This article was a winner of Lookout’s 2026 Journalism Scholarship Challenge, which invited high school students to highlight an unsung hero in their lives. Learn more and find all of the winners here.
A huge issue in our community is the lack of resources that families have for their children’s education. This is especially true for migrant families, and this is where Yolanda Melgoza’s dedication and hard work come in. As the migrant parent coordinator for Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), Yolanda Melgoza devotes her career to helping families who feel unsupported with their children’s education.
Yolanda’s journey began in San Antonio, Michoacan, where she would describe her upbringing as a beautiful childhood that was filled with a lot of fun. She was surrounded by her community, which included her friends, cousins and weekly church gatherings. “It was a beautiful childhood with a lot of friends and growing up in a really close community,” she said. This upbringing is what shaped the values of connection and belonging, which help guide her work.
Her path wasn’t always easy, as at a point in her life, she became a child of migrant parents. She remembers her parents coming late from work, exhausted by the long hours of labor that they worked in the fields for low wages. These childhood experiences became the foundation for her mission, which would be to ensure that migrant families have greater opportunities and stronger support systems.
After graduating from university, Yolanda did not initially plan to become a migrant parent coordinator. She first began working at summer school, which eventually led her to get a teaching position. She then taught for several years before becoming a migrant resource teacher, where she focused on providing academic guidance and support to students. When she saw an opening for the migrant parent coordinator position, she took the opportunity and applied for the job.
Every day, she meets with parents, listens to their concerns and connects them with resources that will help them overcome these challenges. She helps families navigate everyday language barriers and unfamiliar systems, and helps with limited access to resources. As she explains, “I really like working with families, helping them……. supporting them so they can understand their challenges.”
Even though Yolanda puts a lot of effort into trying to make the parents’ concerns go away, there are challenges that need to be overcome. Many of the families she works with struggle with immigration fears and difficult working conditions. One of the most challenging parts of her job is when there are not enough resources to meet everyone’s need. She has expressed that she highly dislikes injustices in the system, especially when it holds her back from fully helping a family. Despite all of these obstacles, she persevered and continues to advocate and search for solutions, knowing that it will all be worth it in the end. She says, “I think about the impact of how I can help them with their needs so their life can be easier and their children can have a good life and a good future.”
Yolanda’s impact on the migrant community can be seen in the long-term success, as many of the students that she has supported have grown up to be teachers, police officers and professionals in various fields. By providing parents with knowledge and resources, she has been able to create stable foundations for students to succeed academically and pursue higher education. She explains, “I see myself continuing to work with the families that need the most help, the families that do not have a voice to empower them, to advocate for them, and to educate them so they can become an advocate for their own children.”
Isabela Vasquez Melgoza is a student at Diamond Technology Institute