Meant to inspire first-gen students. What’s the story behind award-winning Fresno billboard?

Leqi Zhong
·4 min read

A billboard designed by Fresno and Clovis high schoolers, featuring immigrant families and meant to inspire first-generation students is live on Clovis Avenue between Clinton and Olive avenues.

The billboard, which shows a father and his graduate daughter walking the trails of a farm accompanied by the text “You can do it” in English, Spanish, and Hmong, is a winning project among 16 groups of students attending the Law and Policy Lab at the Center of Advanced Research and Technology (CART). The project includes a poster and brochures in three languages to distribute to schools in Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified, laying out resources and opportunities to prepare first-generation students and their families for graduation and higher education.

“It’s our main goal to just keep going, along with immigrant parents,” said Mia Rivera, who is a junior at Sunnyside High School and served as the prototype for the daughter in the poster. “They don’t have the education and the knowledge entering college, so I really want to raise the awareness that students can go to college and feel more comfortable.”

The winning group consists of nine juniors and seniors from six high schools in Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified. They are all first-generation students, the group told the Fresno Bee, and they found themselves struggling with obtaining guidance to navigate high school and how to apply for college. The group came up with the idea to inspire and help their fellow community.

“Along with a billboard, we also distributed to other high schools these templates which were kind of like a guide for high school students,” said Montserrat Ayala Llamas, a junior from Edison High School. “Like maybe the freshman years, you start joining the club, once you get into your sophomore year, continue to keep your grades up, your junior year, a little more involved, and then your senior year, you have already created a database for yourself.”

“We hope it helps students in a summary of how they can successfully enter college,” she added.

The group of students won the contest. From left to right: Dellon Koobtshaj Moua (Clovis High), Mia Rivera (Sunnyside High), Michelle Maldonado (Edison High), Alejandra Garcia Castillo (Bullard High), Montserrat Ayala Llamas (Edison High), Alexandra Jasmine Ortiz (Fresno High), Kimberly Nhiawa Vang (Edison High), Dalina Vilchis Avalos (Clovis High), Julianna Garcia Torres (Roosevelt High).

The contest has been running for ten years, said Adam Higginbotham, the government and economics teacher at the Law and Policy Lab. Each group chooses a topic and a Central Valley nonprofit they would like to highlight. The teams are paired with mentors to help refine their ideas and gain support and resources for the projects. The billboard is sponsored by Outfront Media, a Fresno media and outdoor advertising company. Its graphic artist Billy Montoya helps students with designs and coloring. The company also arranges judges across the industries to choose the winner.

“What Billy told me is that it spoke to a lot of different groups of people in a very wide way... We mentioned that there was a little bit of stereotype, an immigrant walking through a field, but it’s a good thing for them, that’s what Billy told us, things that captured what you already know,” Higginbotham told the Bee. “I think they typically go for those strong images that have you immediately when you’re close to 45 miles an hour (passing a billboard in your vehicle), you get it right away.”

Students said they encountered the most difficulties when they tried to cold pitch the idea to nonprofits and city officials to seek help, but they built endurance, persistence, and friendship in the process.

“Our vision finally came to life,” said Kimberly Nhiawa Vang, a senior from Edison High School. “It’s overall very rewarding, and it’s very nice to see other students that cared about this so much. I’ve never spoken about it because a lot of people aren’t aware of frustration issues.”

Our parents did not go to college and get that experience... now that the pressure is on me, they want me to step up and go to better schools and work on jobs to make my parents proud,” said Dellon Koobtshaj Moua, a senior from Clovis High School. “CART is really a loving family, the whole experience I get here is really hands-on, especially with the law because I want to become federal law enforcement, so that really helps us to push toward.

“The great thing is they will continue this passion in this project, going forward, go to college, wherever they go next, and that’s what they take away is that confidence, communication skills, collaboration, understanding of what’s going on in the world, particularly in areas where advocacy is important,” said Dr. Rick Watson, chief executive officer for CART.

Established in 2000, CART offers career-based courses for junior and senior students of high schools in Fresno and Clovis Unified School Districts. Each year, more than 1,500 students spend half of their school days attending labs, classes, and mentoring at CART, as well as completing industry-based projects to receive academic credits.