Youth ambassador urges peers to consider college

by Maddy Houk

Patterson Irrigator | July 18, 2007

[TURLOCK]  Madeleine Ielmini wants local students to know they can go to college.  The 12-year-old daughter of Tom and Katherine Ielmini is a youth ambassador for Campaign for College Opportunity, a group that strives to get students to enroll at community colleges and University of California and California State University campuses.

"We're trying to remind legislators of the 1960 Master Plan (for Higher Education in California) that said they would save every eligible person a spot in college," Madeleine said. 

Last year, Madeleine heard an announcement at Creekside Middle School about a "Save Me a Spot in College" essay contest and entered, but didn't win.  She was interested in the program, though, so she signed on as a youth ambassador. Over the past year, she has talked with her friends, put up posters at her school and met with legislators in Sacramento to tout the value of college education.

"I think it's important for California legislators to save us a spot, because there are a lack of highly educated people and almost all of the jobs require highly educated people," said Madeleine, who will start eighth grade in August. "We don't want California to turn into a dump because no one is educated."

She also urged legislators to vote "yes" on Senate Bill 890, the Early College Commitment Program, which would work with sixth- through ninth graders who sign a pledge to go to college.

Those students would be urged to take challenging courses in high school and could have their community college fees waived if they kept up their grades. Katherine Ielmini, Madeleine's mother, said the campaign is a big deal.  "They told them, even kids who don't think they can go to college can," Ielmini said. "It's a great program — it really is — especially in the Central Valley, especially where the college rate is so low. It helps kids who would not otherwise think about college."

Try, try again

Madeleine entered the "Save Me a Spot in College" essay contest again this year. This time, she won $500 and was one of 30 students from the Modesto and Turlock areas honored at a dinner July 6 at California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock.

Of the 8,000 entries submitted statewide, an independent panel of judges chose 200 winners in written word, poster and TV ad categories. Youth ambassadors will take all of the entries to the state capital.

Essays explained why students want to go to college, have successful careers, give back to their communities and country and pursue further knowledge.

Jesse Ryan of the Campaign for College Opportunity said he and the rest of the crew were delighted when Madeleine, one of three junior highage ambassadors in the area, won an essay prize.

Ryan said Madeleine's entry was mature beyond her years.  "Madeleine is an incredibly bright, energetic and dedicated young lady," Ryan said. "She's one of those rare youth that understands that it's important for her peers to get the message that college is in their future.

"At the tender age of 11 years old, she had the courage to meet with legislators and tell them why it was important that Central Valley students have the opportunity to go to college. Since then, she's gone on to be an advocate for college access in her community."

Madeleine's essay laid out two scenarios for the future. In the first, where youth were educated, the economy prospered and California became an even more beautiful place to live. In the other scenario, the state did not invest in its youth. The young people were not educated, and industry moved to other states and countries — and California as we know it deteriorated. She ended with a question: "How would you choose the future of California?"

Active student

Madeleine has not decided what college she'd like to attend, but she says she wants to be a structural engineer.  "I want to make things work," Madeleine said. "I want to be the person who makes the architects' plans for design work."

At Creekside, she is in California Scholarship Federation and in the Youth Court program, where boys and girls hear cases and determine consequences for their peers’ misbehavior during school. Madeleine is part of WEB — Where Everybody Belongs — a group that helps sixth-graders make the transition into middle school.  She also plays basketball.