Bethany College
Roberto Mata
From the fields to Harvard

After graduating from high school Roberto Mata spent more than three years laboring alongside other migrant workers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The work was backbreaking and monotonous. Even more agonizing for Mata was watching his dream of going to college slowly dissipate like the morning dew.

“When you have dreams to do something in life, but you can’t pursue them because you don’t have the means, it’s tough,” says Mata, 26, who migrated from Mexico to California with his family in 1991. “Some days I’d become so frustrated I’d pray and ask God, ‘Why don’t You give me an opportunity to go to college? I’ll do my best.’ ”

As Mata toiled in the fields he didn’t know that God was in the process of teaching him some of life’s greatest lessons — lessons that would eventually lead him to Bethany College in Scotts Valley, Calif., then on to one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

“Those hard times became a time of growth and I began to experience God in a new way,” says Mata, who became a follower of Jesus when he was a senior in high school. “Accepting Christ kept the hope of going to college alive.”

Because Mata was not away at college, he became involved at his church. He was a leader in the youth group and helped with the Royal Rangers. While chaperoning teens from his church to summer camp, Mata, then 22, met public relations representatives from Bethany College.

Sensing that if he didn’t go to college that year he might not ever, he enrolled at Bethany that fall.

“I was accepted on academic probation,” he says, admitting that his language and study skills were weak. “I had a 1.95 grade point average in high school and spent three years speaking only Spanish in the fields.

“I came to the school in faith,” he adds. “I had no money, but I knew God could provide.”

He enrolled in basic classes at Bethany, enlisted the help of tutors and prayed that God would help his mind absorb all the new information.

“I had no hope of getting scholarships or grants so I got a job at a Wendy’s restaurant and took out loans,” he says. In that first semester, with the support of professors, tutors and friends, Mata achieved a 3.5 GPA.

His GPA remained high the following semester, but he ran out of finances. His dream of attending college was once again threatened. However, one of his professors set up a meeting for him with Bethany’s president, Everett Wilson.

Mata told Wilson of his desire to continue his education.

“All I had were dreams and my desire to do well,” Mata says. “With only that, President Wilson and my professors decided to help me.”

His grades continued to rise. He achieved straight A’s, became a tutor and secured academic and needs-based grants to pay for his education. During his junior year his professors encouraged him to pursue a graduate degree. He applied to two universities that seemed worlds away from his days in the fields.

“My friends would say, ‘What if you don’t get accepted?’ ” he recalls. “I’d tell them, ‘I can only try. I’ve done my best.’ ”

The first school to reply was Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Not only did Harvard accept him; it offered a full scholarship and living stipend. Princeton accepted him too and offered a full scholarship, but no stipend.

“I decided to go to Harvard,” he says. “As a Hispanic I have seen the effects of illiteracy on my people and that many of them are not motivated or encouraged to pursue an education. Perhaps my story will motivate someone else to pursue his or her dreams.”

This September, sitting among one of the world’s most elite student bodies will be a former migrant worker from an Assemblies of God college who knows that the combination of hard work, dedication and trust in God can take one anywhere — even to Harvard.

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