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Colleges Taking Different Approaches to Attract Latino Students
By Chris Hassan
Posted June 12, 2012 05:51 PM
Colleges find different ways to raise Latino enrollment numbers.By 2020, President Barack Obama wants to see the U.S. have the highest proportion of college graduates – something that simply is not possible without first increasing the number of Latinos interested in earning a degree, according to a press release from Excelencia in Education. Currently, the degree attainment gap between first-time, full-time Latino students and their white, non-Hispanic counterparts is 14%.
"The state-level data on Latino college completion show that today's investment, or lack thereof, in Latino academic preparation and degree attainment can have a compounding effect on state populations, economies and communities in the near future," said Deborah Santiago, Excelencia’s cofounder and vice president for policy and research, in a statement.
Despite the fact that the nation’s colleges and universities have a ways to go to achieve the President’s goal, some schools are taking action now to increase the number of Latino bachelor’s degree seekers in their classrooms. One such institution is Amherst College in Massachusetts, where Latino enrollment is up 12%, The Boston Globe reports.
One advantage Amherst has that other schools do not is a $1.6 billion endowment, which allows the college to provide many students with the financial aid they require. In addition, the institution is known to bring about 200 individuals from across the country to Amherst’s Massachusetts campus for diversity open houses.
In some cases, the Latino students who are flown to Amherst’s campus may never have been in an airport, let alone Massachusetts, Tom Parker, the college’s admissions director, told the Globe.
Boston’s Wheelock College is another school that has managed to improve its Latino enrollment numbers in recent years. In 2006, only 5% of the school's total student population was Latino. Today, this number is around 15% thanks to a series of initiatives, including mentoring and community outreach programs.
Of course, Massachusetts is not the only state focused on this goal. The Greater Kansas City Hispanic Scholarship Fund is making a difference in the lives of many Missouri Latinos, The Kansas City Star reports. Recently, the fund awarded $350,000 in financial assistance to 229 recipients. This will make a significant impact on the state’s enrollment numbers, considering that just four years ago, the fund provided only $129,000 in scholarships.
