Texas

State Farm representative's laude ENCORE Family Sessions to Edinburg School Board

Edinburg, Texas - Like a good neighbor, State Farm has funded parental involvement initiatives created by Engaging Communities for College Readiness for families in the Edinburg school district. Representatives from the company attended an Edinburg School Board meeting to show their support for ENCORE's College Readiness Family Sessions, which have been conducted in middle schools throughout the district since 2009.

"It's very important to give back to the same community that's giving to us, not only at a national level or state level, but here in our cities," said Winston Ayala, a State Farm agent from McAllen.

ENCORE College Readiness Sessions, funded with the help of State Farm, are designed to help parents and their children begin a conversation about their roles in the college readiness process that can be carried over into the home.

"There's a big group that we're leaving behind, and so this program is helping the parents and the students themselves to graduate and move on to get a higher education," Ayala said. "It's important to get the education the parents also on the process and the things that are going to help their child advance, to finish high school and then [understand] what are the things they need to do to get to that next level."

The sessions, conducted concurrently in English and Spanish, guide families through the quality-of-life benefits higher education can afford their children, the academic and non-academic behaviors students need to develop to succeed in college, and how families can finance higher education through various forms of financial aid.

"State Farm is a nation-wide company, but they're giving back to smaller communities all across the nation, and I believe it's important because we're laying the foundation for our future," Bobby Palacios, a State Farm agent from McAllen, said. "A lot of them being first generation and coming from a family that's never pursued higher education it's important to also educate the parents so they can help guide their children and mold the young men and women that are coming behind them."

Parents and students then have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on activity in which they devise a plan to continue talking about college in the future and what each family member can do to ensure they are college ready. Families then share their ideas and discuss what has worked for them in the past and what they plan on doing after the Family Session concludes.

College Readies Family Sessions were developed by ENCORE to address a key finding that resulted for research the non-profit conducted in 2008. In focus groups with students from the Rio Grande Valley, participants identified their parents as the key figures in their decision on what path to pursue after high school, making parents an integral part of the college readiness process.

“State Farm is great partner to the ENCORE Program,” said Ernesto Villarreal, ENCORE Program Director. “The continuous funding awarded from State Farm have allowed us to conduct family sessions across different low-socioeconomic communities, promoting to thousands of parents the importance of a college education and their role in the preparation process”

For more information about the ENCORE program, please contact us at 956-903-4231.