“I don’t want to be away from home.”

“My parents need me to work.”

“We just don’t have the money.”

“College isn’t for me.”

The concerns college recruitment counselors hear from Latino students abound.

“These kids don’t believe that it’s for them,” said Paula Mellom, an assistant research scientist for the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education at the University. “They look at UGA, and it’s sitting in the middle of the city, but it’s like it’s a foreign planet – it’s like it may as well be Jupiter.”

But several Georgia-based groups are working to change that attitude – and they’re tackling the problem from all angles.

For some Latino students, simply learning about the college admissions process is half the battle.

“It’s a fundamental lack of understanding of how to negotiate the system – how to turn in the FAFSA, how to make an application, how to find the stuff that you need to be able to go,” Mellom said. “I mean, that prevents way more kids from going on to school than anything else.”

Alexis Ruiz, president of Students for Latino Empowerment, experienced this problem first- hand. She said a lack of knowledge on the part of some high school guidance counselors was a barrier for some Latino high school students.

“For me, I didn’t know about the scholarships that were available,” said Ruiz, a senior from Acworth. “I wish – I really wish – that somebody had told me all of that when I was starting to apply.”

In her time at the University, Ruiz has worked to introduce Latino high school students to campus through events her organization helps sponsor.

Si Se Puede is a youth conference her group puts on in the spring to teach prospective students about the application process, financial aid and scholarship opportunities. At another event – Sigue Me – high schoolers shadow Latino University students going about their days on campus.

“It shows them that we were in their same situation when we were in high school, and now we’re here,” Ruiz said. “We want to be role models for them more than anything else.”

She said she always gives the students her phone number and e-mail address in case they ever need any help.

Erin Thompson, campus manager for the University Alliance program, is another resource for prospective Latino students.

Thompson’s program targets 18 Georgia high schools with large Latino populations and offers information about the University to these schools. The scholarship program – funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment – is a part of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the largest and oldest supporter of higher education for Latinos.

She said the students she approaches in high schools aren’t always immediately receptive to the idea of coming to the University.

“There’s a big stigma around UGA for the Hispanic community – that it’s not welcoming, that nobody’s there,” she said. “A lot of Hispanic students in Georgia feel more comfortable applying to Kennesaw or Georgia State because they see a lot more students like them there.”

Latino students are also more likely to choose a community college instead of a four-year institution, she said.

Recruiters at other Georgia colleges and universities are seeing similar trends.

At Georgia College and State University, Javier Francisco works to increase the number of Latino students coming to his school.

“We’re pretty selective with who’s admitted, so a lot of students don’t apply,” said Francisco, associate director of enrollment and management for GCSU. “They’re hesitant because our school is almost the equivalent of a private school.”

He also sees another barrier – the

students’ citizenship status.

“Some of the kids are undocumented,” Franscisco said. “And, they don’t have the resources to pay to live on campus.”

Thompson said she faces the same issue when she goes into high schools, but a student must be a citizen, legal permanent resident or political asylee to obtain a Hispanic Scholarship Fund award.

“When I recruit, I do not go anywhere with an arrogant presumption that everybody in the room can apply to my scholarship,” she said. “I keep myself abreast of scholarship organizations that will fund regardless of your residency status, and I put that information out there.”

But when Hispanic students do break down the barriers to enrollment, they succeed, Thompson said. The students in her program have a higher retention rate and a higher average GPA than the University norms.

“You see them being involved in several different organizations,” she said, “being leaders, getting amazing internships, going on programs and being accepted to do things in the summers that have to do with diversity and leadership. It’s really great.”

And as more diverse students come onto the campus, the University benefits as a whole, she said. Students need to be exposed to new ideas and challenge their perspectives.

“And maybe your idea is still your idea when you leave, but not because it wasn’t challenged,” Thompson said, “not because you didn’t have to interact with people who were different from how you’ve always been.