Café Con Leche forms local partnerships to champion higher education

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Café Con Leche is partnering with MSU Texas, Vernon College, and the Wichita Falls ISD to encourage students to seek higher education and provide them with academic resources along the way.

Gonzalo Robles, the Founder of Café Con Leche, expressed that they are fortunate to have strong relationships with the area’s schools. In fact, their support starts as early as fifth grade. Together, they work with students and parents to build high expectations in homes, schools, and the broader community.

Nayely Trejo, a freshman at Midwestern State University, has been a part of Café Con Leche since she was young. She said the mentors and advice it has given her have been instrumental in her life.

“It helped us get more confident in ourselves, so now I feel more comfortable asking for help, so it’s like built up that confidence. “

Gonzalo Robles, the founder of Café Con Leche, said his team is providing students the support they need right as they begin their educational journeys.

“It provides the opportunity for the students not only to know that there are people in the community and that there are institutions like MSU and Vernon College that want them to consider attending college, and for the students to know that yes, they can,” Robles said.

Students in the program get this through intentional mentoring and college advice. Plus, when they pursue higher education, most don’t have to pay a dime.

“99% of our students that we have currently at MSU and Vernon College pay zero because they get the money either through financial aid and also scholarships. The other way we prepare students for college is that we encourage our students that starting in 6th grade, they have to take at least two advanced classes,” Robles went on to say.

Third-year psychology major at MSU Naomi Pearson is proof of that.

“Personally, helping me to live on campus and giving me scholarships to do that, and like Nayely says, just seeing the mentors and aspiring to be them in a way,” Pearson said.

Emmanuel Gonzales, an MSU sophomore, said Café Con Leche and its partners have prepared him for the next step.

“This has helped me to kind of get that college etiquette very early on, and as well as meeting a lot of important people in the community, kind of just getting that networking aspect, kind of to be academically ready for my high school courses as well as college courses,” Gonzales said.

Robles said the overall goal is to create a better, well-educated community that fosters the next generation of leaders, educators, and taxpayers.