University receives grant for program aimed at Hispanics

UNC was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Higher Education as a part of an effort by the Lumina Foundation for Education to make opportunities available for Colorado high school students to attend college.

"It's a pretty big outreach effort on the part of UNC," said John Karakoulakis, the director of Legislative Affairs for the Colorado Department of Higher Education. "We hope that the program will be successful in keeping students engaged by offering tutoring and services to make sure they graduate."

The purpose of the grant is to create a program that will target a growing population that has enrollments disproportionate to the state's demographics. In particular, the grant from the Colorado Department of Higher Education is predominantly targeting Hispanic students in the mathematics and sciences disciplines at the University of Northern Colorado.

"The program encourages Hispanic students to graduate from college because, right now, the number of Hispanics graduating from college is disproportionately low," said Richard Schwenz, a professor of chemistry "This number is especially low in the stem disciplines, which is comprised of technology and mathematics."

In order to curb these numbers, UNC's College of Mathematical Sciences is expanding the current satellite tutoring centers in place by creating a learning community tailored specifically for Hispanic students majoring in the mathematics, technology and science disciplines; this allows tutors to provide assistance to students having difficulty in those particular areas. First-year students in the program would also participate in a UNC First-Year Experience seminar, which is specifically designed for students to successfully transition from high school to college.

In addition, the college is increasing its recruiting efforts by adopting non-traditional approaches by encouraging UNC faculty, students and staff to attend off-campus events and contact students who have expressed interest in attending the school.

Robin Macaluso, an assistant professor of chemistry, and Schwenz, who both spearheaded the program, said they believe the innovative recruiting methods will attract more Hispanic students to the mathematics and science program at UNC, which will increase enrollment over the next year.

"We're developing our strategy because they are not the traditional recruiting fairs that most people think about," Macaluso said. "We're trying to be very strategic in our recruiting efforts. This is going to include events that are not necessarily at a high school but within the communities."