FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 4, 2006
 
HACU’s Internship Program Receives Contract from the United States Coast Guard for the Placement of Interns

WASHINGTON, DC – After an open competitive process, the nation’s largest Hispanic college internship program was awarded a contract with the United States Coast Guard to provide the agency with high caliber students through the acclaimed Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) National Internship Program – better known as HNIP.  The contract is renewable for up to five years.

“HACU thanks the United States Coast Guard for the confidence placed in our ability to meet their current and future workforce needs, and introduce hundreds of our Hispanic college students over the next five years to rewarding careers in public service,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores. “HACU has had a strong relationship with the Coast Guard extending over a number of years now.  This new contract will not only increase opportunities for the nation’s largest ethnic population but also help the Coast Guard to advance its diversity goals,” Flores said.

HACU, founded in 1986, represents over 450 colleges and universities that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students in the United States. Since 1992, the nonprofit association’s HNIP program has provided more than 6,000 top Hispanic college students paid internships with leading public and private sector employers.
“This new contract with the United States Coast Guard will allow us to matching the career goals and skills of our students to the specific needs of the service,” said Assistant Vice President for Collegiate Programs and Federal Relations William Rafael Gil.

“From the success stories we hear each year, we are confident that this new contract will also lead to rewarding, full-time careers at the United States Coast Guard for our students and to a more diversified work force at the Coast Guard,” Gil said.

Although Hispanics make up one of every three new workers joining the U.S. labor force today, they remain the only under-represented population in federal workforce ranks.
HNIP was established to reverse the under-representation of Hispanics in the federal government and has since been lauded as an “enviable” recruitment tool by independent surveys. Each year, many interns accept full-time job offers after completing 10- and 15-week assignments during spring, summer or fall sessions.

Dozens of students also have participated in the new HACU Cooperative Education Program (HCEP), which allows interns to accrue enough on-the-job hours to make them eventually eligible for noncompetitive placement in select federal positions. The co-op program is directly responding to long-standing government mandates to recruit and hire more Hispanics to better reflect the diversity of the civilian workforce.

In addition to on-the-job training, HNIP interns are provided professional development workshops and career networking opportunities such as annual career fairs and the Congressional Breakfast Series in Washington, D.C. HNIP also has spawned an active alumni association with members who participate in community volunteer activities and serve as mentors to new interns.

For more information, please visit HACU’s National Internship Program at http://www.hnip.net/ or HACU’s website at http://www.hacu.net/.

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