A recent Polk County graduate said his migrant farming skills helped him get to the finish line.

“It kept me off the streets,” said Augustin Lozano. “At the end of the day, it’s straight cash — you get your money as soon as you’re done.”

Lozano wakes up at 5 a.m. and then drives sometimes up to six hours to pick fruit. During the school year, that was mostly limited to weekends, but he said that every summer, this is how he helped his family pay the bills.

“My mom and her siblings, her whole family, have been working [in the fields] since they were children,” said Lozano. “It became a natural thing coming along as a child with my mother. We’re all migrant farmers.”

Farming is a big part of Florida’s economy and not just for those in the state. Upwards of 200,000 migrant and seasonal farmers travel into Florida for work, according to the Florida Health Department.

“We’ve been driving three to four hours, but today it’s close; we’re going to Bowling Green,” said Lozano.

Spectrum News rode with Lozano and the other migrant farmers that the head of the pack picked up along the way, going to Bowling Green, Florida, and after about 10 minutes of driving into the town, were on a long dirt road that led to a large field of Sangria Watermelon.

Augustin Lozana is headed to Michigan State University. (Ashonti Ford/Spectrum News)

The sun had barley started to rise, and the men were already in the field, quickly picking 20-pound watermelon as their work of the day.

“We’re out here for about four hours, said Lozano. “We can pick about 800 a day.”

Migrant farming is what Lozano knows, but he’s made choices for his life that will allow him to explore another lifestyle.

“I’m going to Michigan State University,” said Lozana. “I really have my migrant teacher to thank. There was a point in time when I said I wasn’t going to college. I was just going to work and get my money up. She said I had a good head on my shoulders. Because of her, I’m sitting on $23,000 scholarships; technically if everything goes good, all I have to do is pay $6,000 for four years of school.”

Lozano is one of four in the nation to receive the Albert Lee Wright J. Memorial Migrant Scholarship and the first in his family to pursue a four-year college education.