ASU's Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program helps new grads for 40 years

TEMPE, Ariz. - For 40 years, a program at Arizona State University has helped Arizonans fulfill their dreams of becoming college graduates. 

The Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program, or HMDP, was established in 1984 as a way to serve Hispanic mothers and their daughters who are striving to become first-generation college graduates. 

The program has expanded to help men and women of all ethnicities, and the program is seeing phenomenal results. 

Maria Becerra is a parent of one of those first-generation college student.

"Latinas that had already graduated, they were in big positions that I loved to see, and I thought ‘my kids can be that. I want my kids to be that,’" she says. 

She enrolled herself and her daughter Melissa Becerra into the program in 2000. 

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"I wanted my kids to go to college but I didn’t know how. I didn’t go to college. I didn’t know where to go or how to start," she explains. "In our culture, a lot of us are lost. We don’t know the steps. Our kids ask us questions and we don’t know the answer." 

The Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program at ASU opens doors for opportunities they never thought were possible. 

"None of my brothers or siblings or my kids (went to college). She was the 1st," she said. 

Seventh graders apply and go through a five-year program of workshops preparing them for college. 

The support doesn’t stop there. 

"When you get to the university, you know if you need help, I know where I can go to get help," said Melissa. 

Melissa graduated with her bachelor's and master's from ASU. 

"If it weren’t for that program, I truly wouldn’t have known how to get to college," she says. 

Her accomplishment certainly filled her mother with joy. 

"I feel so proud. And none of this would have happened without Hispanic Mother and Daughter Program," she said.