Special Initiatives
Campaign to Improve Latino Educational Attainment
TRPI’s College Knowledge campaign – College for You: Your Million Dollar Decision – seeks to close the information gap that exists among Latino youth and parents on the college application and financial aid processes. The campaign stems from TRPI's 2002 landmark study, College Knowledge: What Latino Parents Need to Know and Why They Don't Know It, revealing that while a significant majority of Latino parents want their children to attend college, relatively few have access to meaningful information that helps them understand the college preparation process. A 2003 TRPI study found that only 16.4 percent of Latinos in their late 20s have college degrees, compared to 36.5 percent of Caucasians.
With funding from The James Irvine Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MTV, The Sallie Mae Fund, Honda, ImpreMedia, Boeing, and Toyota Motor Company, TRPI is now utilizing multimedia to address all applicable audiences in the college-going cycle - teachers, outreach counselors, parents, and students - to inform them of the steps required to apply for, and attend, college.
The College for You: Your Million Dollar Decision campaign is an initiative of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) and its Center for Latino Educational Excellence (CLEE). It is a yearlong project that aims to provide Latino parents and students with information to prepare for college admission and attendance.
Components of the campaign include:
A scholarship directory of scholarships that are offered by regional organizations targeting California Latino students. To date, this directory has been viewed online over 30,000 times.
A searchable, easily-accessible website listing scholarships that are offered by regional organizations targeting California Latino students.
A media campaign comprised of news segments, informed by TRPI and produced by and aired on MTV.
Localized guides to college readiness, which appeared in March, 2006 in Spanish-language newspapers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Developed in partnership with MTV, they are designed to give parents the information they need to help their children win admission to competitive colleges and universities.
Jorge Ramos, an Emmy award-winning journalist and anchor of Noticiero Univision, is featured on the inserts.
Download the guides for California, Illinois, and
New York.
A website for students providing basic information about how to prepare for and apply to college.
This 2005 TRPI report, Reaching Higher Ground: Parental Outreach Programs at the Postsecondary Level, examines how postsecondary institutions throughout the nation are mobilizing to address the need for college information among Latino parents. A resource section is included, providing a list of program directors, as well as potential funding sources.
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Kids to College®
The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI), in partnership with the California State University (CSU) System Chancellor’s Office and The Sallie Mae Fund, is proud to announce the Kids to College® Program in California.
Collaborating with two California State University campuses, Los Angeles and Fullerton, TRPI is implementing a pilot Kids to College® program that will serve 6th grade classrooms in the CSU campus areas for a three-year period. The campuses’ geographic locations will enable the program to reach student populations that have been traditionally underserved and underrepresented in higher education.
Established with funding from The Sallie Mae Fund as part of their $1 million statewide education initiative, Kids to College® is an early outreach program designed to bring early awareness of the importance of higher education by introducing 6th graders to college opportunities. Similar programs are already under way in Massachusetts, Washington DC, and North Carolina, where sixth grade classrooms are paired with a local college or university to participate in a unique six-session curriculum that combines hands-on activities with information on careers, college life, and choice-making for the greatest range of options for education beyond high school. The program culminates with a visit to the partner college for students and parents/guardians. All sessions and activities are held at the participating school, and emphasize the program’s premise: higher education is something you can achieve if you plan ahead.
While many colleges and universities already have educational awareness program in place, Kids to College® is unique in its outreach to sixth graders. The sooner students and their families learn about all of their educational options, the sooner they can begin to prepare for them. Sixth grade is a particularly critical point for decisions that affect a child’s future education; a time when many students begin to a question the value of education and whether or not it holds any promise for them.
The rapidly changing demographics in California show that Latinos will continue to be a population group whose impact on the workforce and economic prosperity is significant. As such, providing educational opportunities to Latinos and other historically underrepresented communities is paramount to creating an educated and skilled workforce for California. The Kids to College® program is part of ongoing education, community, and civic partnerships that seek to be a part of student learning environments that foster and promote college aspirations.
For additional information about Kids to College®, contact Corina A. Espinoza at 213.821.5615 or at corina@trpi.org.
Kids to College® is a program of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI).
The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, is the founding sponsor of the Kids to College® program, established in 1992 in Massachusetts.
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The Center for Latino Educational Excellence
The Center for Latino Educational Excellence (CLEE) was established as a major initiative of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute in the spring of 2002 to help improve educational attainment and achievement in Latino communities across the United States. Through its policy research, CLEE seeks to provide guidance for Latino leadership - across public, non-profit, and private sectors - on how to better the current systems of education that are, on many levels, failing Latino youth and adults.
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The Center for Latino Health Policy
The Center for Latino Health Policy was founded in the Fall of 2003. Researchers will examine pressing health issues as they relate to the Latino community. In better understanding the Latino experience with health and health care, the Center looks to better inform policymakers and key stakeholders on such topics as: healthcare disparities, the role of language and culture in health, health care access, as well as the role of minorities in the health professions. Through its actionable policy recommendations, the Center seeks to improve the health outcomes and the quality of life of the Latino community.
