Recently, the Collage Board, an organization that compiles educational statistics, made public a report indicating that 206,000 Hispanic students took the SAT academic aptitude test this year, compared with the nearly 95,000 Hispanic pupils that completed the test ten years ago. Without a doubt, this is an important leap in the right direction. This means that the number of Hispanics completing American university entrance exams has doubled in this decade alone.
However, this academic success, which brings with it undeniable benefits, also creates unexpected generational problems between parents and children as well as between community leaders and young people.

In addition to the statistical information about Hispanics’ testing habits, the report provides interesting facts about the background of the students taking the SAT: 30 percent said that English was not their first languages and 61 percent were the first in their families to go to college; at 20 percent of students surveyed, medical degrees are preferred by young Hispanics, followed by Business Administration at 13 percent and engineering, at 8 percent.
This study by College Board emphasizes the fact that many Hispanics don’t settle for merely finishing high school, because “more than a third of Hispanic students hope to complete masters degrees, while almost a fourth aspire to obtain doctorates” .

All of the above is excellent news. What is there to worry about then? Unfortunately, many Hispanic students, after attending University, never return home and lose touch with the traditions, values and conservative customs that helped them to get to the University in the first place through hard work and effort. In this distancing from family and roots, a loss of values is produced that has strong repercussions in their lives whether or not these students recognize them.
Along this route, we find the first generation of Hispanic university graduates that don’t return to their roots after completing a university degree. There are many circumstances that help to explain this phenomenon. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 90 percent of Hispanics under 18 years of age that live in the USA were born here and because of this were raised and educated following the customs of general American society, but not necessarily the traditions of their parents or other conservative sectors of society.

This problem, that affects so many young Americans, is the overwhelming influence of a mass media and a social environment that supports the relaxation of morals, that doesn’t appreciates effort or hard work and cultivates superficial and hedonistic ways of life, also ends up affecting young Hispanics, immersed in a culture that tries to sell its youth on pleasure, superficial relationships, and has little or no respect for conservative and family values.
This distancing from conservative values that are largely responsible for the university success of Hispanics in the first place, is often a result of the University environment, where so-called “progressive” values reign and conservative ideology is unfashionable at best.. This particular academic environment, is converted in a key element of the generational breach among Hispanics and between younger and older generations of the same family.






Because of this, it’s more important than ever to not only to nurture relationships and family values, but also to promote classic conservatism in general American culture, the culture that future generations of Hispanics will embrace.
If we consider the battle already lost, we will lose our values, something that has already happened in many countries. Technology is a necessary ally in the fight to bring young Hispanics back to the conservative core beliefs that initially allowed them triumph in the North American system.
University success, a much hoped for and necessary goal, can’t be permitted to distract us from the other life factors that are so essential to the interior growth and development of all human beings: sharing our lives and living space with others; maintaining inherited traditions; commitments to loved ones, be they in the form of matrimony, romantic courtship or friendship; raising a family; child-care; respect and dignity for elders; keeping traditional values. These are just a few of the most important factors that permit us to live a life full of opportunities through principles, strong commitments, hard work and effort.

The University is an exceptional tool for cultural integration that young Hispanics mustn’t waste, but parents and children must learn to maintain the best of their traditions and cultural roots in order to avoid a generation gap and the problems it can present for families and communities.
Today, according to Grupo Barna, 61 percent of university students abandon their parents’ belief systems in the first two years of studies. 60 percent of those young people never return to practicing those beliefs. This is a challenge that must be addressed immediately, because many times the values lost are truly important and positive. Education should demonstrate to young Hispanics that there are more important things than money or ambition. Service to our fellow men, faith, generosity, family are just a few of the veritable universe of traditions that we can choose to inherit. These traditional values can be our support foundation in the long journey that is life, if we make them a priority in our lives. We mustn’t forget: Success is not without sacrifice, but if we give up our values in the pursuit of academic or financial success, any victory achieved becomes meaningless.