At CSUF, where 24 percent of the 32,592 students enrolled are Hispanic, resources and assistance are often vital to academic success. The Chicano Resource Center offers a number of special events and workshops each year to help Hispanic students who want to learn more about their cultures or want to enhance their academic studies.

"I owe a great deal of gratitude to many," Cardenas says of his education. "My parents, despite their poverty, would send $5 or $10 when they could. My mother would sometimes send a 'cultural care package' — tacos de chorizo con huevos {Mexican sausage and egg tacos} and pan dulce {Mexican sweet bread}.

"Since Spanish was my first language and the one we used at home, it was difficult at first to communicate only in English. Like my older brother, I became very aware that I was one of the only Hispanic students on campus. Hardly anyone looked like me, and none of the professors did.

"However, I was fortunate to have some outstanding professors with a deep passion for teaching and a desire to challenge their students intellectually," he says. "One of my political science professors had a profound impact, motivating me to go to graduate school."

Without federal aid programs, though, Cardenas said it would have been difficult for him to complete his bachelor's degree at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. In graduate school, he participated in the National Teachers Corps, which made it possible to finance his master's degree at Texas A & M University. He received funding for his Ed.D. studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst through a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship.

Like Cardenas, Fullerton students sometimes have doubts and want to leave school because they are intimidated. In fact, Hispanics are more likely to be on academic probation or not as likely to finish their degrees than the general student body. When students are struggling, Cardenas or a faculty mentor will often step in to try to help.

"We let students know that struggling is OK," he says. "Some of their studies are much more difficult than they imagined. But we also need to keep encouraging them. We're here to help and we want to help."

"Whether they know it or not, these students are on a journey—a journey to an education and a better way of life. I am so grateful that there were so many to help me on my journey from migrant worker to university professor."