U. S. Secretary of Labor Solis Headlines 5th annual Celebración de Excelencia

    America’s civic and economic prosperity directly reflects the skills, abilities and aptitudes of a well-educated workforce. Returning the U.S. to the forefront of countries with the most college graduates is the goal of both the Obama Administration and scores of organizations led by Excelencia in Education [Excelencia].

    In the Hispanic community, Excelencia has undertaken the pivotal responsibility to increase collaboration, drive promising innovations and share intelligence on exemplary programs that increase Latino college completion. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis underscored the importance of this endeavor in remarks during the 5th annual Celebración de Excelencia, at the U.S. Capitol last week. This is the capstone event for “Examples of Excelencia” a national initiative that identifies and recognizes proven programs that accelerate Latino student success at the associate, baccalaureate and graduate levels.

    Highlighting programs improving Latino student success to an attentive audience of college, foundation and elected officials, Secretary Solis joined Excelencia in recognizing the 2010 Examples of Excelencia in the following categories:

    · Associate Level: Carreras en Salud/Careers in Health at Wilbur Wright College – Humboldt Park Vocational Education Center in Chicago, Illinois provides a full supported career path for nursing and high demand health care positions. Students enrolled have a cumulative completion rate of 94% for 1,200 participants, a 95% licensing/certification rate and nearly 100% placement rate for LPN and CAN graduates. To top it off, the average wage gain is 150%. For more information on the program visit http://wright.ccc.edu.

    · Baccalaureate  Level: The College Assistance Migrant Program [CAMP] at California State University, San Marcos, California targets students with migrant and seasonal farm worker backgrounds. CAMP provides an array of support services and cultural affirmations that retains students at a higher rate than the overall CSU system, 80% or more of the population annually compared with 70% of CSU freshman population. More info is available at http://csusm.edu/camp.

    · Graduate Level: Princeton Theological Seminary’s Hispanic Theological Initiative [HTI] in Princeton, New Jersey. HTI’s goal is to increase the number of Latino students and faculty in theological education to better equip U.S. institutions to serve this growing community. Since its inception in 1996, HIT has awarded 77 masters, 255 doctoral fellowships and 10 post doctoral fellowships; engaged 43 tenured and tenured-equivalent professors as mentors; supported 48 masters fellows and 68 Ph.D. fellows in the completion of their doctorates. The average time to degree for HTI doctoral fellows is 5 years. Visit http://www2.ptsem.edu/hti/.

    Speaking to the Administration’s efforts to address the challenge, Secretary Solis said “Latinos – our nation’s youngest, fastest growing minority population, a group that will likely make up nearly 15% of our workforce by 2014, is unprepared, undereducated, and deserves much, much more” attention in public policy.

    To learn more about the 2010 “Examples of Excelencia,” and download the 2010 edition of What Works for Latino Students in Higher Education,  detailed information on programs and results visit www.EdExcelencia.org.