Excelencia in the News

Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education, delivered the opening keynote at this year’s New England Latinx Student Leadership Conference hosted by Rhode Island College.

Deborah Santiago, co-founder, and CEO of Excelencia in Education, said that to serve Hispanic students properly, you have to take a look at how an institution is enrolling, retaining, financially supporting, providing a model faculty and staff, and graduating students.

“The increase in completion rates—especially by Latino students—reflects the pace of progress needed to address the continued equity gaps in degree attainment,” said Deborah A. Santiago, CEO, Excelencia in Education.

“Serving Latinos is not rocket science, but I can tell you often we put programs in place and we don’t pay attention to whether Latinos are participating or not,” Deborah Santiago told the audience at AL DÍA’s Higher Education Summit.

By 2060, almost half of the state's residents will be Latino. College graduation rates have improved, but only 18% of Latino adults have a degree.

“As more and more institutions hit that enrollment threshold, we have to raise the standards and expectations of what it is to be really serving our students,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder of Excelencia in Education, at an event in Washington, D.C., in September.

Being intentional about recruiting and serving Latino students, cultivating a familial community on campus and using data to implement and tailor student support initiatives were some of the strategies discussed during Excelencia in Education’s Accelerating Latino Student Success (ALASS) Institute on Friday.

The Academic ESL Program at Reading Area Community College received national recognition as one of the four finalists in the associate category at the Celebracion de Excelencia.

Beginning in January, Excelencia in Education will issue a "Seal of Excelencia" to colleges that meet a series of data-driven benchmarks on their commitment to ensuring that Latinx students succeed.

Excelencia in Education is the only national organization that recognizes evidence-based programs that accelerate Latino student success in higher education. NMSU’s Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement: RISE to the Post-Doctorate is among 21 finalists overall and one of only three graduate level finalists competing to be named 2018 Examples of Excelencia.