OPINION
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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Gudelia Contreras and Ane McIntyre celebrate a focus on Latina women seeking to continue their schooling.
WINGS program reaches
out to Latina community
W
INGS offers educational
opportunities for women who
have had their education inter-
rupted and are yearning to go back to
school.
The American Association of Uni-
versity Women sponsors the all-day pro-
gram, to be held Feb. 9 at Clatsop Com-
munity College in Astoria.
Women may fi nd their studies inter-
rupted for “all sorts of reasons,” Ane
McIntyre, president of Seaside’s AAUW
chapter, said in a visit to the Signal
offi ce late this month. “Their car broke
down. They lost their babysitter. Their
mother died. They are
married to a military
man and they bounced
around the country. An
unexpected baby —
almost all the time, the
thing that interrupted
R.J.
their education was
MARX
money.”
A new push, McIn-
tyre said, is outreach to
the Latina community — a drive, she
admits, that should have been under-
taken much sooner.
“Last year 64 women went, and 16
were Latina,” McIntyre said. “They
hadn’t been coming before that because
we didn’t make it easy for them to come.
This is our 17th year, and I’m embar-
rassed to say, we’ve only reached out to
the Latina community two years prior to
this — and not very well.”
Program organizers have a welcome
addition to their team.
Gudelia Contreras, who partici-
pated in the WINGS program in 2012, is
“instrumental” in reaching a new audi-
ence, McIntyre said.
“One of the things that Gudelia has
done for us is we realized there is a
whole population we were not serving.
She can reach out to Hispanic women
who may be afraid to take advantage of
WINGS.”
Originally from Veracruz, Mexico,
Contreras came to the United States in
1990, fi nding work as a migrant laborer
and raising a family.
In the mid-1990s, she enrolled in
English classes, but because of family
and money issues, she left school.
Moving to Clatsop County in 2008,
she found employment as a cannery
worker.
Contreras made contact with Clat-
sop Community College on her daugh-
ter’s behalf.
“In 2011, my daughter was in high
WINGS CONFERENCE
WINGS 2019 is a free one-day conference open to all women, Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8 a.m.
to 3:30 pm at Clatsop Community College, Columbia Hall, second fl oor.
Sessions and workshops include Clatsop Community College degrees, certifi cate pro-
grams and pathways, GED, job skills, student fi nancial aid, scholarships, career planning
and non-traditional careers, conquering math anxiety, CCC admissions and support
services for students and the Lives in Transition Program.
The event is a collaboration of the Seaside and Astoria branches of the American Asso-
ciation of University Women and Clatsop Community College. Free breakfast, lunch and
professional child care are provided.
Real-time Spanish translation with earphones will be provided for Latina attendees.
Preregistration, either online or by phone, is required. For information or to register, go to
clatsopcc.edu or call 503-717-1852.
WINGS
WINGS alumna Nayeli Cruz has fi ve
children and continues her schooling.
school and she didn’t have enough cred-
its to graduate,” the Astoria resident
said. “So I tried to reach somebody to
get information about how she could get
her GED.”
In 2012, she reached out again to the
college — this time for herself.
“I said, ‘What can I do? I don’t want
to be in the cannery for the rest of my
life.’”
Contreras took a pretest and scored
high. An adviser urged her to attend the
WINGS conference.
“I said, ‘Sign me up,’” Contreras
recalled.
At the conference, she expected to
see only teenagers and young people.
Instead, she encountered people her age
— she is 52 now — “some younger and
some older.”
“I thought, if they can do it, I can do
it too,” Contreras said.
She received vouchers for test-
ing, application fees and three college
credits.
She passed the GED three months
later, receiving her high school diploma
and subsequently enrolling at Clatsop
Community College.
Going to school and working full
time was “really diffi cult,” Contreras
said. In 2013, she had no car and worked
at the cannery from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m.
At the end of the shift, she walked
from the cannery back home, returning
around 3:40, only to set the alarm at 7 to
get to a math class at 8.
Contreras left the cannery in 2014,
fi nding part-time employment while she
continued her schooling. She earned her
associate’s degree in general studies in
2016, and her goals began to take shape.
She began working full time at the
Lower Columbia Hispanic Council as an
Oregon Health Plan outreach and enroll-
ment specialist.
This spring, she will continue her
undergraduate education with online
classes from Portland State University.
Women in the program pursue var-
ied interests, with many approaching
the medical fi eld, where “there’s always
going to be a need, no matter how old
you are,” Contreras said.
Overcoming barriers
Members of AAUW now emphasize
outreach both to Latina women and the
companies they work for, McIntyre said.
Providence Seaside, Seaside Kiwanis
and Walmart are among businesses to
contribute to the program. AAUW is
reaching out to local employers, includ-
ing the canneries.
These companies feel their workers
will get a sense of “hope and inspira-
tion, and will probably continue working
when they’re in school,” McIntyre said.
A Walmart manager told McIntyre
not only can any woman who wants to
go have the day off, “but she will be
written on the schedule so she will be
paid on Walmart’s dime.”
“She’s one of our success stories,
someone who’s really made it after grad-
uating from WINGS,” McIntyre said.
“I keep telling people that the
WINGS conference was the best payday
I ever had,” Contreras said. “I had my
GED paid, my registration, my place-
ment paid, the college credits paid —
over $500. That got me started.”
For Contreras, the experience has
been life-changing.
“Oh my God. There are not words to
express how I feel. I come from Mexico,
a family of seven — and I’m the fi rst
person to go to university.”
She is confi dent others will benefi t
from her example. “They see if I can do
it, they can do it.”
R.J. Marx is editor of the Seaside Sig-
nal and Cannon Beach Gazette, and cov-
ers South County for The Daily Astorian.
Corporate partnerships
The WINGS program — a loose
acronym for “Women INterested in
Going to School” — is free and avail-
able to citizens and noncitizens alike.
But the country’s political environ-
ment has made some Latinas wary, Con-
treras said.
“It is kind of diffi cult now because
people are kind of scared,” she said.
“They don’t know if it’s really free or (a
way) to fi nd out where you are.”
Many Latinas working in the cannery
come from countries where they may
have received schooling or a degree, but
are unaware of education options here,
Contreras said.
“They don’t know,” she said. “And
when you don’t know what you can do,
you are blind. But after you tell them
what they can do, answer their questions
— ‘Do I have to quit my cannery job
tomorrow?’ No. It’s going to take time.
It is not going to take just six months.
Just learning English is going to take a
year, or more than that.”
After learning about the WINGS pro-
gram, she added, more than half opt for
the education.
The biggest obstacle is the “fear fac-
tor,” McIntyre said.
“You’d be amazed at what the
self-esteem issue can to to people think-
ing, ‘I’m too old,’ ‘I’m too far down
the road,’ ‘I won’t fi t in,’ ‘I don’t know
enough English.’ We tell them (AAUW
is) 50 women who are here to help you
— there’s no catch.”
‘THIS IS OUR 17TH YEAR, AND I’M EMBARRASSED TO SAY, WE’VE ONLY REACHED OUT TO THE LATINA
COMMUNITY TWO YEARS PRIOR TO THIS — AND NOT VERY WELL.’
Ane McIntyre, WINGS conference