Story 13: High School Equivalency Program with Mike Wortman

Mike Wortman enjoys hearing a good story and sharing stories, especially if it involves his family, his beloved Lincoln High Links, Beta Fraternity, Rotary Club or one of the other community organizations where he has invested his time, and of course NHRI. Mike has experienced the program through many lenses: as counselor in Teenage project, Interviewer, Associate Director for HEP, Board President and Board Member for many years.

The High School Equivalency Program was designed to bring talented high school dropout children from migrant or seasonal farm worker families between the ages of 17-22 to campus to prepare them to take the General Educational Development exam (GED). When the test was successfully completed the graduates had the equivalence of a high school diploma. HEP students lived in university housing, attended classes five days a week as they took classes in math, grammar, literature, science, and social studies. HEP had a full-time paid director, an associate director, a staff counselor and four classroom teachers. At full capacity there were fifty students in the program at one time. The main goal of the program was to help each student obtain progressive, continuous full-time employment. Over the years students for this program were recruited from Texas, Arizona, western Nebraska as well as other places around the country. A high percentage of the students spoke Spanish as their first language. The average length of stay for a student was from eight to ten months.

As the program was beginning in the fall of 1968 the director, Gale Muller, met with the college students who were serving as counselors for other NHRI projects. He explained the purpose of the HEP program and how it was different from the other NHRI projects. He explained that the goal was for each of the 50 HEP students to have an assigned counselor for a one-on-one relationship, just like other NHRI projects. He asked if any current NHRI counselors were interested in also joining the HEP project to take on a second student in addition to their current K-12 student. Many counselors volunteered to be part of this new project. In addition, other college students were recruited to serve as HEP counselors so that each HEP student had a mentor.

In addition to earning a GED, students were prepared for employment. Students were given a chance to discuss their strengths, goals, and career plans. In some cases, students were assisted with job placements, independent living skills, and financial planning. Students were supported after graduation to help them transition successfully to the workforce.

HEP counselors often helped organize and plan weekend activities for the HEP students, such as bowling, camping, attending movies, and group gatherings. Because the university housing did not provide food on Sunday evenings, a regular activity was providing space for the students to cook food on Sunday evening. Many students were excited to be able to cook some traditional Mexican meals that their parents and grandparents had prepared for generations. These meals and other activities were examples of cross-culture experiences that helped both counselor and HEP student learn about each other’s culture. 

In the fall of 1969, Dr. Hall taught a university class for HEP counselors. The content included the basic principles of NHRI, that human potential is the most valuable resource and that developing human relations is the best way to develop that potential. The experience of the college students who served as HEP counselors may have had a bigger impact in their lives than the impact on the HEP students they were mentoring.  

Just before his senior year, Mike was approached by Dr. Muller, to serve as a HEP Project Leader. In this role, Mike supported the twenty male counselors in the project, similar to today’s Staff Advisor structure. As a graduate student, Mike continued to serve as a volunteer for the HEP program before accepting the position of Director for the HEP Program from 1973-1974.

When reflecting on his experiences in the HEP program, Mike recalled bringing his mentee, Jose, home with him over Thanksgiving break and watching Jose and his family interact and connect with each other. In fact, Mike shared that following that break, “at Christmas time, when [Jose] was back home in Pharr, TX with his family, he called us on Christmas eve and asked to speak with each family member.” He appreciated the expansion in cultural understanding that those experiences and the HEP program overall provided him and his fellow counselors. 

The 1969-70 Annual Report noted, Nebraska’s HEP program is unique in that it is the only one of the fifteen programs located on college campuses throughout the United States administered by a private foundation. It is also unique in that it is the only one in which each HEP student has a university counselor who works on a one-to-one basis. It was after the OEO learned of the work of the Foundation, and most especially the results of Family and Potentiality Development Projects that the Foundation was encouraged to apply for a federal grant and establish this program. Although no formal ratings as such are given, officials from the OEO who have visited here ranked ours as one of the top programs in the country. 

Furthermore, in a letter to Regent Robert G. Simmons, Jr., Tom Henry, Assistant to Vice President for Governmental Relations shared the following: “In my judgment the HEP (High School Equivalency Program) offered at the University of Nebraska is probably one of the better programs in the nation. This assertion is based upon student completions of the program, design of program offerings, and low staff turnover. The staff of the HEP have a history of cordial relations with other units of the University, i.e. Teachers College. Mr. John McVay, Director of the HEP, is a respected professional educator and has the best interest of both the University and the students enrolled in HEP at heart.”