Joking in half-Spanish, half-English, Juan Rodriguez-Martinez and his friends walked from the Fowlerville High School bus toward their temporary home at Buurma Farms where their parents work the fields.
Juan’s family migrates more than 1,600 miles from Weslaco, Texas, to work the fields in Stockbridge, about 35 miles southeast of East Lansing, for the summer months, leaving behind friends and family every year.
“It’s better there,” Juan said. “More people I know. More friends.”
With more familiar faces in Texas, Juan said he is anxious to return sometime in early October - to a much bigger house.
His eyes spanned the kitchen, dining room and living room area that combined to create his summer home. “It’s nicer than this,” Juan added.
At 15, Juan has reached what MSU Extension representative Randy Bell calls “that critical age” for students from migrant families.
“Once the kids reach fifth or sixth grade, they can and do begin to work in the fields with their parents,” Bell said.
To help students in the 11-17 age range, the Michigan Department of Labor donated $1.7 million in 2001 to fund the Comprehensive Approach for Migrant Youth Introducing New Opportunities program, or Project CAMINO, for students such as Juan to participate in over the summer.
“What we had in CAMINO was a chance to capture the junior high or high school-aged kids,” Bell said.
The project operated successfully during the summer of 2001, but funding was cut off before another summer program could take place, Bell said.
“CAMINO is on the shelf and ready to use again,” Bell said. “It’s like the car in the garage with an empty tank. All you have to do is drop some gas in it, and it will go.”
Project CAMINO offered a stipend makeup for the income families lost by giving up a field worker. Attendance helped determine the amount of the stipend.
Participants were shuttled to MSU and offered hands-on experience in the field of their choice, said Oralia Contreras, one of the program’s mentors.
“Project CAMINO really helped these kids,” Contreras said. “Anytime you get to experience something firsthand, it really leaves an impression.”
Juan said after participating in the project, he now hopes to attend MSU and receive a degree in computer engineering.
Flipping through her photo album of students flying planes and working with animals at MSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Contreras said each of the students were encouraged by the project.
“I had never seen so many smiles,” she said.
Contreras said she has no doubt that this project can make a difference to every participant.
“It’s imprinted in their mind forever,” she said. “They’ll never forget that moment - that whole summer.”
