MSU program renewed to provide 25 years of continuous support for new migrant students

<p>Michigan State University will continue providing much needed assistance to students who are children of migrant farm workers with a U.S. Department of Education grant renewal of more than $2 million. MSU's College Assistance Migrant Program Scholars initiative, better known as <a href="https://mss.msu.edu/camp/index.html">CAMP</a>, has served more than a thousand eligible migrant and seasonal farm worker students during its 20 years. The CAMP initiative identifies, recruits, admits and enrolls migrant and seasonal farm worker students and provides them academic, social and financial support to complete their first year of college. The program has produced more than 300 graduates throughout the past 20 years.<br> <br> “The purpose of CAMP is really to provide an opportunity for first generation college students; their most difficult year is their freshmen year,” says Luis Alonzo Garcia, director of MSU's <a href="https://mss.msu.edu/index.html">Migrant Student Services</a>. “And our perspective and that of the purpose of CAMP is to facilitate and get their feet well grounded in the institution and provide them some basic skills to make sure that they can get through their four or five years of undergraduate studies.”<br> <br> “I'm a daughter of migrant farm workers,” says Kiara Liz Zarate, a third-year undergraduate student at Michigan State University currently working toward her degree in child development with a minor in Chicano Latino studies. As a third-generation migrant field worker, she plans on establishing nationwide early childhood development centers that will benefit migrant and immigrant families with access to resources and a better education. <br> <br> “I'm the third generation of the field workers in my family. I'm from South Texas and in all honesty, just to keep it real with you guys, if it wasn't for the CAMP program that I was introduced to, I would not have had a chance to attend college. Universities are quite expensive. And for a low-income family who just depends solely on agr