MSU CAMP: Persona

by Hilda Lopez
For academic purposes only.

User: Carla, 17, Texas/Michigan

Background Information: Carla is from Texas, and is a first generation Mexican-American. Her parents are from Mexico and have lived in the US for the past 20 years. She is the youngest of four, has two older brothers (20 & 15) and an older sister (19). Her family migrated to Michigan for 10 years as migrant workers (every 6 months). None one in her family has ever gone to college although her two older siblings graduated from high school. She learned through her high school migrant club of different scholarships available to migrant students.

Her family is very close and believes that the family should be close together. Being the middle child, they are overprotective of her. For this reason she is debating if she should attend college at home or somewhere else. She is in her senior year of high school and due to being a migrant, she attended two schools (6 months time period) in Texas and in Michigan for the past 10 years. She is very active in the migrant club held in both of her schools. She was not planning to go to college/university but then she heard of a program called CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program) through her school counselor. CAMP provides scholarships to migrant students for their studies.

Although she wants to attend college, her family cannot afford it. She has an average high school GPA of 3.0. She does not have a lot of time to search on the internet due to working with her parents, chores, and limited computer access. Her only access to a computer is at the library or high school. She wants find information easily and quickly through the web site. She is also a bilingual individual (Spanish/English).

Goal: Attend a college/university that is affordable or has scholarships available and is close to home

Motivation: To find a payable job, get a higher education, scholarships availability

Behavior: Hard working individual. Close to her family, willing to work part time during her college years.

Information needed: A location where there are job opportunities for students of the university, needs community information, transportation availability, information of scholarships and programs, the environment, and location. Scholarship information and services they provide.