Migrant shrimper finds way to Michigan State

Henry Wolfe IV is a junior at Michigan State University. He also has been a migrant worker since he was in the fourth grade.

The two have a connection, as does Wolfe's success with the support he receives from his family.

Wolfe comes from a family of shrimpers, which qualifies him to receive Migrant Education benefits under the No Child Left Behind Act because shrimping is a migratory occupation.

He's made the most of the opportunity.

His acceptance at Michigan State was a direct result of his academic readiness and his status as a migrant worker, said Fidencio Zavala, Migrant Education counselor for the Brownsville Independent School District.

The College Assistance Migrant Program at Michigan State helped pay for Wolfe's first year at the school and continues to provide support, Zavala said.

So does the work ethic he got from his father, Henry Wolfe III, and the head for the books that he got from his mother, Maria J. Wolfe.

"It's like I've got an angel on each shoulder," he said. "My mom's there in the back of my head saying ‘do good in school' and my dad's telling me to work hard."

The 2005 Rivera High School graduate is hoping to convince his younger brother Aaron, who graduates this spring, to follow him to Michigan State. Aaron has been accepted at Texas A&M University in College Station and at Michigan State. He wants to study agricultural science, then go to veterinary school.

He is leaning toward Michigan State because there he could go all the way through. C.A.M.P. and his brother already being there is also a help.

Aaron and his mother are planning a trip later this spring to the East Lansing campus, her first. Henry was home last week for spring break.

Maria Wolfe may not have been to Michigan State, but she's been there in spirit, according to her sons and their counselors.

"Mom was strictly school. If it wasn't for Mom, I never would have graduated, " Henry said.

"My friends say ‘your mom calls a lot' but I'm like ‘so what?' I hold my mom up high," he said.

Maria Wolfe "wants to be a role model for other moms and for us to be role models for other migrant students," Henry said.

"Parental involvement is very important," Zavala said.

"She has always pushed for well-behaved, respectful kids," Zavala said. "Without that, they wouldn't be where they are now"

Pushing her children to succeed is a no-brainer for Maria.

"It's because I love them," she said.

Wolfe started going to sea with his father the summer of his fourth-grade year. Before long he was the first mate among a crew of five.

"This is hard work and if you're not going to go to school, you're going to do this the rest of your life," Wolfe said his father told him. "You want pay, you've got to put your work in."

By the end of his freshman year he was migrating on his own to industrial-type jobs in Minnesota, thereby maintaining eligibility for migrant programs.

After his junior year, he migrated to a forklift job in Colorado, and his father followed him, working as a sandblaster and a painter.

"When I was younger, shrimping was a lot better, Wolfe said, pointing to reduced catch and much higher diesel costs. "Now it's just plain hard."

Wolfe said he had figured he would attend North Texas State until the day the recruiter from Michigan State showed up at Rivera.

"I didn't even know Michigan State existed," he said. "I was like North Texas. I'm from Texas, but I always had that dream of a big school. What caught my eye was 500,000 acres and 40-some thousand students, so I applied for it.

"That year, they were doing on-site acceptance," Zavala said. "Michigan State brought down a recruiter coordinator and an admissions officer and they were recruiting migrant students on the spot that were qualified and had motivation.

"We saw that this was a big opportunity. The kids were scrambling. We were scrambling," Zavala said.

"The C.A.M.P. program was reaching out. That's a real good resource to have up there," he added.

About half of the 60 or so C.A.M.P students who started with him remain at Michigan State, Henry Wolfe said, adding that many have transferred to other schools.

"A lot of my friends zero-pointed my first semester," Wolfe said. "I had a couple of classes but I came back the second semester and tried harder."

Before he left for East Lansing for his freshman year, Wolfe stayed home and worked in Brownsville to be close to his mother one last summer before college.

He has another younger brother, Jacob, who is a freshman and is in the college preparatory GEAR-Up program.