College is essentially a time of growth, of change

"College is essentially a time of growth, of change. The major part of that change takes place in you. If the college you go to is any good, it will hit you like a ton of brings.  It will lead you to question every conclusion you have ever reached; it will lead you to deny lots of assumptions and remake them; it will refuse to answer many of your questions, because you are asking the wrong things.  It will shake your strong beliefs and blow tons of cold air into all your warm hideouts; it will laugh at your emotions and cry at your humor.  It will be a though and cruel place only because it cares for you but seldom bothers to show it.  It will torture you into the best you think you can do and, by mocking the results, make you do better.  For perhaps the only times in your lives, you will know, existentially, that life of the is soul-zided. You will stretched till you squawk.  And if you are not -- transfer."  By Father Timothy Healy

beautiful autumn

Another Colorful Fall - Iowa State University 

camp follower

Sunflower - Iowa State University 

Lunch Time

Lunch Time - Squirrel on the Iowa State campus. 

The eight most common stereotypes about Latinos

By the year 2050 Latinos will constitute almost one fourth of the U.S. population (102.6 million).  How do you define a Latino and who is included in this group?  Latinos face many challenges including the fact that they are often labeled as a single group without consideration that they come from different countries in Latin America, each with a unique culture and language.  In my discussion I will go over the eight most common stereotypes about Latinos (based on a survey that we took in 2011), and provide data to prove incorrect the stereotypes/myth.

1.     “All Latinos are ‘illegal aliens’”

2.     “All Latinos are Mexican”

3.     “All Latinas get pregnant before they graduate high school”

4.     “All Latinos are part of a gang and are violent”

5.     “Latinos don’t want to speak English”

6.     “Most Latinos are uneducated; they don’t value education”

7.     “All Latinos are a source of cheap labor who work in outdoor jobs”

8.     “Latinos have strong family values; family comes first”

Conference aims to improve outcomes for Latino students

Conference aims to improve outcomes for Latino students

By Lynn Cambell

AMES, Iowa – Nearly 200 school administrators, teachers, and students from across Iowa will get together this month to strategize ways to improve the outcomes of Latino students in both high school and college.

Iowa’s Latino population increased by 95.8 percent, or 79,706 people, from 2000 to2012, according to the State Data Center of Iowa.

But the four-year graduation rate for Hispanic students in Iowa’s class of 2012 was 77.48 percent — nearly 12 percentage points lower than the 89.26 percent graduation rate for all students that year, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

“We are concerned about the educational progress of our Latino students,” said Larry Ebbers, a professor in Iowa State University’s School of Education. “We know that there is a high number of Latino students that tend to drop out of high school, particularly males.”

The second annual Iowa Latina/o Education Initiative Conference will be held Oct. 16 at the Des Moines Area Community College’s FFA Enrichment Center in Ankeny. The conference is free, but participants must register by Oct. 10.

The event is co-sponsored by the Community College Leadership Program, Iowa State University along with its College of Human Sciences and School of Education, and Iowa community college presidents. 

“The theme is access, choice, and completion,” said conference coordinator Michelle Robinson, a graduate assistant in the School of Education who is assistant director of the Community College Leadership Initiative Consortium. "Latino students may be able to gain access to college but the more important question is do they have access to the tools necessary for degreecompletion?"

The conference will provide an opportunity for educators to share best practices.

One of those programs is called “Juntos: Together for a Better Education.” Through the program, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach specialists have worked with high schools, communitycolleges, and businesses to help 108 Latino youth and parents increase their understanding of how to successfully graduate from high school and pursue higher education.

“Program evaluation data reveals that after participating in Juntos, parents feel more confident in working with their child’s school and improved in monitoring their youth’s homework, talking with their youth about school, college or other future plans,” said Kim Greder, an Iowa State associate professor in human development and family studies who’s also a family life state program extension specialist.

Cristobal Salinas Jr., a Latino graduate research associate in the School of Education, is coordinating volunteers and staff for the conference. He said it is an opportunity for participants to learn about the emerging challenges and needs of the Latino community, with a focus on Latino students.

“The state of Iowa needs to promote Latina/o success,” Salinas said. “Higher learning institutions need to recruit and retain Latina/o faculty and staff to provide mentorship and help reduce the gap of Latina/o undergraduate and graduate students.”

The keynote speaker for the conference will be Loui Olivas, president of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Other speakers include Maria Harper-Marinick, executive vice chancellor and provost of Maricopa Community Colleges, and Felix Aquino, vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma City Community College.

Iowa State University is also playing a role in other conferences aimed at improving outcomes for Latinos.

ISU President Steven Leath will be the keynote speaker and a panelist at the 3rd Annual Latinos inAgriculture Leaders Conference, Oct. 11-13 in San Antonio, Texas. He will give the keynote address at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 11 entitled, “The Future of Agriculture and the Role Universities Like Iowa State Will Play.”

Later that afternoon, Leath will be joined by other university presidents and academic officers for a general panel discussion with conference participants on issues facing agriculture and opportunities for Latinos in agriculture.  

Improving outcomes for Latino students benefits the state as a whole, Greder said.

She cited research showing that students who failed to complete high school cost the state $87 million in reduced state tax revenues over their lifetime, and more than $1.8 million per year in additional welfare costs. In addition, those who fail to complete high school will face higher unemployment, have increased health issues, and in Iowa are incarcerated at a rate 10 times greater than their peers.

Retrieved from: http://www.hs.iastate.edu/2013/10/01/latino-conference/