I recently attended the Colorado Community College Summit: Pathways to College & Beyond. The mains topics covered during the time I was there included remediation, completion rates, improving transfer rates between 2-year and 4-year institutions, and Latino student success. Although I found all of the presentations informative, I have decided to focus on the information shared in the “Expanding the Latino Participation Beyond Student Recruitment” presentation by Luzelma G. Canales, Dean of Community Engagement & Workforce Development at South Texas College. Besides the fact that I am interested in this topic on a humanistic level as well as a student affairs professional, I chose this topic because I was proud to learn that the Cumbres project, a part of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) was identified as a Colorado Best Practice for improving Latino college student success. Since the Assistant Director of this program is none other than Aldo Romero, a doctorate student in the Higher Education Student Affairs Leadership (HESAL) program, I felt highlighting the information shared at the summit was timely and relevant.
As a community college employee, I am constantly reminded of the shortcomings of institutions of higher education to recruit and retain Latino students. So, it was with much excitement that a program in my hometown had been showcased at a state wide summit sponsored by the Colorado Community College System and the Colorado Department of Higher Education. In light of the fact that Latino’s make up 22% percent of the Colorado population but only make up 12% of college enrollment and only 10% complete college, I was impressed and proud of my alma mater for their contribution to improving the success rate of Latino students. It was also reported at the presentation that 75% of college graduates by age 24 were from high income backgrounds compared to 9% from low income backgrounds. As I describe below, both populations are targeted by the Cumbres project.
According to information shared, many Latino students struggle with college reading placement tests. The presenter outlined research on the development of language skills among bilinguals and second language learners that supports the notion that language acquisition can occur effectively when learners participate in meaningful activities that require interaction with fluent speakers who model appropriate language use. The Cumbres project was identified as a desirous program in addressing this issue at the Colorado Community College Summit: Pathways to College & Beyond. The Cumbres project’s focus on recruiting and preparing teachers with a passion for working with Latino students, language minority students, and children from families at or below the poverty level to teach in K-12 education. The student members of the Cumbres project pursue endorsement in bilingual education. Aldo should be very proud of such wide spread recognition and to have the Cumbres project deemed a Colorado Best Practice at improving Latino student success. Congratulations Aldo!
Janet - thank you, thank you, thank you! I've spent a lot of time catching up on the blog madness today and I was starting to become a little depressed with the reality of budget cuts, prop 103, confusion over APA, for-profit schools messing with students, occupy debates...ok, you get the point. This is an awesome blog and how uplifting.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it is awesome when "little ol' UNC" gets state-wide attention for anything! Secondly, how awesome that we all know Aldo and something he works so hard for is getting the attention it deserves.
Cumbres is a wonderful program and it is too bad that more students can't take advantage of programs like this, or that more similar opportunities don't exist. Similar to CHE (Center for Human Enrichment) at UNC, I would guess that many students apply for Cumbres that aren't able to participate because of funding. Aldo - perhaps you know more specifically? :)
Beyond that, this blog brings up another good point about the number of Latinos in Colorado compared to those enrolling in higher education institutions. There have been conversations in Enrollment Management at UNC about how this also applies to the Greeley community, perhaps at an even higher rate of disparity. This is definitely something to think about when it comes to recruiting students, financial aid and accessibility to our community.
Thank you for posting your comment about UNC and Cumbres. The program, its leadership and staff do amazing work. I do get a little discouraged when the message is consistently that Latinos are disadvantaged, underrepresented, and weaknesses highlighted. I long await the day and would like to create opportunities for the strengths of Latinos to be recognized and capitalized on instead. However, Cumbres is a good place to start replication of successful programs, but I also wonder how university programming translates to community college students.
ReplyDeleteJanet- thank you for your post. It is a great honor that our own UNC Cumbres program was identified as a Colorado Best Practice for improving Latino college student success.
ReplyDeleteWhat we see on a daily basis is the struggle of many linguistically diverse students specifically ESL (English as a Second Language) students with respect to adapting themselves to writing effectively in English language.
I concur with the presenter at the Summit that language acquisition can occur effectively when ESL students participate in interactive meaningful activities
In response, to Dana's question as of today, we at Cumbres have been able to admit all students who apply. However, we do work extensively with private donors and continue to search for new sources of funding
Regarding Yolanda's comment We do not only admit traditional students, we also recruit transfer and non traditional students.
There are many challenges but also many opportunities to grow
Thank you again Janet
I concur with Janet, Yolanda and Dana's sentiments in saluting Aldo's work in helping to direct and promote the work of the Cumbres (Spanish for "peaks") program.
ReplyDeleteIn going to the program website and studying its content, I came away very impressed with both its ambitious reach (successfully recruiting from 73 different high schools 120 current student-teachers in training) and standards (3.25 min. cumulative GPA needed for acceptance plus $1,500 scholarships to the highest achieving high school applicants).
I came away even more impressed with the holistic and family-style support intentionally designed in the program: 1st-year students rooming together in one location as co-supportive colleagues; two mentors arranged for every student, including a peer mentor and another mentor who can serve as a guide towards success; comprehensive introduction to the entire University's resources.
I am also impressed by the diversity of the students that are recruited (currently 50% 1st-Generation, 50% not; some Hispanic, some non-Hispanic). In summary, I congratulate Aldo and his program colleagues in providing an award-winning program for developing bi-lingual/ bi-cultural teacher-leaders for our local communities and beyond; a program that embodies many of the student affairs competencies that are emphasizing in our readings.
Thanks Janet and great work Aldo! I have interacted with multiple Cumbres students through my work with the Center for Human Enrichment and it has been awesome to learn about the environment that Cumbres offers its students. One of the benefits that these students highlight repeatedly is the family atmosphere. The students routinely call each other sister and brother and talk about their joy of having a family away from home.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to learn the faculty perspective and mission of the program from having Aldo in class. It is evident that he is passionate about improving the education experience for Latino college students (and students all together). As others have already mentioned, it's good to see UNC and its faculty recognized across the state.
As a first semester grad student, I was unaware of many of the programs at UNC. However, my very first class and the very first day of that class, I was told about the Cumbres program. As I listened to the program, how it worked all I could do was think about what an amazing idea and program. The benefits are unmeasureable. So, it does not surprise me that the program was recognized!! It was later in this semester that I learned about Aldo was the Assistant Director of the program.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing way to be introduced to UNC! And way to go Aldo!!