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A new project will provide additional access to educational resources in an effort to improve Latino student academic success.
A $600,000 grant aims to improve the quality of education for Latino students in New Mexico.
UNM’s Division of Equity and Inclusion received the grant from the Lumina Foundation, a national private organization that focuses on higher education, which will fund the Unidos Project, a four-year project that aims to provide educational resources to Latino students in Bernalillo County.
Project director Jennifer Gomez-Chavez said the project will focus on students at UNM, CNM and Albuquerque Public Schools. She said the foundation allotted $11.5 million to projects nationwide, and that UNM was one of the 14 sites in 11 states that received a grant.
“We’ve looked at the different areas that we feel really need alignment and looked at areas where we could increase support and visibility to students, especially at these three institutions while working with community organizations,” Gomez-Chavez said.
Gomez-Chavez said the project focuses on the “opening the gate” principle, which aims to encourage more Latino students to finish college and encourage high school students to extend their educational goals by striving for a bachelor’s or associate’s degree.
Gomez-Chavez said the project will work in a community schools model, a model in which institutions help provide financial resources to students so that they can pay for high school and for college.
“Even in high schools, students need help holistically,” she said. “We’re looking at how we can help students and their families to be successful within financial resources and employment.”
Lumina Foundation program officer Tina Gridiron Smith said the foundation selected UNM because of the high concentration of the Latino population in the state. She said that UNM has already demonstrated focus in improving Latino education in previous years, and that the grant was well-deserved.
“It becomes very clear that they have a well-developed commitment to Latino student success,” she said.
Smith said the foundation has been working toward “Goal 2025,” an initiative that aims for 60 percent of the U.S. population to have “high-quality degrees and credentials” by the year 2025. She said the goal is a response to studies from Georgetown University, which concluded that by 2025, most jobs will require a college degree.
“What is exciting with the Unidos Project is that they embraced Latinos in that 60 percent goal,” she said. “It is exciting to work with an institution willing to do disaggregated work to put Latinos into play.”
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Gomez-Chavez said the project will establish a center for higher education resources, such as financial aid and information about admission requirements and academic services, for Latino students.
“If we have the center to say, ‘These are the scholarships and this is how we can help parents.’ I think that we can help prepare and help families formulate education,” she said.
Gomez-Chavez said Latino students are rarely made aware of the academic success of fellow Latino students. Consequently, she said the project will provide mentoring services to students.
“A lot of times, our students don’t have a lot of role models that have seen individuals who have successfully gone through the pathway,” she said. “We’re looking at getting Hispanic role models to be more visible.”
Although scholarships won’t be provided through the project, Gomez-Chavez said that it will help students find internships in the area, some of which are paid.
Gomez-Chavez said the budget is a tad scarce considering the timeline of the project, but that the Unidos Project aims to influence long-term educational policy changes in the state instead of just providing financial aid.
“This grant is not really about the money,” she said. “It’s about making systemic changes at institutions at communities so that we can come together.”
Gomez-Chavez said that one of the biggest problems that hinder the improvement of Latino education in the state is that organizations are often bureaucratic. She said the project aims to encourage these organizations to cooperate.
“Institutions sometimes work in silos, so we’re not aligning all our resources and programs,” she said. “In fact, we’re duplicating a lot of our efforts. I think this grant will help with that.”
Smith said she admires the Unidos Project but the foundation is still not sure if it will provide additional funding to UNM after the project’s four-year timeline lapses. She said she is positive that the Unidos Project will continue to help Latino students in the state.
“We are a foundation that likes to invest in great work,” she said. “We hope to see an increase in the number of students that graduate high school, that enroll in college and that complete their degree.”
