A BluePrint for Success: Case Studies of Successful - Educational ...

A Blueprint for Success
tion among the year-round programs, which makes the impact of the program hard to assess uniformly
at a national level.
As the program expands, the biggest challenge will be ensuring consistency and quality amongst the
various regions. In order to address this issue, the Hispanic College Fund will need to make a considerable
investment in operations and infrastructure so that program expansion can be supported
adequately. HCF is confident that they “will not lack for prospective, experienced staff members”
when they do expand. As a result of having served at the HYI Kickoff, many college students who
serve as near-peer mentors have witnessed the power of the program in equipping students through
this type of work. Many of them have expressed an interest in working for the HCF or similar organizations.
Currently, many of the HCF’s employees were once volunteers and were drawn from
this pool of individuals who are eager to create a positive change in the Hispanic community.
Among other challenges, the HYI is also exploring ways to improve the tracking of alumni participation
more effectively – students are considered alums of the HYI once they complete the summer
kick-off. Since participation at the year-long events is not required, attendance at these events varies.
HYI is working on identifying effective tracking mechanisms as they currently do not have a centralized
system for collecting and analyzing these data.
Despite the challenges, the HYI prides itself in helping Latino students see college as an attainable
goal. Their focus on preparing students to overcome real and perceived barriers to college access and
success is a holistic approach that addresses social and emotional factors that are often excluded from
programs. The HYI approach helps students see college as a possibility and motivates them to pursue
higher education before they begin discussing how to get through college.
Regarding one aspect the program would do differently if given the opportunity, Daniel Sarmiento,
Director of the Hispanic Youth Institute, responded:
The thing that we would do differently would be to enact comprehensive tracking. We
gather longitudinal metrics using surveys but we lack a formalized system to track individual
student progress. Not only do we need to track students better, but we also need to
track additional indicators in the community. For example, in California, instructors at
schools (served by the HYI) have informally mentioned they believe that increases in the
school’s Academic Performance Index score (API - CA Dept of Education) are directly related
to the Hispanic Youth Institute’s programming. A comprehensive study needs to be
conducted to track the program’s impact, not only with individual students participating
in the program but also with the schools and communities they come from. Having
acknowledged our need to improve tracking, it is important to point out that we have not
done so due to a lack of funding for such an undertaking.
Educational Policy Institute 91 www.educationalpolicy.org