BRADENTON, Fla. — Jocelyn Lerma’s parents have been migrant farmers since they moved to the U.S. from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, about 20 years ago.
Each summer during the rainy months, Lerma and her three older siblings would have to leave Myakka City and travel to Michigan for cucumber season there.
The travel was fun when she was young, but it became yet another obstacle once she entered middle school.
“I would return to Florida having only gone to school for two weeks in Michigan while the rest of my classmates have already finished a quarter of the school year," Lerma said.
Lerma was the keynote speaker Friday at the Annual Migrant Tea at Trinity United Methodist Church in Bradenton.
Lerma is one of the nearly 400 Manatee County School District students whose parents are migrant farmers. This year, these students are enrolled in dozens of schools.
“So in addition to poverty, in addition to a language barrier, they don't have an education that doesn't get that continuity,” said Mario Mendoza, the proud migrant education program coordinator for the Manatee County School District.
Families like hers have traveled to Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey this year.
Hosted by the Manatee Church Women United, a cross-denominational group from more than 40 churches, the annual event is when these women present the migrant education program with donations that include basic items and handmade gifts.
“We have to realize that there are basic human needs that people have to meet first before they can excel academically,” Mendoza said.
The migrant education program also provides students with a summer program and tutoring programs throughout the year.
“I am a senior now; I’ll be graduating in May. I hope to go to Hillsborough County Community College to study diagnostic medical sonography to become an ultrasound tech,” Lerma said.
