Juntos program emphasizes family involvement in education

SAN ANTONIO – About 25 families attended the recent family workshop event held at Armando Leal Middle School in the Harlandale Independent School District of San Antonio.

The event, called “Making Education a Family Goal,” was a collaboration of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service through the Juntos 4-H program and Harlandale ISD. It brought students and parents together to emphasize the importance of homework, family time and organization.

“The Juntos program is a partnership between AgriLife Extension’s 4-H and family and consumer sciences agents, school administrators and staff, and other community volunteers,” explained Cecilia Martinez, AgriLife Extension Juntos 4-H program coordinator. “Juntos is the Spanish word meaning ‘together.’ The program works to provide Hispanic students in eighth through 12th grade and their parents with the knowledge, skills and resources to not only keep the kids in school, but also gain access to college. And although it targets Hispanic youth, the program at Leal Middle School is open to anyone.”

Martinez, who is based on-site, said Leal Middle School was chosen as the “pilot” school for the Juntos 4-H program in Texas. Per a funding agreement between National 4-H and New York Life, the Juntos program efforts being funded in Texas and New York require a minimum of 60 eighth-grade Hispanic youth participants during the first year. Martinez said she is already close to that number through the school’s participation alone.

“The school district and the administrators, teachers and staff at Leal have all been very receptive to and supportive of the program,” she said.

At the workshop, each family was given a “homework toolkit” that included spiral notebooks, markers, pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters and notebook paper. The kits were provided by Harlandale ISD through its Parent Involvement Office.

Ruth Zambrano, a parent and adult education coordinator with Harlandale ISD, spoke to the group regarding the importance of parent involvement in education.

“My goal was to make sure parents are aware of their kids’ homework assignments and are actively involved in making sure they do their homework,” Zambrano said. “And if the kids don’t have homework, I urged the parents to get them involved in something else school-related.”

Zambrano said doing homework helps kids develop their organizational and problem-solving skills. It also teaches them the self-discipline needed to succeed in higher grade levels.

“The Juntos 4-H program engages eighth and ninth grade Hispanic youth in an intensive, long-term effort consisting of four components,” said Dr. Melinda Garcia, AgriLife Extension program specialist, 4-H youth development, who oversees implementation of the grant. “The components are Juntos 4-H family workshops and monthly check-ins; bi-monthly afterschool 4-H club meetings; one-on-one success coaching and access to college and community mentors; and  programming to include 4-H camps, college campus visits and other educational conferences.”

“As I listened to parents share stories of their older kids who are now in college, it reinforced to me the importance of family involvement in education through such things as communication, healthy eating, emphasizing school attendance and encouragement to pursue higher education,” Garcia said.

She said the ultimate goal is for the students to remain in school, complete high school and attend college because “together, juntos, anything is possible.”

During the second year of the grant, coordinators will follow up with students enrolled in Juntos 4-H and starting ninth grade at Harlandale High School to ensure they receive success coaching, remain in school and are successful in their academic endeavors. Martinez will be responsible for providing success coaching to the ninth graders at Harlandale as well as bringing another group of 60 Hispanic students into the program at Leal.