Latina education gets boost

"Education is the key."

That's the message that Mickey Ibarra hopes will resonate along with his gift to Edna Castro.

Ibarra has pledged to match up to $500 for her college fund.

"That's a small price to pay," said Ibarra, whose Washington, D.C., government and public affairs firm, Mickey Ibarra and Associates, is one of five private donors helping to jump start five Latinas' college funds as part of the Hispanic-Mother Daughter Program at Backman Elementary.

"There is no better way to give back to your community than by helping young people succeed," Ibarra said.

Ibarra met Castro and her mother, Sonia Castro, for the first time on Wednesday. He told them that success starts with good education, surrounding yourself with good people and "good old-fashioned hard work."

"I really enjoyed it," Edna Castro said. "What he said, it makes me feel a little better."

Educator Barbara Lovejoy is working on expanding the program that educates sixth-grade Latinas and their mothers about college to other schools next year. She said the pledges for college money are great motivators.

"$1,000 is really a drop in the bucket," Lovejoy said. "We're hoping that what it will do is keep them constantly thinking about college . . . and start looking for other ways to raise money."

Ibarra also used the opportunity to tell Castro, who participated in the program last year, about scholarships, including a new renewable full-ride scholarship that will be awarded by the Ibarra Foundation to four Latino freshmen at the University of Utah.

Ibarra said Latinos face a major barrier of accessing higher education, often because parents don't know it's possible for their children to go to college.

"It is my dream," Sonia Castro said. "We have to work hard because it's very expensive."

So far, the Castros have been working hard. They've raised money through a yard sale for the college account, opened with a $20 donation from Lovejoy and a $10 promotion from Zions Bank.

Edna Castro also put her birthday money into the account, bringing the total to $160. She hopes to raise the rest of her $500 by the May deadline, so that the match by Ibarra will bring the total to $1,000.

Ibarra, who was educated at the U. and Brigham Young University, said sponsoring Castro was an easy decision. Ibarra, who served as director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Clinton administration, attributes his own success to education.

It's important, he said, to help "one person at a time. Every person is important."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com