Institutional Capacity Building
Excelencia in Education helps colleges and universities embed student-centered data-driven continuous improvement cycles into their strategies and practices to demonstrate measurable outcomes and prove their positive student impact to funders, accreditors, and the communities they serve.
To support and reinforce institutional capacity to more intentionally serve all students, Excelencia’s capacity building programming meets institutions where they are in their transformation and supports their journey to build sustainable, campus-wide habits of accountability.
Excelencia leverages more than 20 years of experience listening to, learning from, and working with colleges and universities in transforming their campuses into places where Latino, and all, students thrive. In this community of practice, Excelencia offers curated content and peer support to institutions in their journey to more intentionally SERVE Latino, and all, students.
2026 Excelencia's Capacity Building Programming
To build and support institutional capacity, Excelencia offers institutional teams institutes in the Seal of Excelencia framework areas of data, practice, and leadership as well as key policy areas:
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Data Institute: Strengthen your team’s capacity to analyze, interpret, and leverage data to drive institutional data-based decisions and actions.
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Evidence-Based Practices Institute: Builds your team’s capacity to assess impact and document intentionality of your efforts for data-driven accountability and continuous improvement
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Alignment Institute: Offers a cohort-driven and interactive engagement to align institutional data, evidence-based practices, and leadership strategies to increase student success.
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Post-Completion Institute: Engages institutional teams in developing, implementing, and measuring support systems for the post-completion success of Latino, and all, students.
Additional information and registration links for each institute can be found here.
Institutes
A student-centered self-assessment tool for institutions to evaluate who they serve, don't serve, and aim to serve. It identifies strengths, challenges, and opportunities for greater intentionality by examining data, leadership, and practices linked to success for Latino and all students. Three facilitated cohorts to choose from.
A SSITA Intake form and additional information for each can be found here.
SSITA (Seal Serving Institutional Transformation Assessment)
What Works Workshops
Finding What Works: Exploring Your Campus for Impactful Programs - A workshop series to support your institution's journey in identifying programs serving Latino, and all, students and exploring their impact.
Sharing Excellence: A Workshop to Craft Stories of Impactful Programs – A workshop series that offers higher education leaders a writing lab experience to craft a narrative of your program efforts grounded in intentionality and evidence.
Additional information and registration links for each institute can be found here.
Webinars
2026 Examples of Excelencia Submission Webinar - During this one-hour virtual session, the Institutional Programs team will provide an overview of the submission process, including the changes for 2026. Virtual on February 11. Register here.
2026 Seal of Excelencia Certification Application Webinar - Webinar provides an overview of the 2026 application process, key dates and resources available. It will also feature 2025 Seal certified institutions who will share their experiences and recommendations. Virtual on March 30. Register here.
Expand Your Knowledge with Excelencia
What will institutional teams experience at Excelencia’s capacity building events and activities?
Excelencia’s capacity building opportunities offer interactive, content-rich sessions by subject matter specialists, policy makers, researchers, leaders in higher education, and representatives from Seal of Excelencia certified institutions and Examples of Excelencia programs to build momentum and increase capacity to become spaces where all students thrive.
What is Excelencia’s approach to help institutions examine their data, practices, and leadership strategies?
As a trusted and respected convener, Excelencia creates environments built on confianza for institutional teams to engage in asset-based discussions on data, evidence-based practices, leadership strategies, and policy with a student-centered lens to identify institutional strengths and opportunities.
How does Excelencia facilitate sharing and learning among peer institutions as they build capacity to increase student success?
Excelencia’s Capacity building activities offer opportunities to engage and network with other institutions as cohorts to build communities of common cause and practice sharing experiences, strategies, practices, strengths, and opportunities.
What will institutions gain (walk away with) after engaging in Excelencia’s capacity building opportunities?
Excelencia offers dedicated time and space for institutional teams to reflect, discuss, and develop tactical action plans for campus-wide implementation using Excelencia’s robust tools to examine their own data, practices, and leadership strategies.
What support do institutions receive after engaging in Excelencia’s capacity building opportunities?
Excelencia's team remains a resource for all institutions that engage in capacity building and seek further opportunities to increase their student success. For those attending institutes, Excelencia offers opportunities to continue learning and sharing with peer institutions through facilitated engagement at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up sessions after each institute.
For more information or for any questions, please email our team at InstCapacity@EdExcelencia.org.