Roxanne Ocampo is known affectionately by her students as “Quetzal Mama.” After planning and executing the strategies that would get her children to Harvard and USC in 2011, she decided to offer her coaching services for free to students. She works passionately, volunteering her time conducting weekly workshops to help low-income, Latino students (and their parents) navigate and succeed through K-12 and the college admission process. After initially hosting workshops in her dining room and the local Starbucks, Quetzal Mama created a website and Facebook page and began advertising. Today, she is booked nearly 6 months in advance, conducting student and parent workshops throughout California, every weekend, year-round. She presents at universities, community colleges, K-12 public school districts, ELACs/DELACs, non-profit organizations, PTAs, and college forums.

In 2012 she reached over 1,000 students. This year her numbers will double. To help reach more parents, she self-published her book, “Flight of the Quetzal Mama: How to Raise Latino Superstars and Get Them Into the Best Colleges.” School Districts throughout the US are using her book as a model, and promoting her work to help their EL and Latino parent populations. Today she is working on the release of her second book, “Nailed it! How to Nail the College Essay” released in August 2013.

Quetzal Mama is changing the landscape of the college admissions process for low-income, Latino students. She is determined to be part of the solution that makes acceptance to selective universities “the norm” versus the exception. She envisions a day when all Latino kindergartners and their parents contemplate a pathway to college, along with a roadmap and tools to guide them.