momento" presents: “tu ” our only 57% of hispanic students a college degree. and in less than ten years, 62% of the jobs are going to require one.

for you to be able to yourself. looking for solutions, live, from the newseum in washington >> hello and good afternoon. welcome to this special program, "tu educacion es nuestro futuro." throughout this week you probably noticed that the main

' n this program, we have parents, students and teachers with an exceptional panel of experts to look for solutions to the crisis we're facing. for those of you who don't speak spanish, you can listening and seeing the program on cc3 on your television for close captioning. very well, i want to introduce the panel to you that will be with us today.

and they're going to try to give us answers to all the or the majority of the questions we have. our first guest is the education secretary for the united states arne duncan. thank you for being with us. [applause] one of the great challenges president barack obama's

government the education government. together with us is the labor secretary hilda solis, who has great story, she came from humble background, an' es and one of most influential women in the world. >> thank you very much. >> thank you for being with us. [applause] ' ' hero. eduardo padron, he's ' itiative on states. he's graduated two million students, hopefully, after this program, even more. thank you for being with us, eduardo. >> thank you. [applause] >> this professor and i joke a lot, if you want to get in harvard, talk to him. dr. fernando reimers is professor of education in harvard graduate school and we'll see how our hispanic

students can go to the best universities in the united states. this is a revolutionary idea for many families, thank you for being with us. [applause] and raul romero, he's the chair of the hispanic scholarship fund. and raul, every time we talk about scholarships and grants and you, through this scholarship program, have found that the dreams of many students can become realities. thank you very much for being with us. [applause]

we're transmitting here from the wonderful newseum in washington, but we're also having education workshops with teachers, with parents, with students in two cities. we're in los angeles, and we're going to interrupt their workshops briefly in plaza de la cultura y arte, hello there. and you'll be able to ask questions to our panel. and in chicago, those workshops are being held in the instituto del progreso latino, and they help immigrant families through educational initiatives. we're going to be seeing them throughout this. since we're talking about education, nothing happens all of the sudden. nothing happens because there hasn't been preparation, and behind this initiative "educate, es el momento", cesar conde has a message for us from the univision networks. >> thank you, jorge. and thank you to those who are joining us for this very important program. the numbers speak for themselves. in less than 20 years, latinos will represent almost a third of this country's population. that is almost one in three people. currently, one in five students is hispanic. a country's future depends on our community's academic success. however, only 13% of hispanics have a college degree. therefore, there's a long way to go. but there's also good news. between 2009 and 2010, university enrolment among hispanics increased a 24%, which means that the effort put forth by community organizations, the private sector, government schools, teachers, parents and students and all of you here with us tonight, has paid off when everybody gets involved. that is why univision reaffirms its commitment to the hispanic community with the "es el momento" campaign. once again, i would like to thank our guests for being here

with us, to have this conversation that is so important to our families, our community and our country. jorge, back to you. >> thank you very much, cesar. many of you, i'm sure, think that because we're in the most powerful country in the world things are going really well. i just read an important study from the organization for economic cooperation and development, they studied 15 year olds from 34 countries, and many people would think that united states is doing very well, but this study showed differently. from these students, the united states is number 14 in reading number 17 in science and number 25, 25th place out of 34 in math. the secretary of education who's with us, says that this is an alarming call for action and it is a challenge for the economic future of the united states. since we're not number one, the first person is going to ask a question. lucia diaz is an engineering student from the university of california. >> good afternoon. secretary duncan, i want to make a comment and i also want to express my concern about the state of our educational system. it's been mentioned before, you know, and studies show that the united states is not as competitive as it used to be. in europe and asia, students have been prepared in a better and more efficient way than in the united states, especially in science and mathematics. and we all know they're basic for the united states to be able to be a leader in the scientific world. however, my perception of reality is that instead of teaching students to think critically, logically and rationally independently they're being taught only to memorize, to follow instructions, and they don't question the instructions. so this is my question: are there any plans to reform the educational system, the teaching methods, in a way that we as a country face successfully all the intellectual challenges that

we have in a future? >> wonderful question. >> thanks so much, there's a lot there, i'll try to get to--- first, i want to thank this station for their extraordinary commitment to education. jorge, thank you so much for your leadership. so many times, frankly, media is part of the problem. you guys are a huge part of the solution, you guys are driving this conversation in a very important way. i thank you for that advocacy and for that passion. we have to do a number of things around the stem fields. first of all, we don't have enough teachers who are competent in science and technology and engineering and math. so the present has challenged us to recruit a hundred thousand new teachers to come and teach those subjects. they can't just be at the high school level, it's gotta be the middle school and the elementary level. not enough of our teachers know this, love this, when they don't have that passion, it's hard to instill that in children. and children start to lose interest in the stem fields in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade, not in high school, much earlier. so we're working very, very hard with a series of public, private partnerships, with universities, with nonprofits, to bring in the next generation of math and science teachers, particularly in disadvantaged communities who can help to instill that love of learning. one thing i've advocated and not everyone agrees with me, i think we should pay math and science teachers more money to work in disadvantaged communities. we have a shortage in the city urban world remote, we have to shine a spotlight there, so we have to behave in some very different ways. not just admire the problem, fix it. secondly, as you know, we're working very hard to fix the no child left behind law. that law is fundamentally broken, it led to a narrowing of the curriculum, led to a focus on "filling the bubble" test. we want to make sure students have a well-rounded education,

we're gonna make sure it's not just memorization but teaching critical thinking skills. we've had many, many states raise standards, we have many states working in the next generation assessments, we have a long way to go. but because of the leadership in the state level, these things are actually starting to go in the right direction. >> very good, i'd like to take advantage of this, professor reimers, what can you do to modernize education? what are we doing wrong in the united states? we're not number one, we should be because of the power and the money that we spend. what can we do to improve? >> i think that it's true. it's an enormous challenge in our academy to close the gap between what we export and import. it was 500 million dollars last year, which is exactly the budget that mr. duncan had for the whole country. we have to develop an innovation industry in this country, which has to include one quarter of the students of this country which are latinos. these students have to graduate from university. 20 years ago, this country was a leader in access to the university. we have a great number of people with university degrees, but the rest of the world has increased that level and we haven't. our greatest challenge is to achieve enrollment and graduation among hispanics latinos. first of all, they must learn english at such a level that they can have access to all subjects. this shouldn't be something that isolates them from access to learning math, technology engineering, anything like that. we also must make sure that they don't lose their spanish. united states exports mainly to mexico, 50% more than what we export to china, so it's an enormous advantage to conserve your spanish, to preserve your spanish. that way, people will learn two languages. people who know more than one language are more competitive

on a world scale. >> very well, we'll keep talking about the importance of spanish and how to modernize education in the united states. we've all had someone who inspired us, i remember in inspired me to read and to write, and i started to read vargas llosa, garcia marquez, fuentes, octavio paz. students here, have you had someone ' inspired you? raise your hand if you had a teacher or someone who's inspired you. that's a lot, that's very important for helping you. cristina gil, you didn't raise your hand. >> no. >> this is planned, of course. but stand up, please, cristina. you have a question regarding this. ' n, my name is '

getown. the reason why i did not raise my hand was because, the school that i go to, we don't have latin teachers, especially female teachers. ' me, because i've been going to the university, have only had american teachers. so i want to make a decision shortly, want to become an 'take that step without knowing how i'm going to do it. i'm a woman, i'm a latina, what nd have no idea how to so how am i going to do it without having somebody to help me get there? >> someone who's had a lot of help, and i'd like secretary solis to talk about this, is secretary solis, you had a teacher who was your ony, he's with us, robert sanchez, let's listen to him. >> i saw her and i e said: "well, i think i'm going to work."

that's when everything started, i said: "this is crazy, you have to go to school, you have to go to college, you have everything you need to go to college, you have it up here." they don't let people like hilda grow. >> very well, we have this person, robert sanchez, who helped you. how did he inspire you? >> well, he supported me. to go to college, i was capable of doing so. a lot of people at school, few of them, actually attended college. he was the only latino who was a teacher there. and he would concentrate on us, he would focus on us, and applications and trying to ldren go to college. it doesn't matter if they ' 'here's financial aid, i was a beneficiary of a grant and all the services and that gave me a lot of support. so i was hoping to see people

like me in college, but i wasn't but that doesn't mean that other people won't want to help you, there are many places to bar associations with latino attorneys that can help you give you an opportunity to work at the law firms. and also get close to you, because we have great opportunities available in the federal government, so you can come to us and apply as intern. maybe they don't get paid as on you get paid. i was an intern in the house, that was my first job hispanic affairs office. i had great opportunities so i know there's a lot of women who need that support who need humble family, but my parents used to say--- >> and you moved forward you progressed. >> yeah, "we're behind you

' but i had a lot of support, a lot of love, and they were very proud to do something, to make a >> i wanted to ask you very briefly, each one of you the name of the person that was thought that i could be an engineer and thought that i could design something. >> what was his name? >> his name was >> fernando, who inspired you? >> my literature professor poetry to me. about that. >> eduardo? was leon, who knew that i didn't to catch three buses to get and i had to take night because i worked during the day. he'd picked me up and dropped me off at home, because he taught at night as well. that's the only thing that allowed me to finish a large part of my studies.

>> secretary duncan, who inspired you? >> my high school english teacher was amazing, miss very hard to express my more publicly and she helped owe her so much. >> very good, we all someone who has inspired us, early. why do hispanic students they're in high school, get behind? because when they're under 12, they got behind. paloma panesi, from the in washington, has a question regarding this. >> good afternoon. ' proven that early education is vital breach the academic gap children have in our country. what initiatives or what programs do we have to have high quality programs that are bilingual that can serve and so the programs could be

financed in the same way as the public schools are? >> i think that, on the bright side, we finally understand that that level of education, at that early age, is crucial. by the time a kid reaches third ' to read, this is a disadvantage for the rest of his life, because it's going to be extremely hard for him to get ahead. he'll grow frustrated he'll lose self-esteem, he'll feel like he's useless or like he's not smart enough. so that early education, before the age of 5, is crucial. within my community, i think through a referendum they decided to create a special tax for new centers, to create bilingual centers for this side of education, at an early age, is crucial. one of the things we have to

to take control of our own future. we have to invest in what's important. investing in what's important, ana she has some ideas, what can we do so that this will work? more early childhood centers for hispanic children? >> thank you very much, jorge. following the same path than dr. padron, i'm also from miami, my boss is david lawrence, he's a person who really pushed to establish that referendum. but i want to tell children need a lot of adults supporting them. starting with their families. education starts at home, and we

as parents, have to do as much as possible to help to learn the things that we're supposed to do or need to do. in miami dade county, we have done great programs, we have implemented great programs so that the family can participate and can have the resources. we have education for the teachers and the daycares too and we try to create a quality environment. and they're using a curriculum, they're trained, it's not somebody just to baby-sit a kid or take care of a kid, it's a as do you have to change this early childhood education? you have scholarships and grants for students, so what can we do to start earlier? >> above all, it's important for parents to speak to ng to college. that's the key that opens up the future to them. a campaign, secretary duncan was with us when we began hispanic scholarship fund, it's called “tus palabras de hoy” "your it's directed to hispanic

parents, to be inspired and know that their children need a higher education to have a better future. hispanic parents want their children to have a college education. knowing how to do it. so you can go to www.tuspalabrasdehoy.org to find out how to do it and how >> secretary duncan, i have to go to commercials, but before doing that, if we need more money for schools and early childhood education and national budgets are being cut, states are cutting budgets every one of these places so, what can you do to invest more money in teachers and schools? >> i've met with every single governor and told them that '

' e to support them. early childhood investment the best investment we can make. and you have some states cutting back, which is very disappointing, but other states are doing the right thing. we're trying to lead by example here at the federal level, we're trying to walk the walk. in a partnership with health and human services, my partner kathleen sebelius, we're investing 500 million dollars in early childhood education around the country as part of our raise to the top initiative. and we're asking the states to do two very important things: one, increase access particularly in disadvantaged is high quality. this glorified babysitting doesn't get us where we need to go. two days ago, with the application deadline, we had 36 days to apply, there's a huge amount of interest there, we're trying to significantly increase the quality and access for children in communities who need the most.

we think this will help to transform what's going on in the early childhood space. >> very good, thank you very much, we're going to take a commercial break, but when we return, we're going to talk about how parents can get involved in their children's education. we're going to give you a terrible statistic: only 8% of teachers in the united states are hispanic, but 20% of the student population is hispanic. what can we do? we'll be right back, "es el momento".

>> i am the future. [applause]

>> she is the future, and the future is here, but the future doesn't look very good. if i were to get 100 hispanics here, and here in the audience we have more than 100 of them, if i were to get 100 graduate from college. something is not working, and so if you want to have a master's, only 4 of them would finish their master's work. at one time, the united states was the most educated country in the world, and little by little, something failed. let's go to one of our workshops, remember i said it at the beginning of the program, i said we have workshops in los angeles and chicago. we have felicidad aveleyra in los angeles, she has a question with one of our students. >> thank you, jorge, i'm here with emmanuel ocampo, he attends garfield high school, and that school gained notoriety because of the movie "stand and deliver"

and the teacher that inspired his students, jaime escalante. what is your question? >> teachers have been blamed for the poor education students 'working? >> professor reimers, you're ' ' teachers for bad education? >> there's no doubt that good teachers are behind the success of good students. professors who devote a little more time to their ' fourth grade teacher, he would have wounded up in jail. we need more teachers like that, there's no doubt, and we're not preparing enough teachers and we're not recognizing the ones that are good ones.

and the ones that aren't good ones, we have to find a way them to find something else to do, it's important to create the right conditions for that. >> secretary solis. >> i would like to say that we have cut a lot o' country, and that's a shame, it's embarrassing. because how can we compete with other countries if we don't concentrate ourselves in having good teachers, that we have to have more children, students who speak more than one language and i know there are scholarships for students to be able to become teachers. >> so why cutting back teachers? isn't this a bad time? >> this is the wrong time, it's not logical. if we consider education an expense and not something important, that's terrible. miami dade college, where i work, we're growing, and that's great news, no doubt about it, because hispanics understand that the passport to a better life is going to college, to the university. but at the same time, we can't hire enough teachers to teach these students. barack obama's presidency for teachers being cut back? ' to bring teachers back to the classroom. and we're seeing we invested about 100

' illion dollars to save teacher jobs. 30 billion dollars to rehab and renovate elementary schools middle schools, high schools and community colleges. ' pass this bill, so we're trying ' lead by example, but congress has to understand, as eduardo said, that this is an investment, it's not an expense. other countries that out educate us are going to out compete us. i think folks have to understand that the future of our country is inextricably linked to our ability to give a world-class education to our latino community, that is the future. and if we don't do that, we do a great disservice, not just to the community, to our country folks have to understand how he importance of teachers, but what's the importance of parents? with us today, is gladys alvarez-ortiz, she's a spanish teacher from the high point high school in washington. she wants to share a concern with the panel, go ahead gladys. >> good afternoon, my question is: how can we involve latino

parents in their children's education without feeling intimidated with the educational personal? >> raul, what can we do? >> first of all, like i said, 91% of latino parents want don't ' families are so important in the latin community. parents feel that they shouldn't let their kids leave home to go to college, i think it's teachers who need to speak to them about the importance that that child have that key for the future. and they don't feel afraid to let their child learn and study and leave home to get that

blaming parents, we have to include them, we have to challenge students, we have to talk about that. students have to take responsibility for their own ' but we have to really include parents, and i think our schools have to be community centers. when i was in chicago, we had about 150 schools, when i led they were open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, long hours after school ged classes, esl classes, family literacy nights, potluck dinners. and we had schools that every single day, 100 to 150 parents were coming, not for their children's education but for their own. and when schools truly become the centers of the community and we invite those parents in they want to help, they want to participate. we have to be part of the solution there, so we have to stop blaming each other pointing fingers, bring everyone at's what eduardo has done so

in his school in miami. >> secretary. >> i think that there are 'e benefits of the programs that are available, that's why they're cutting back funds to educate and to keep the conversation open with the parents. and i also think that the community should be educated to ' 'na help them and their children, because some parents don't have that education and they're looking for that help, and we're supporting, giving that kind of service. >> eduardo. >> i think that our biggest challenge is the lack of information available to families. that's why what you guys are doing in univision is so vital it's terribly vital, because part of the process is that so many families don't understand how they can get the resources they need. they don't understand that they have the right to go to school and that they can demand high quality education. work along with the parents sometimes for lack of communication, because of language problems or because they weren't able to go to school themselves, they feel that they can't participate within that. it's so important that families

understand that a university education is a central-- not just an obligation, it's something that they need. because people who don't go to the university, don't go to college, they're gonna live in poverty. >> let me talk about a situation: right now, 20% of all students in all the united . there's something that isn't working there. santa osuna is the mother of a high school student. santa, are you here? okay, let's pass the microphone to you, so that you can give us your opinion about what we can do, so that they're gonna be more and more hispanic teachers in the us to help us. what is your concern?

>> well, my main concern is that at my daughter's school we don't counselors. my daughter is in virginia university and i did everything by myself, went to look for that information online, and there's information, but we need help at school levels. somebody who speaks spanish and says: "well, we need to help latinos' families." ' we do? >> it's true, ther' ho are learning english. what we need is for universities to take responsibility for this challenge and to collaborate with other institutions so they can have the resources. >> we can go to harvard, yale or ucla, should they hire more ' haven't taken this seriously. and we have a growing imbalance. i want great teachers, i great diversity of our country, and they don't, and the imbalance is getting larger. you talk about the imbalance in most of the latino community, if you look at latino men who are

teaching, that's less than 2% of our nation's teachers, less community have to step up, we have to grow our own talent, we have a website, www.teach.gov, that's trying to encourage more folks from the minority community to come in and teach. ' other places. we'd love many of you to consider teaching to elevate the profession, but right now, this is not a self-correcting problem. universities aren't showing enough creativity, enough sense of urgency. we have to collectively raise how important this is, and if we don't have those mentors there then our students aren't going to be successful as we need them to be. >> one of the important things to be able to be successful is to have a university degree, you said that, to be able to get good jobs. we're going to go to our workshop in chicago, our reporter, paula gomez, who has the next question, related precisely to a university degree and getting a good job. paula. >> good afternoon, jorge. we're here at the health and sciences career academy institute, it's a unique school in chicago.

ready to go into health topics, areas, ' 'ring students for them to go to college in health areas. 're long studies, and many years. so what are the incentives that we can offer students? they have to pay for their own work to help their families. how can we do that? >> so what can we do? we need science and technology specialists, we need engineers so what can we do with these generations before they're working on production line? >> well, first of all, the answer is within the student himself, because if you want to do something, you can do it, that's the most important part of it. but there are a lot of resources. there's not enough information though. whether it's pell grants, for example, which are in danger because congress is debating whether or not to keep them going. then there's raul's program, which is a fabulous program, which offers scholarships to good students. there are loans, there are other ways of doing it.

there's not enough, i mean there are few resources as a matter of fact, but i think that nowadays, with the technology that we have, with the internet, we can identify a lot of these resources. and these students have to have the support of the schools and their parents to get that information. >> so what can you do, raul, to give scholarships to engineering students and not others who want to study degrees that aren't so relevant? >> it's very important for a science or engineering degree--- this is very interesting, you need to know that you could be designing the new ipod, you could be the students that go into space. this week, talking to a student, with the first latino astronaut, daniel olivas, he said: "raul, you know how exciting it is to be in the space station?" and so we have to make sure that students want to go into these innovative, interesting degrees. and so, in the hispanic scholarship fund, we give more than 35 million per year for these scholarships for whoever wants to study. >> the scholarship fund has been so hugely helpful, i want to thank you so much for the leadership and for the partnership. let me tell you what we have done and let me tell you what we need to get done. we've had huge increases in pell grants.

we took money away from subsidizing banks, put it all into students, and over the next decade, there's an additional 40 billion dollars for young people who want to go to college. now, congress is threatening that, we have to hold the line right now we have the record increases for pell grants. when folks graduate, at the back end, we significantly reduce their loans and they go into teaching and other things like public service. all of their loans are forgiven after 10 years. we have a proposal on next year's budget to give 10- thousand-dollar grants to seniors who want to come teach at disadvantaged communities

and want to focus on the stem areas. so lots of movement, but we can't have this conversation without talking about the dream act, and we have to pass the dream act, there are far too many young people today who don't the have access, we're crazy on that, that has to change. [applause] >> i think this is a great topic and this is what we're going to talk after this commercial break. but before commercial break, secretary solis, you were talking that for every job in the united states, there are 5 people applying for that job. what do you recommend for students? >> they should focus in areas s and nursing too. most of the latin students don't know that scholarships exist. and some of them are going to go to community college they're going to start there because the classes are more affordable there. so there's help too, they can find that support to be able to enroll, and after that, go to college.

d from there, they go to the university. you wanted to say something. >> i think the interest in math and science has to evolve from an early age, collaborating with scientific, like--- and after school programs, like science first, we need more programs that will work with children beginning in middle school so that their academic record will be better. steve jobs had a small program that had great success, like the programs they have in california, bridge programs that they have. >> it all sounds great, but ' ack, what about students who are study science, but i'm undocumented, i live in arizona, i live in alabama, i can't continue going to college, what can i do?" the answers, when we come back. [applause] [applause]

when a student wants to attend college but can't. many people think that one of the greatest cruelties in the united states system is that students can to go elementary and high school, but when ' 'ties, and another is simply because of

their immigration status, of their children or the parents, that students can't go to college or school, or they feel an example from alabama, where damian and his family personally have felt attacked after the approval of the law hb-56. what would happen if all of the united states were like alabama, how would we react? damian is here with us, thanks for being with us. >> before anything else, i want to thank everybody for coming, because i know that you have many things to do. and i appreciate now, the governor signed that powerful law, it's the most powerful anti-immigrant law, as raul mentioned, i want to go to college. >> where were you born? >> i was born in utah. >> so you're american. >> yes. >> you could be president of the united states. >> i could be. [applause] '

>> as you know, i live scared all the time, because me: "can i look at your papers?", or "can i check your immigration status?" then my dream will not be fulfilled. as you know, my parents are illegal, they're not from this country, i don't think that is fair, it has been very for me, i had to cross a desert just to be able to studies. that has happened to many of my friends, for me to be able to go racist law, that opportunity will be removed or taken away from me? law hb-56 was passed in alabama? walking down the street--- >> yes, a friend and i were walking back home from : "mexicanos!",

and they threw a bottle at us. it didn't hit me, but it hit my since it was so fast, the truck passed so fast, my friend had to go to the hospital, he needed to >> i think damian's testimony is secretary solis, how can things be like this in alabama? >> i think that that's bad, a's administration and the justice department, we're going to fight back. we're back to court to have ' ' t you also have rights.

talk to our offices, call our offices, the civil rights office and to attorneys that can help us. there's a lot of assistants to help you and help--- as you already mentioned, you want to be somebody who goes to college, you have that opportunity to do so. and we know that you're the future, i'm going to support you. [applause] >> and this is one of the main problems that we have in the united states. these immigration laws are affecting many students. and so we were talking with secretary duncan minutes ago about the dream act. every year, 60 thousand students want to go to the university but they can't because their parents brought them when they were very young. and not just that, and this is increasing, we have almost 2 million students who would go to college, but here in the united states they're not allowed to. lucia allain has a concrete testimony of a lady who suffered this in person. >> yes, good afternoon. first of all, i want to thank you for the opportunity to be here.

secretary duncan said: "there are no professors." well, they are, gabi pacheco one of our presenters here graduated from miami dade. she can't be a teacher because she's undocumented. it's the same thing professor fernando said, that you have to speak more than one language you have to learn english. we have another student, cesar vargas, that graduated from law school, and he speaks 5 languages, but he's also undocumented. >> what's your situation, lucy? >> i was born in lima, peru, and i came here 10 years ago. and i'm studying journalism. i'm going to prince borough community college and i dream to become a journalist, i want to be sitting on that chair one day, interviewing you. that's my dream, the same is right now. >> but why not?

>> because i'm undocumented. that's not my biggest obstacle, ' yes, there's support, but is that support all we need or is there anything else? >> secretary duncan. >> secretary duncan, this is a very courageous testimony from lucia. she's talking in the united states, she's undocumented. >> these stories we hear of passionate, committed, people, you guys are the future. lead the country to where we need to and our priorities are exactly backwards now, it's so disturbing. so if we all agree we have to educate our way to a better economy, if we all agree that you can't just graduate from

the future of the latino community and the future of the country are inextricably linked, all that leads to the conclusion that we have to dramatically increase the number of college graduates from the latino community. we have to go from 13% to 26% to 39%, worked hard, who played by all the great grades, who've done community service who have been leaders, we're cutting off our noses to spite our face.

you guys are the future entrepreneurs, you're the ' stem fields. and we have to change this, i can't tell you how infuriating it is. we can't allow all this talent to be on the sidelines. we can't allow it. >> that's the immigration issue that's difficult. and going back to our main subject, we're almost at the end of the program. if i were to have here 100 students, only 57% of them would finish high school. if i had 100, only 13

northern virginia community college as well as working 40 hours a week. >> good afternoon, my question is for professor reimers. as he mentioned, i work 40 hours a week and i don't sleep much, i only sleep 2 or 3 hours for me to be able to do my homework, to keep a good gpa and to go forward, this is my question: if i attend a community college and i also want to attend a university like harvard, having a 4.0 gpa, how can i do that? how can i fulfill my american dream? >> i think, first of all, i'd like to point out that universities like harvard and others are very interested in receiving talented students who comply with admission standards. and they make sure that there are no financial obstacles, we don't distinguish where i teach what a student's immigration situation is, as long as they comply with what we ask for them to become enrolled. we understand that those students are the future and the solutions to what the country is facing in the future. certain politicians have created a certain anti-immigrant paranoia, because it's good for them in their campaigns. they don't understand the fundamental problem that we have. we have a commercial deficit of 500 trillion dollars, we have to invest in talent, we can't let one single mind go to waste. especially in one out of four people, you can go to the university you can private university. there's articulation agreements

between community colleges and universities, you can find a way. >> i have someone here jose luis cruz, vice president of the education trust. question from univision.com: what requirements do you have to fulfill to get a scholarship if you're undocumented? can you get a grant? >> yes, of course, it's not the same thing. students that want to go to university on pell grants or cal grant in california, scholarships in the private sector, like the hispanic fund but that's changing, that's great news. recently, the governor of california signed a law that allows for any undocumented student, starting in 2013, to only pay the in state tuition in california. and not only that, they're going s a year to be able to go to school. we have seen universities with non-profitable organizations who are also raising private funds to destine them to students, the public funds in virginia, the dream project are doing the same thing, so we have to encourage that, that many states participate and do the same. >> raul, i want to talk to you about these students who are undocumented in the united states. what do you recommend to people who are undocumented here? >> i recommend that they look

for information, but just like we've been told, not only states, but many organizations have grants and scholarships that don't ask the person's immigration status. finding information is the most important thing, because without information, you can't find out where to get the grant or the scholarship. and they don't ask for the status. >> i'd like to finish to change things here in the united states, what would you do? what would you do exactly? but first of all, i'd like to talk to the psychologist claudia campos, she talks about 6,100,000 hispanic children who live in poverty. they can't eat at home and they're poor, how can they go to school? >> thank you, jorge, good afternoon. thank you so much for being here. we have heard many factors, but the most alarming one is that 6 million children are living in poverty with their families. question for secretary government create a program or how is the government, as a leader, doing

that in the cultural level and in a comprehensive way so that it won't affect our families and children? >> what if the child is poor? >> i'll be very clear. i've worked in a poor community in the south side of chicago and poverty is never destiny. lots of folks want to tell you what poor children can't do and what children of color can't do i've seen all my life what they can do. it's all about opportunity. it starts with great early childhood education, it starts with a great elementary the student can take ap classes and college ready classes. to university to fulfill your dreams, it's gotta be a cradle to career continuum. when we provide that, children communities the toughest neighborhoods, n be very successful. we as adults have to provide the opportunity, the supports and guidance all the way

' ' take advantage to talk to each one of you so you can tell us exactly how people who listening to us can help their children progress and how they can have success. >> well, we have a dream scholarship fund, is that right now, there are 5 hispanic homes that have million hispanic homes. we think that by the year we can reach this, so it's very important that we all together that the united states should be again a country ' and it's impossible to achieve that if 50 million of your citizens are not educated. one degree, one college degree per each family, that's the seed that's planted in every home. >> fernando reimers, how can we get more hispanic students in harvard?

>> we have to do three things for young hispanics: give them information, preparation and financing. univision is leading the way that we can create a ' ' we have to organize communities, ion and they can support these young men so they can demand what they deserve. they have the right to a teacher who's well educated, well prepared, who can teach them right and who will treat them correctly, who won't suspend them to handle discipline problems because they can't teach them. >> if a hispanic student is accepted into harvard and his family has less than 16 thousand dollars--- >> he'll get full finance and maintenance charges. >> so they shouldn't be afraid of harvard. >> absolutely not, they shouldn't. [applause] >> eduardo padron, you've only been able to graduate 2 million hispanic students, what about the other ones? >> the future depends on what we like i said earlier, if you want to do something, you can't do it. in my institution, 36% live below the poverty line, 69% of them have very few resources

they know that the alternative doesn't work, the only option is to study and get a university degree, because this is the only way we're not going to be third-class citizens. better future and the only way final >> i want to give you the internet link so you can for jobs: dol.gov, and also for people looking for a job: myskillsmyfuture.org. they have english and spanish. but i also want to add something: you have to vote. the same values. and you have to something, i hope that you ' here to help you. first of all, jobs education

can we do with that? [laughs] we can. there are no good jobs in today's economy for a high school dropout, none. some form of higher education: harvard university, miami dade technical, vocational training that has to be the goal for every single hispanic young person in this country. >> and i'd like to thank all of you for this hour of inspiration. we hope that it can change a lot of lives. for every one of the students, i'd also like to tell you that education is something that can change things. in my personal life, in my family, i've seen this. and it's the only opportunity that we have and we're going to repeat it: the first latino or latina presi