Dra. Michelle Espino Lira talks with Sarita Brown, President, and Deborah Santiago, CEO, about the founding of Excelencia in Education (www.edexcelencia.org). 

The episode focuses on:

1.  maintaining mission and goals for accelerating Latino student success over the past 16 years;
2. the three pillars that guide their action: data, practice, and leadership;
3. how the Examples of Excelencia were developed; and
4. what’s on the horizon for Excelencia in Education.

The Example of Excelencia at the Community-Based Organization Level is the Latino Achievers Program through the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. Dra. Michelle Espino Lira talks with program director, Nichole Davari about the long-standing program that supports Latino, first-generation, and immigrant youth in Nashville public schools.

Latino Achievers has three goals:

1. Increase high school graduation
2. Increase college applications, and 
3. Impact overall Latinx college enrollment

To learn more about the Latino Achievers Program, go to www.ymcamidtn.org/programs/latino-achievers.

To learn more about the programs that accelerate Latino student success, please go to www.edexcelencia.org!

The Example of Excelencia at the Graduate Level is the Cal-Bridge Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dra. Michelle Espino Lira talks with Dr. Alex Rudolph, Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of Cal-Bridge, in addition to two Cal-Bridge Scholars, Katy Rodriguez Wimberly (doctoral student at UC-Irvine) and Rob Tejada Arevajo (doctoral student at Princeton University).

The Cal-Bridge Program was established in 2014 as a partnership across 9 University of California institutions and 16 California State University campuses to address the national shortage of underrepresented minority PhDs in the fields of physics and astronomy.

The Cal-Bridge program has four pillars: 

1. Providing enough financial aid so that students can focus on their studies. 
2. Mentorship, which consists of a two-year commitment from a mentor at their Cal State campus and one at a UC school. 
3. Professional Development, which focuses on graduate school admissions processes, GRE test-taking, and vetting their list of potential graduate programs. 
4. A summer research opportunity.

To learn more about the Cal-Bridge Program, go to https://www.cpp.edu/calbridge/

To learn more about the programs that accelerate Latino student success, please go to www.edexcelencia.org!