June 19, 2000
Two re-entry grads headed for Harvard this fall
By Jennifer McNulty
As the mother of two boys inching up on adulthood, Patricia Boyer knows how hard
it is for a parent to impress her teenagers. But when she was accepted into a master's
program at Harvard University, Boyer said even her sons had to stand up and cheer.
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| Patricia Boyer, above, and Maribel Valencia-Castillo (Photos: Jennifer McNulty) |
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Boyer is one of two re-entry graduates who are Harvard-bound this fall. Maribel Valencia-Castillo is heading east for a two-year master's program in theological studies. Boyer, who majored in psychology, is enrolling in a one-year master's program in education that focuses on administration, programs, and social policy.
Boyer transferred to UCSC from a community college in upstate New York in 1997 and discovered a love of research. She hopes to pursue a career in educational policy, with a focus on the unique needs of re-entry students and policy changes that will ensure that all children who have the ability and the desire are prepared to attend college when they graduate from high school.
"Re-entry students face different issues than 18-year-olds," said Boyer. "Additionally, a large percentage of children never make it to the university. There are many holes in the educational system, and I'd like to be a part of patching a few of those holes. The door to higher education should be open to anybody willing to put forth the effort."
Boyer worked as a secretary in the main office of a small school district near Ithaca, New York, raising her children as a single parent. She took her first college class in January 1995 at the age of 39. Her boys, now 19 and 20 years old, were in the audience when she graduated from Merrill College on June 10.
"When I was accepted by UCSC, it meant selling everything that wouldn't fit in my 1986 Cutlass Ciera, loading up the boys, and driving across the country," recalled Boyer. "It was an adventure. Six months later, the car died, but it got us here!"
Boyer worked closely with psychology professors Catherine Cooper and Margarita Azmitia for two years on a research project exploring the underrepresentation of low-income and ethnic-minority students at the university level. She is particularly grateful to Azmitia, who urged her to write a senior thesis. "I wouldn't have considered doing it, but I'm very glad I did and appreciate Professor Azmitia's support," she said. "I'm proud of completing something I thought was beyond my ability, and I won the dean's award for it."
As a single parent in college, Boyer has learned to overcome obstacles, and she has made lifelong friends through the Services for Transfer and Re-entry Students (STARS) office. "The re-entry softball team was the highlight of my week," she said, recalling how she would get through stressful weeks by counting the hours until the Friday afternoon games.
Boyer, 45, jokes about taking classes with "students who could be your kids" and being older than a lot of her professors, but she credits students and faculty with part of her success as a re-entry student. "They have been nothing but supportive," she said. "I was never, never made to feel like I didn't belong."
Until recently, though, it seemed Boyer had met an obstacle she couldn't overcome: Harvard's tuition, which is more than $23,000 a year. Even with a lot of loans and financial aid, she couldn't make the numbers add up.
"I was going to frame the letter and tell people how I'd turned down Harvard," said Boyer. "But then I got a call on the first Saturday morning in May at 7:30 from my brother. The family had pulled together some money, and he said 'If you go to Harvard, it's yours.' That was the catch: I had to go to Harvard. It wasn't for anything else."
After a few tears, Boyer accepted the offer. "It still hasn't completely sunk in," she said. "I appreciate their confidence and support. I just hope one day I can repay their gesture, or help one of their kids go to college."
For Valencia-Castillo, 28, an undergraduate degree in anthropology follows several years of working in the public health field in California's Central Valley. At Harvard, she will study world religions with an emphasis on understanding how different cultural beliefs affect health care decisions.
"Religion plays such an important role in most people's lives, and there is a need for understanding people and how they make their decisions about accessing services," she said. "We need to train Western medical doctors about the services provided by local resources, like shamans in the Hmong community in Merced, because they are just as important to the patient."
Valencia-Castillo worked on HIV-prevention education programs for migrant farmworkers in the Central Valley and then worked specifically with women at risk of HIV. Immediately before enrolling at UCSC, she worked on a three-year project with inmates at the Central California Women's Facility.
"I was on my way to college when my supervisor asked me to stay because she'd gotten a grant for this project documenting the case-management services HIV-positive women were receiving," said Valencia-Castillo. "I thought I was postponing my undergraduate work for a year, but it turned out to be three years."
While a student, Valencia-Castillo worked on an ethnographic project on grassroots organizations with a Merced-based agency called Healthy House. Their "Partnership for Health" program further inspired her thoughts about combining theology and public health.
Valencia-Castillo also had high praise for anthropology professors Olga Najera-Ramirez and Triloki Pandey, and for Bill Dickinson, a UCSC alumnus (Cowell College, 1968) who helped her navigate the Harvard application process. But she said she ended up at UCSC thanks to the efforts of a staff member in the Admissions Office who attended a fair at her local community college.
"I thought UC wouldn't want any minorities, because it was just after affirmative action was pulled out," she recalled. "But he explained to me that politics is one thing and what the school is trying to do is a different thing."
Unable to recall his name, Valencia-Castillo nevertheless thanks her anonymous shepherd, who helped guide her on the path to UCSC, and now Harvard.
