Torn shirts stained by sweat and dirt is picked up from machines while harvesting the soil. My father, a farm worker, has irrigated hundreds of acres of land and performs the same back-breaking labor, just like the fathers of the College Assistant Migrant Program students.

CAMP recruited me my senior year of high school back in 2004. They helped me apply to Sac State and apply for the CAMP Scholar’s program, which helped me network through my first internship opportunity. The Scholars’ internship placed me at the Mexican Consulate of Sacramento where I learned to work in a professional environment with important Mexican Consulate representatives.

Answering daily phone calls and filing paperwork to represent the Mexican Consulate at the State Capitol on a mission to investigate legislation were functions I was assigned on a daily basis by Press Consul Ivan Sierra, my mentor.

The opportunity to give back to current CAMP scholars and students was given to me by Viridiana Diaz, camp director, this spring. In a panel of about 10 CAMP alumni, we spoke of our experiences while in the program and the immense effect it had on us while working in governmental agencies as students whose parents are migrant workers.

I wanted for the current 2008 CAMP Scholars present to understand the importance of being on time, show confidence to their employers and network with employees within the company in order to create friendships that can open opportunities for future job positions.

The reason for many CAMPERS, students involved in the program, lies in ending the struggles of their parents, who are farm workers, by working hard in school, obtaining a degree and pursuing important positions in society that many would be designated only for “whites.”

Not that we want to take over California, nor do we want to take jobs away from “Americans” like many believe. We simply want to work and represent a minority group that has for generations been stepped on by society and to provide for our families who have worked immensely to give us an opportunity to obtain a higher education — as Americans.

Vanessa Guerrero can be reached at [email protected]