UF and South Florida Partners Promote Higher Education for Hispanic Youth with help of Grant

March 23, 2000

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida is joining several South Florida educational and community organizations to encourage Hispanic youth to pursue higher education.

The program, Engaging Latino Communities for Education, also is known as ENLACE (en-LA-say), an acronym derived from the Spanish word enlazar, which means to link or weave together.

Funded with a planning grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the program will team UF with Miami-Dade Community College, Barry University, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and Abriendo Puertas to ask the Hispanic communities assistance in developing a program to address the high rate of high school dropout and low rate of college matriculation among Hispanics in Florida.

Eighteen partnerships in eight states represent phase one of the Kellogg Foundation’s six-year, $28.7 million ENLACE initiative.

“ENLACE will strengthen the educational pipeline, so that more Hispanic youth will enter and complete college,” said Betty Overton-Adkins, the Kellogg Foundation’s director of higher education programming.

UF Interim Provost David Colburn commented that “ENLACE is an important initiative that brings together many organizations for the important purpose of educational advancement. We at the University of Florida are delighted to be part of this program.”

Through ENLACE, participating colleges and universities will form partnerships with communities, K-12 public and private school districts, and businesses. By working together, the partners will give Hispanic students the support they need to succeed from kindergarten through high school and beyond, according to Overton-Adkins.

“Partnerships are crucial, because no one institution or community can succeed in this effort alone,” she said.

During phase two implementation of ENLACE, set to begin in 2001, the foundation will support eight to 10 coalitions with grants of up to $2 million each.

The three key components of ENLACE are: a common vision of a brighter future for Hispanic youth; collaborative work in coalitions; and a focus on strengthening public school-university-community partnerships.

The University of Florida and its partners are actively seeking new means of recruiting and retaining minorities. The ENLACE program is a means of increasing qualified Hispanic applicants.