Replicating Latino College Success, One Program at a Time

A new report from Excelencia in Education finds that even modestly-funded small programs in colleges across the country can do a very good job of helping Latinos gain access to college, stay in college and transfer from 2-year to 4-year institutions.  The key is to make sure these programs intentionally seek Latino students, have the full support and commitment from their institutions, and value and utilize the role of family and peers in their approach.

"There are people who think you need a million dollars for an institution to develop a program to increase Latino college success," says Deborah Santiago, Vice President of Policy and co-founder of Excelencia in Education.  "But if an institution can have a successful program with $50,000, it's worthwhile to consider."

Excelencia used initial money from the Walmart foundation and later the Kresge Foundation to give out grants of between $25,000 to $50,000 to 25 institutions, out of 225 who applied. These SEMILLAS grants, an acronym for "Seeding Educational models that impact and Leverage Latino academic success" as well as the spanish word for seeds, were used to fund projects to foster college access, retention, and transfers to increase Latino student success under the Growing What Works (GWW) Initiative.