UA News

Rudy McCormick earned three degrees from the UA and soon found his niche working for an office that shares his same values.

Rudy B. McCormick III had to call his godmother on the way to The University of Arizona to ask for the cross streets on his first day as an undergraduate.

It wasn’t that McCormick, a low-income Hispanic teenager from the south side of town, had never been on the UA campus.

The Sunnyside High School graduate had recalled being on the UA campus exactly two times – once to visit the Flandrau Science Center and once during Spring Fling, the annual student-coordinated carnival.

But such events did not fit into the teenager’s view of what the UA was all about. McCormick would later learn that more than half the families in the Sunnyside Unified School District had never been on the University’s campus.

“Part of it may be a perceptual thing,” McCormick began, attempting to explain why.

"The UA is seen as a school where you can’t just walk on campus. That’s viewed as interrupting the learning environment,” he said. “But some don’t see the University as the community resource that it is. Mine was very much that experience as a new student.”

Things are much different now.

McCormick, who was born and raised in Tucson, has since earned three degrees from the UA, beginning with undergraduate degrees in family studies and psychology in 1997. In 2000, he earned a master’s degree in higher education.

But McCormick said he does not consider himself to be a special case or one that pulled himself up by the bootstraps.

That, he said, is the unfortunate model phrase for any person of color who succeeds.

What happened to him is what should happen to more students of color, he said.

But too many students are unaware of the opportunities to lead, excel and grow at the University, and also ways the UA works to get them on campus.

Yet, he has found that many families hold strong to the belief that education is priority one for their children.

“I have seen it,” McCormick said. “I’ve been in rooms full of families who, after working all day, sometimes two jobs, were devoting two hours to a workshop learning about college.”

The “big turning point” is in being able to see oneself on a campus like the UA, he said. That line not only defines what happened to McCormick, but it also defines his work now.

Today, McCormick spends his working hours in an office that shares his same values.

The UA’s Early Academic Outreach office is showing low-income, underrepresented, first-generation students of color and their families how their perceptions about higher education and the campus are not always accurate.

“Rudy’s story is not unique,” said Lori Tochihara, Early Academic Outreach director.

“However, he has used his personal experiences to help others navigate the college preparation process on a daily basis through his work,” Tochihara said.

“Rudy has first hand experience of what it means to be the first in his family to attend college, and he has inspired many students to pursue post-secondary education,” she added. “He believes in the vision that every student is capable and entitled to a college education.”

The same goes for the Early Academic Outreach office, where McCormick is associate director.

With Arizona being the nation’s fastest growing state, and one of increased diversity, outreach efforts are increasingly key to informing groups – especially those who have traditionally had less access to higher education – about the opportunities in higher education.

The office’s programs include Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, the Algebra Academy, the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program and also the College Academy for Parents.

The office also offers PSAT and SAT workshops and conducts outreach efforts to families and schools.

McCormick, the assistant director and others in the office also are attempting to teach others that traditionally underserved people value education and such populations are not bound for failure simply because of the communities they call home.

“There is a place for these students,” McCormick said, adding that his office works to show children and youth that college fits into their lifelong equation.

"By changing the educational outcomes of today’s students, we are also impacting the educational destinations of those student’s children," he said. "The work of early outreach can have a generational impact. That’s exciting.”

McCormick is doing the same in his household.

He met his wife, Melissa, as a student at the UA. Today their 6-year-old son Rudy says he wants to be an entomologist when he grows up, but his 4-year-old sister, Maya, wants to be a veterinarian.

The children can easily identify the UA campus as the family drives around Tucson.

“Rudy and Maya know that the UA is a part of the future that Melissa and I have planned for their education," McCormick said. "They have terminology and are gaining college-going messages from us as parents as early as possible."