Can Scholarships Save Mexican Town?
Indaparapeo is like so many towns in the heart of central Mexico. Farming, the main source of income, barely provides enough for survival. To make ends meet, many families here depend on money sent home by relatives living abroad.
But CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports that Indaparapeo does something no other community does: The residents of this town – and those who have migrated to the U.S. – are transforming their entire community one student at a time with scholarships.
Consider Laura Saens – a senior studying accounting at a university in nearby Morelia. She'll earn her degree in a few months and be the first college graduate in her family.
"This scholarship is the only way I can pay for school," she says.
Saens and 46 other low-income students from Indaparapeo are sponsored by an innovative program funded by Indaparapeans in the United States and operated by residents still living in Mexico.
Horacio Tovar is one of the founders of 'Grupo Indaparapeo.'
Tovar says if students are educated, they're more likely to stay in Mexico. Most of Horacio's family did leave – including his brother Luis, who now lives in Chicago. He helped raise $30,000 last year in Illinois and Northern California, where most of Indaparapeo's migrants live.
"A lot of people, they die trying to cross the border and that was another reason why we thought it was important to invest in education," Luis Tovar says.
Thanks to matching funds from the Mexican government, each student receives a monthly stipend of up to 1,500 pesos – about $150 – enough to pay for tuition even at some private universities.
Read Pinkston's CBS Evening News report on Mexican farmers.
In exchange, scholarship recipients are required to participate in community service projects such as lending a hand to children with special needs or tutoring high school students in nearby villages.
The goal is to connect scholarship recipients more closely to their communities – with the hope that they will use their skills in Mexico after graduation.
Horatio Tover says he wants all of the scholarship winners to stay home in Mexico, but when Pinkston asks is he thinks they all will, he says "I'm not sure."
In fact, the scholarship program doesn't force students to remain in Mexico because organizers know that, even with a professional degree, finding a job here is difficult.
"The United States is very attractive for these students," Luis Tovar says, "but at least we believe we give them an opportunity to stay there and be successful there."
It's an opportunity that has Saens at least thinking about staying in Mexico after graduation.
"I think I can help people who are here," she says.
If Saens does remain in Mexico, there's little doubt she will make a difference.