Project MALES: Mentorship Program Increased The Population Of Latino Men In Colleges

In U.S. colleges, the population of Latino men have increased over the past few years. From 2005 to 2014, it gradually spurt from 718,500 to 1.26 million Latino students enrolling to college which makes it a 75% increase. Though it increased significantly, Latino men in college are still overrepresented by Latino women.

Students of color -- mainly Hispanic -- is now making a big percentage of college students in U.S., which grows over the years. Because of this, advocacy organizations and colleges are finding ways to improve the quality of education that these students are getting since they also play a big role in the future success of the nation's economy.

Project MALES

Associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Victor Saenz, has led a program to help address these issues in the Latino community. Called Project MALES, the mentorship program and research initiative aims to resolve issues that Latino men have with regard to school and college success.

This project includes mentoring of Latino boys with the help of Latino graduate and undergraduate students. According to Saenz, there is a lack in scholarships being offered to Latino students because of the demographic imperative and this has likely has influenced them to attend low-resourced schools with inexperienced educators.

Another reason he pointed out is that there are only few Hispanic educators available. An article published in National Journal that was posted by The Atlantic has explained that teacher diversity is very important. It is best to teach Latino students with Latino teachers because of the cultural background they share and they also understand how these students learn best.

Latino Students Sharing Experiences

Austin student, Brenda Carrillo who is currently in her senior years believed that sharing her experiences as a pioneering Hispanic descent student have helped young Latinos and Latinas succeed in high schools. They are encouraged and inspired to pursue higher education because of the mentoring program.

William Serrata, president of El Paso Community College who made programs to prepare high school students by taking some early college courses while in high school. He emphasized that the idea is to give those disadvantaged students some head start to experience what it is to be in college taking college courses while they are still getting the assistance of their high school teachers.

Because of this, the number of Latino boys increased in enrolling to college. Serrata also pointed out that Hispanic educators in high school should adapt the sense of ownership of K-12 teachers in teaching the young students. This can greatly help the children succeed.