‘This is life-changing’: College scholarships give rural Idaho Latino students a lift
While juggling schoolwork and football practice, 17-year-old Aaron Jimenez Guevara spends eight hours a day as an Idaho farmworker during the fall.
The senior at Notus High cultivates corn and wheat in the fields near his home both before and after school, usually waking up at 5 a.m. During the summer, he said he works even more — about 50 hours a week.
Jimenez Guevara’s parents are originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, and he grew up working with them on farms outside Notus and Caldwell. His parents and grandparents also farmed in Mexico.
“My family’s always worked in agriculture,” he told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “I wasn’t always a tractor driver. I started working pulling weeds off the ground, and I’ve slowly progressed to being a machine operator, like driving heavy equipment.”
He said his experiences in the fields were actually what motivated him to think about a career in aviation or engineering. And thanks to a scholarship he received from The College of Idaho at the Idaho Hispanic Youth Summit, he can pursue those goals if he chooses.
“I’d like to be a pilot,” he said. “I always thought it was super cool to see crop dusters spray fertilizer here.”
Jimenez Guevara received a $64,800 scholarship from C of I — a part of millions of dollars in scholarships for Latino students statewide — while attending the summit last month. The Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs hosts the event every year to prepare Latino high school students for college, many of whom are the first in their families to pursue higher education.
Jimenez Guevara said he is still considering his plans. For now, he plans on taking an introductory flight lesson to get an understanding of what that career would entail. Regardless, he said continuing his education now is more attainable.
“Maybe if I didn’t receive that scholarship, I would have thought differently about college,” he said. “Maybe I would have just decided not to go to college and farm for the rest of my life.”
Education data on Idaho Latinos
Many Idaho Latinos come from a farmworker background. During World War II, the Bracero program brought Mexican workers to farm across Southern Idaho. After the program ended, many Mexican workers chose to stay in the U.S.
Data from the Idaho Commission of Hispanic Affairs shows about 85% of Idaho’s Latinos were of Mexican descent in 2018, followed by Puerto Rican, Central American and South American descent.
Latinos are Idaho’s largest minority group, making up about 13% of the state’s population. Roughly 253,000 Latinos lived in Idaho as of 2021, according to the U.S. Census.
According to the Idaho State Department of Education, about 71.8% of Latino students graduated from high schools in 2021, compared to 81.9% of Idaho students that do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Latinos also continue to have low educational attainment rates across the country. The share of U.S. Latino adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher remains lower than those from other backgrounds, according to census data.
Farmworker family talks receiving Latino-based scholarships
The Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs hosts three youth summits each year, in the Treasure Valley, Magic Valley and Eastern Idaho. This year, more than 800 students from 35 high schools attended the Treasure Valley event at C of I.
J.J. Saldaña, community resource specialist with the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said on Twitter that scholarships adding up to more than $14 million were awarded across the three events in 2022.
Kim Jimenez Guevara, Aaron’s 25-year-old sister, attended the Idaho Hispanic Youth Summit when she was in high school, and received several scholarships. She graduated from Boise State University in 2019 with a degree in business administration and now works at a nonprofit in Boise.
Though a Boise State scholarship was not one that she received at the event, she said attending the summit inspired her to pursue higher education.
She was a farmworker for 11 years before going to college.
“This is really life-changing,” she said about her brother’s scholarship. “I think my parents are going to be really happy for him. When I went to college, I was the black sheep of the family, so I think they see pursuing higher education in a positive light now.”
The siblings’ parents live in Mexico, and she is her brother’s legal guardian. She said one of the things that made her want to go to college was seeing so many educated Latinos at the leadership summit.
“It’s like, wow, I can become like one of them,” she told the Statesman. “We come from a farmworker background, so seeing someone that was not in the fields was really inspiring.”
Even though her parents live in Mexico, the Jimenez Guevaras said they are proud to live and work in Idaho.
“We were born and raised here, this is home for us, no matter where our family is in Mexico,” Kim said. “We grew up here and we see ourselves staying here.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 11:33 AM.
