Besides hard work, nothing is ordinary about the path that brought Luís Leyva to UC Davis.
Leyva is a graduate of a high school equivalency program for migrant workers run by California State University, Sacramento. This fall he will begin studying chemistry at the University of California, Davis. After he earns a bachelor's degree, he plans to go to medical school.

"I've always wanted to get into medicine," the 20-year-old recalled. "It's been my dream since I was small."

But the son of Mexican migrant workers was born into circumstances that made it much more difficult to pursue that goal. He and his family moved to new cities within the United States and Mexico nearly every school year of his young life.

Kindergarten and first grade were spent in Ontario, just east of Los Angeles, where his parents had found work.

Leyva was back in Mexico for the second grade, but a year later his dad was processing meat in Iowa and that's where he enrolled in third grade.

As a fourth-grader, he was once again in Mexico. But he spent the next two years -- the fifth and sixth grades -- in Sioux Falls, N.D.

"That's where I really learned English," said the articulate and bilingual Leyva.

He graduated from middle and high schools in Sonora, Mexico, but when he returned to California, the state refused to recognize his high school diploma.

Then he learned about the CSUS High School Equivalency Program for migrant workers.

David Bayer, the program's director, said its goal is to prepare migrant workers to pass a battery of five general educational development (GED) tests covering literature, mathematics, social sciences, physical sciences and a written essay. The tests can be taken in English or Spanish.

The curriculum is similar to that offered by the public school system. The program, paid for by a grant from the U.S. Office of Migrant Education, was founded in 1993.

Many of the classes are held in the evening to accommodate working students. Many, if not most, of the students are farm workers, Bayer said. The average age is about 35.

The first 100 graduates walked across the stage in 1995. Since then, about 133 people have earned their diplomas each year.

Leyva graduated in 2000 and began taking pre-med classes at Woodland Community and American River colleges. He also tutors students enrolled in the high school equivalency program's evening class in Woodland.

Operating from Sacramento State's Cross Cultural Resource Center, the program offers immigrants an educational boost that, many hope, will help them land higher-paying jobs and, ultimately, have the better lives they and their families seek.

The program runs five classes in Woodland and Colusa. Leyva's classroom is in a small, temporary structure that is about 12 feet across and 15 feet long at Woodland Community College.

The students keep busy studying a variety of subjects: On a recent evening, two young women appeared to be struggling with fractions until their teacher, Liliana Verdin, came to their aid; another was reading an article about Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez; other students were practicing English.

Maps of the United States and other countries line the walls, along with writing boards and inspirational quotes by people such as Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don't know each other. They don't know each other because they can't communicate with each other because they are separated from each other."

And Mark Twain: "El Secreto para progresar está en comenzar (The secret to progress is to begin)."

Under a poster of a wind-whipped American flag, a sign reminds the students that "Choice, not chance, determines destiny."

The class's teacher, Verdin, shuns the spotlight, but next month two of her 15 students will graduate -- Ana Bermudez, a 26-year-old Davis resident originally from Jalisco, Mexico, and Andreas Estrada, a native of Mexico City who always brings his 7-year-old daughter, Brisa Andrea, to class. They will join nearly 100 graduates from the program's other classes.

Estrada, who installs air-conditioning ducts, also has worked at a cannery and a warehouse since immigrating with his wife and daughter in 1998. He ran a small restaurant in Mexico.

His is the classic story of a newcomer to America. In the old country, he said, word of the tremendous opportunities in the United States kindled the desire to yearn for more than his country could offer.

"I have a dream to find a better life for my family," said Estrada, whose wife operates a machine in a factory. Sitting at a small table in a corner of the classroom, he praised the program and thanked Verdin and Leyva for encouraging and helping him over rough spots.

"I feel very comfortable with this program," the 42-year-old Sacramento resident said. "The teacher and her aide stayed with me. They told me it's never too late, that anyone who wants to achieve something can. This program encourages me to keep going with the things I want to do."

After graduation, the picture seems less clear. Maybe he will go to college, Estrada said. Perhaps he will study medicine.

Bermudez has been in the United States since 1997. After two years she, too, is ready to graduate. Like her classmates, she came to California for "better opportunities to work and the possibility to study," she said.

For the past 16 months, the soft-spoken student has worked at a day-care center, tending to babies and toddlers. Before that she worked in a warehouse, packaging compact discs. Her dream is to work in an office, and she'd like to go to college.

The decision to move to the United States has paid off for the 11 members of her family.

"At first it was hard," she said. "But now my family is doing better -- a lot better -- economically."