed out credit cards. Her parents ate only beans and rice for months to save enough money to help her pay for school. Her mother took a job teaching English as a second language.

“Coming up here, a primarily white school — it was a great experience but it was very, very, very hard for me,” Alejandra said.

Alejandra’s parents and two younger brothers joined her for graduation day at Memorial Stadium. Alejandra encourages other children of migrant workers to get a college education.

She uses her experience as an example for the students she recruits to Harvest of Hope.

“I just want to show them that it’s never OK to quit,” Alejandra said. “Even if you do go to an American college and you can’t work after that here in the United States, well, you can go back to Mexico or whatever country; you can work in another location.”

Alejandra has kept the blue plaid blanket her grandmother wrapped her in before she crossed the border. It sits on a mostly empty bookshelf when she is in her office. When she travels around Kansas to recruit kids for camp, she carries it in the backseat of her car. When she is home, the blanket rests on her bed. She said the blanket makes her feel at home, reminds her of the long road she traveled to get where she is today.

“It’s a long journey,” Alejandra said. “I don’t think people really understand what you have to give up.”