South Texas College is the recipient of a $40,000 grant to scale and sustain learner success for adult Latino students. The Adult Learner 360 Grant comes from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning in partnership with Excelencia in Education. The initiative seeks to provide Hispanic Serving Institutions with tools and support to implement researched-based practices to improve outcomes for adult Latino students.

The grant enables STC to participate in a three-year initiative examining how HSIs can better serve their adult students. Funding is provided by the Kresge Foundation, Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, and Affiliates and Greater Texas Foundation.

 “With this project, STC will collaborate with CAEL, Excelencia in Education, and 15 other HSIs across the nation in developing innovative solutions aimed at increasing success for the targeted population,” said Fernando Chapa, STC director of Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment and Accreditation.

The Adult Learner 360 Academy is a solution for both scaling and sustaining learner success for adult Hispanic students.

Over the last decade, the percentage of younger Latino students who earned a college credential has increased by 9.4 percent. Actual attainment among adult Latino students has fallen behind, according to the Center for American Progress. It cites numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Only 22.7 percent of Hispanics aged 25 or older have attained an associate’s degree or higher. This is compared to 42.8 percent of their white peers. Due to an increasing number of careers demanding degrees and credentials, this disparity has disastrous consequences on Latino career advancement prospects.

“This initiative will allow STC to work in a cohort model to serve adult Hispanic students, create initiatives that address identified weaknesses of the institution in serving this student population, and then assess the actual impact the initiatives had on the student population,” Chapa said.