Model Student

An '89 works to keep young Hispanicstudents in school.

While studying government at Dartmouth, the closest Alberto Guerrero '89 came to an educational crisis was a late-night computer breakdown at Kiewit. But as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin he is helping lead a student campaign to curb the staggering 50-percent dropout rate among Hispanic school children.

Concern for the future of the Hispanic community united Alberto and four fellow U.T. students in founding the Hispanic Student Scholarship Initiative (HSSI), a student-run group that provides mentors and role models to children. A pilot project last spring assigned seven tutors to 35 seventh-graders who, by state definition, were "at risk" of dropping out. Meeting with one or two students at a time, and concentrating on English and math, HSSI tutors put in ten hours a week for 14 weeks. "Some kids went from C's to As," Alberto reports. Students will later be channeled into University Outreach, a U.T. program which prepares high school students for college. What excites Alberto most about HSSI is that "these kids are not just dreaming of an education—they're planning for one."

Alberto and the group have had their share of bureaucratic encounters: initial Hesitance by university officials to support HSSI sent the tutors looking for financial support. Their experiences also led them to testify before the Education Committee of the Texas State Legislature, where a bill to reorganize school finance has been introduced. "We won't give up on this issue," Alberto insists.

A native of Rio Grande City, Texas, and a former government major, Alberto spends hispends his "spare time" at U.T. pursuing joint degrees in Business and Public Affairs. He plans to attend law school in the fall.

Budding role model Alberto Guerrero '89fights attrition with inspiration and alittle tutoring.