Partner Spotlight: Arizona Hispanic Serving Institutions Consortium
AZ HSI Consortium receives $950,000 grant from Helios to support expansion, capacity efforts
Colleges and universities classified as Hispanic-Serving Institutions are a critical educational resource to increase postsecondary attainment rates for Hispanic students. They earn the federal designation if at least 25% of undergraduate full-time students are Hispanic. In Arizona, there are 21 HSIs serving about 87,300 undergraduate Hispanic students.
The Arizona Hispanic Serving Institutions Consortium launched in early 2021 with a $100,000 grant from Helios Education Foundation to build a community of practice for the state’s HSIs. It also aims to work alongside Arizona higher education leaders, decision makers and stakeholders to support conditions necessary that accelerate Hispanic college student success in Arizona.
In August, Helios approved a $950,000 grant to support the Consortium’s efforts to expand and increase capacity.
Below is a Q&A with AZ HSI Consortium Founders Dr. Marla Franco and Dr. Rey Rivera who share more about the Consortium and how the new Helios grant will help advance their work. Dr. Franco is also the vice president of HSI Initiatives for the University of Arizona, and Dr. Rivera is the president of Estrella Mountain Community College.
Helios first awarded the Consortium a $100,000 grant in January 2022. What wins or highlights are you most excited to share that resulted from that grant?
The AZ HSI Consortium accomplished two major milestones as a result of the one-year planning grant. First, the investment was essential in implementing the Consortium's inaugural AZ HSI Summit, which attracted nearly 200 participants from across the state. Second, the Consortium developed and launched a process for nominating, selecting, and highlighting evidence-based practices.
The impact of this investment also heavily informed the launch of the Colorado HSI Consortium, generated inquiries from several other states and gained national attention, including from the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities, which invited representatives from the AZ HSI Consortium to present at its annual conference in October.
In addition, the one-year grant by Helios positioned the AZ HSI Consortium to secure a nearly $3 million award from the National Science Foundation that will support the Consortium in building and scaling a collective impact approach to advance STEM at HSIs over the next five years.
What are your plans for this newly awarded $950,000 three-year grant?
This three-year grant will help the AZ HSI Consortium achieve the following goals:
-
Support next steps to refine and expand the annual statewide summit and the evidence-based nomination process
-
Support attendance at conferences to share the consortium’s model to a national audience
-
Assist with launching an influencer roadshow to present to key stakeholders to generate awareness of AZ HSIs, highlight contributions to educational attainment and economic development in Arizona, and communicate priorities for support and partnership moving forward
-
Invest in the development and launch of mini challenge grants to support teams in identifying barriers, problem solving and implementing solutions, and disseminating blueprints for charting organizational change
How do you plan to change the nature of connection and collaboration among HSIs in Arizona?
A state-based coalition of Hispanic Serving Institutions in Arizona offers the opportunity to partner with and support an intentionally focused community of educators who aim to create more equitable opportunities for success in postsecondary education.
We seek to change the nature of connection and collaboration among HSIs in Arizona, shifting from loosely acquainted to strongly networked and collectively grounded Hispanic Serving Institutions that are committed to thoughtfully and intentionally advancing educational success, degree and certificate attainment, and workforce readiness among Hispanic college students.
What role do you see Hispanic students playing in Arizona’s economic future?
As urgently conveyed in the Billions to Gain report by Helios and Education Forward Arizona:
“Arizonans who have gone to college and completed a certificate or degree program can expect to earn more, enjoy better health, and benefit from greater access to opportunities compared to people whose education stopped after high school. This individual prosperity translates to substantial economic returns for the state. Increasing the number of Arizonans with a college education can yield billions in economic gains. Just by increasing the postsecondary enrollment rate by 20 percent, Arizona stands to benefit from more than $5 billion per high school cohort in gains attributable to factors like higher lifetime earnings, better health, and increased workforce productivity.”