Excelencia in the News

In the first of what Dr. Deborah Santiago hopes might become a series of conversations, Excelencia in Education brought together a group of Latinx scholars to discuss the state of higher education on the island of Puerto Rico.

In the first of what Dr. Deborah Santiago hopes might become a series of conversations, Excelencia in Education brought together a group of Latinx scholars to discuss the state of higher education on the island of Puerto Rico.

“Latino students were disproportionally affected in the pandemic, since we are the most economically vulnerable,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder and chief executive officer of Excelencia in Education, an organization that looks to accelerate Latinx student success in higher education. “There was less enrollment and less persistence but looking at the bigger picture, in one year, we saw five years of growth lost in terms of enrollment and representation and that is big.”

Higher education organizations were generally pleased with the House Appropriations Committee’s draft spending bill, but several believe more could still be done.

Scott’s latest donation is $10 million to a Latino educational nonprofit called Excelencia in Education, which is the largest sum the organization has received since it was founded 17 years ago.

A prominent national nonprofit that measures how successful colleges and universities are in graduating Latinos is one the recipients of historic funding from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The $10 million grant that Excelencia in Education received this week is the largest sum the organization has had since its founding 17 years ago.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $2.7 billion to hundreds of charities and organizations, including Excelencia in Education.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions make up 17 percent of all U.S. public and nonprofit colleges—yet they enroll 67 percent of all Hispanic and Latino undergraduates. That data, published in April, underscores the huge responsibility facing the country’s more than 500 Hispanic-Serving Institutions, so designated because at least a quarter of their students are Hispanic.

Katie Mangan talked to Deborah Santiago, CEO and Co-founder of Excelencia in Education, about one of the most troubling flips in the college-enrollment scene: the decline in Latino/a students, a population many see as key to higher education’s future.

Experts worry that the drop in Latinos enrolling in college could erode years of higher education gains.