Metro State’s Urban Teacher Partnership (UTP) program will collaborate with a national nonprofit in the next year to address the emerging imperative to increase higher education access for Colorado’s Latino students.

Excelencia in Education, based in Washington, D.C., has been contracted to work with UTP Program Director Esther Rodriguez and her team to review institutional data collected for the Equity Scorecard initiative and HSI Task Force and provide an external perspective; design a user-friendly Latino student profile, internal (deans, faculty and administrators) dissemination plan and strategy for ongoing implementation; inform internal process to react to data and address priorities developed by the HSI Task Force; and identify institutional practices and behaviors aligned with student success generally, and with Latino students specifically.

As part of the contract, representatives from Excelencia will conduct fieldwork this summer and visit Metro State’s campus.

Additionally, Professional Studies Dean Sandra Haynes and Letters, Arts and Sciences Dean Joan L. Foster have renewed Metro State’s membership in the Excelencia Giving Circle through a pledge. The contribution allows Metro State to be listed in the save the date announcement for the “Celebracion de Excelencia” on Sept. 30 at the state Capitol.

For more information on Excelencia in Education, visit http://www.edexcelencia.org/.

Workshop to address needs of Latino students
An upcoming workshop at Colorado State University in Fort Collins will foster dialogue about Colorado’s Latino student populations.

“Identifying HACU CO’s Direction to Educate Colorado’s P-20 Latino Students” will be held Monday, June 29 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Colorado State University’s Accion and HACU-CO committees will sponsor the daylong program. Accion is CSU’s Hispanic faculty and staff organization and HACU-CO is the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities of Colorado.

The following topics and activities will be included:

• “Culture of Care: Incorporating Latino cultural values in education,” Tom Cavanaugh, Walden University
• Focusing on critical issues for P-20 Latina/o students
• The mission of HACU-CO
• Working groups to direct HACU-CO’s future
• Preparing for “HACU on the Road” (http://www.hacu.net/)

Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Those interested in attending should RSVP to Patricia Vigil at patricia.vigil@colostate.edu or 970-491-2350.