Empowering Future Leaders: My Experience Volunteering at ASU's Migratory Student Summer Academy

Walking Onto a University Campus for the First Time

There’s a moment I’ll never forget from my time volunteering at ASU’s Migratory Student Summer Academy. A young student — maybe fifteen years old — stepped onto the ASU campus and just stopped. She looked around at the buildings, the students walking by with backpacks, the library in the distance, and she whispered, “Is this real?” That moment encapsulated everything this program is about: giving students from migratory and farmworker families the chance to see themselves in spaces they’ve never been told they could occupy.

The Migratory Student Summer Academy provides students with a taste of college life — attending workshops, living in dorms, and learning from mentors who understand their unique challenges. Many of these students travel with their families following agricultural work, which means they often change schools multiple times a year. The gaps in their education aren’t a reflection of their intelligence; they’re a reflection of a system that wasn’t built with them in mind. Volunteering here reminded me of how much potential exists in communities that the world overlooks.

These Students Are the Future

What moved me most was the students’ hunger to learn and grow. They asked questions, they took notes, they showed up early and stayed late. By the end of the academy, you could see a visible shift in their confidence. They weren’t just thinking about college as a distant dream anymore — they were making plans. They were exchanging contact information, talking about applications, and supporting each other. These students are the future, and programs like this are the bridge that gets them there.