Recently becoming the nation’s largest minority, Hispanics are absorbing the academic limelight as Latino youth establish their dominance in college classrooms across the country.
According to Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine’s 2013 report “Top 100 Schools for Hispanic Students,” more than 2.5 million Hispanics were enrolled in nonprofit institutions in 2011-2012. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that nearly seven out of 10 Hispanic high school graduates in 2012 enrolled in college, outnumbering that of their White counterparts. Over half of these new college-goers choose to attend Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which the Higher Education Act defines as nonprofit degree-granting institutions with full-time undergraduate enrollments of at least 25 percent Hispanic.
While these numbers illustrate a statistical breakthrough in Hispanics’ desire to become academically astute and socially progressive, the task of cultivating the necessities required to recruit, retain and promote these aspiring college graduates can largely be attributed to the dedication of those employed at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Under the advisement of founding President Dr. Shirley Reed, South Texas College was established 20 years ago as a community college dedicated to serving the needs of Hispanics and has propelled in recent years due to its dual-enrollment program, which has become a local attraction for high school students.
“Our goal was to create a college-going culture in our region,” says Reed. “Going to college was just not an opportunity for most of our families, so we believe that, by starting students early in high school, that we will plant the seed that everybody can and should go to college.”
That seed has grown to serve a 96 percent Hispanic student population, and, in 2012, approximately 12,000 students from 68 high schools were admitted into the dual-enrollment program.
“We are learning from this program that success breeds success,” Reed says. “When students are successful in high school taking college classes, they want to take more, and we have large numbers who actually earn a two-year associate degree while in high school.”
