Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Recognizes Migrant Education Graduates

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Education Gerald L. Zahorchak today honored more than 100 students from across Pennsylvania for graduating from the Department of Education's Migrant Education Program.

"It is the department's mission to know all students by name and ensure they receive a quality education, and today's event very much embodied that sentiment," Zahorchak said. "These students showed their extreme resiliency and ability to overcome obstacles in the greatest of circumstances."  

Since its inception, the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program has served more 350,000 migrant students in 200 districts. During the 2008-09 school year, the program aided about 5,500 students.

"The program supported my brother and I in our education, tutoring us in some areas, keeping track of our progress and assisting my parents in their meetings with our teachers," Manheim Central School District student Mariana Ponte Cordoba said. "The Migrant Education program also helped us focus on our future."

This year, 108 students graduated from the migrant education program. More than 60 percent of the graduates plan to pursue higher education, while others plan to enter the workforce or join the military.

"The program that has helped us along the way to have a better education is the Migrant Education Program," Conewago Valley School District student Monica Sandoval said. "This program has always been so kind and generous in helping migrant families, such as mine, in preserving one's educational goals."

In operation since 1967, the migrant education program is state and federally funded and helps local school districts coordinate educational continuity programs for children of migrant workers. The average migrant family moves three to five times annually. Migrant education program students are 90 percent Latino, 6 percent Asian, 3 percent White, and 1 percent African-American.

For more information about the migrant education program, visit www.education.state.pa.us.

Media contact: Leah Harris, 717-783-9802

Editor's Note: The list of speakers from today's ceremony is below:

Elizabeth Salazar, Avon Grove SD, Chester County; Mariana Ponte Cordoba, Manheim Central SD, Lancaster County; Ariel Quezada, Hazleton SD, Luzerne County; and Monica Sandoval, Conewago Valley SD, Adams County.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education