This story comes to us from NBC Latino.

In Elk Grove High School, tucked away in one of Chicago’s northwest suburbs, more than 100 Latino students and parents gather once a month to discuss issues like college applications, academic success and student self-awareness.

With café and prizes, the atmosphere at the parents meeting seems more like a party than a forum for deep dialogue, but Connie Sosa and Ruby Aleman have worked hard to create a welcoming environment that allows them to empower Latino students and parents at Elk Grove high.

“A lot of our parents are immigrants and are scared to get involved, but we created the Latino Parents Meetings as a way for them to walk away feeling like they have a voice in the building and can advocate for their kids,” explains Aleman, 30-year-old school counselor who first started working at Elk Grove four years ago.

It’s a forum, Sosa says, that is badly needed in the community.

“In our culture, topics like suicide prevention and sex are typically taboo, but now parents in our community are open to listening to these topics because they trust us,” says Sosa, one of the school’s two social workers.

Sosa and Aleman regularly work ten to twelve hours a day at the high school. Over the last four years, they’ve created and manage a total of seven Latino outreach programs at Elk Grove. Currently, 30 percent of the school’s 2,000 students are Latino and most come from immigrant families hailing from Mexico and Latin America. While the student body has remained predominately Caucasian, the Latino student population at Elk Grove has jumped up to 30 percent from 19 percent in just five years.

It’s a change in demographics that is mirrored in schools throughout Chicago’s suburbs and with the recent influx of immigrant families, most school have been ill-equipped to deal with the need for bilingual education and cultural support programs. The Latino high school graduation rate in Illinois was 79 percent in 2011 and this year alone, nearly 80 percent of the Latino students at Elk Grove have applied to college with other students actively considering other post-secondary education options.

The statistics act as motivation for Sosa and Aleman, who both grew up in the area and are first generation Mexican-Americans. When they started working at the school, there weren’t any successful programs in place for Latino students and parents.

“My parents came to Illinois from Juares, Mexico with a 5th grade education and worked in factories all their life,” said Sosa, who has a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago and has been a social worker since 2003. “My parents didn’t know that their kid’s life could be any different. It’s why I’ve made it my mission to let immigrant parents know they can play an important part in their child’s education.”

Now, programs like a student-professional mentoring program, cultural dance group to promote pride and self-esteem, and Spanish-language parenting classes are all part of the original curriculum that Sosa and Aleman wrote to reach English language learners. Latino parents have even formed at Latino Parents Council, which teachers parents how to improve their children’s academic success and has even raised scholarship money for promising students.

Sosa and Aleman regularly work ten to twelve hours a day at the high school. Over the last four years, they’ve created and manage a total of seven Latino outreach programs at Elk Grove. Currently, 30 percent of the school’s 2,000 students are Latino and most come from immigrant families hailing from Mexico and Latin America. While the student body has remained predominately Caucasian, the Latino student population at Elk Grove has jumped up to 30 percent from 19 percent in just five years.

It’s a change in demographics that is mirrored in schools throughout Chicago’s suburbs and with the recent influx of immigrant families, most school have been ill-equipped to deal with the need for bilingual education and cultural support programs. The Latino high school graduation rate in Illinois was 79 percent in 2011 and this year alone, nearly 80 percent of the Latino students at Elk Grove have applied to college with other students actively considering other post-secondary education options.

The statistics act as motivation for Sosa and Aleman, who both grew up in the area and are first generation Mexican-Americans. When they started working at the school, there weren’t any successful programs in place for Latino students and parents.

“My parents came to Illinois from Juares, Mexico with a 5th grade education and worked in factories all their life,” said Sosa, who has a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago and has been a social worker since 2003. “My parents didn’t know that their kid’s life could be any different. It’s why I’ve made it my mission to let immigrant parents know they can play an important part in their child’s education.”

Now, programs like a student-professional mentoring program, cultural dance group to promote pride and self-esteem, and Spanish-language parenting classes are all part of the original curriculum that Sosa and Aleman wrote to reach English language learners. Latino parents have even formed at Latino Parents Council, which teachers parents how to improve their children’s academic success and has even raised scholarship money for promising students.

Nina Terrero is a reporter with NBC Latino.

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