UTEP, Maricopa County Community College
Recognized for Hispanic Graduation Records
Excelencia in Education honors schools during inaugural symposium.
By Blair S. Walker
ORLANDO, Fla.
The University of Texas at El Paso and Maricopa County Community College in Arizona have the nation’s two best programs when it comes to enrolling and graduating Latino students, according to the nonprofit Latino education organization Excelencia in Education.
The schools and their programs were singled out during a symposium facilitated by Excelencia, a Washington-based group dedicated to achieving higher education success for Latino students. UTEP’s Model Institutions for Excellence program and MCCC’s Achieving a College Education program both earned the 2006 Examples of Excelencia award.
Complemented by $5,000 grants, the awards were presented in Orlando late last month, in conjunction with an annual conference hosted by the nonprofit group National College Access Network. The awards were part of an inaugural Excelencia Symposium that featured a panel of experts on Latino higher education issues.
Several hundred educators attended the symposium, which ended with a question-and-answer session.
“Improving Latino student success in higher education is in the national interest,” says Sarita E. Brown, the president and founder of Excelencia. “While Latinos are the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group, Latino students lag behind other major racial and ethnic groups in educational attainment.”
