"SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- NASA awarded $1 million to the nation’s top Hispanic higher education association to continue an innovative project steering hundreds of minority students toward college each year.
The $1 million grant to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) will be used to support Proyecto Access, a summer program designed to provide logic and problem-solving skills to selected minority middle school and high school students interested in pursuing a college degree in engineering, science, information technology and mathematics fields.
“This generous gift from the world’s best known space agency represents the fourth $1 million grant in four years from NASA to HACU in support of a model program that is dedicated to reversing the severe shortage of minorities in science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields,” HACU President Antonio Flores said.
“Between 1988 and 1997, for example, Mexican-Americans were awarded less than one-half of 1 percent of all Ph.D.s in technology and the sciences,” Flores said, citing a recent National Science Foundation report. “NASA’s partnership with HACU in this endeavor to increase the number of minority students pursuing those fields of study will benefit all of us as a nation and as part of an increasingly technology-minded global economy,” Flores said.
Proyecto Access, which now is in place at nine college campuses in eight states, graduated 749 middle and high school students from its eight-week program in the summer of 1999. Proyecto Access is the national replication of the successful TEX-PREP program started in 1979 by Manuel Berriozabal, a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at San Antonio -- a HACU member campus. Berriozabal also serves as principal investigator for Proyecto Access.
Proyecto Access this summer will be in place at the following HACU member campuses:
*Hostos Community College, Bronx, New York *Jersey City State University, Jersey City, New Jersey *Florida International University, Miami, Florida *New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico *Community College of Denver, Denver, Colorado *Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona *Richard Daley College, Chicago, Illinois *Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California *Oxnard College, Oxnard, California
Rene A. Gonzalez, HACU Director of Program Collaboratives, said Proyecto Access began as a program for 350 students at seven campuses. More than 800 middle and high school students in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York are expected to “graduate” from this year’s summer program.
""This funding from NASA for Proyecto Access allows us continue expanding the educational opportunities for young students in our community in the area of math and science. The importance of receiving an adequate preparation in logic, critical thinking, math, science and problem solving cannot be over-emphasized,” Gonzalez said.
“This program was designed by TEX-PREP’s Berriozabal to be both challenging and enlightening. Thousands of students have graduated from TEX-PREP and gone on to successfully complete college. We expect to have the same success with Proyecto Access,” Gonzalez said. “This year we will be looking to improve the program through updates to the curriculum and improved communication among the program co-principal investigators.”
HACU represents 235 colleges and universities with high Hispanic student enrollment rates in the United States, Puerto Rico and abroad.
For more information, contact Rene A. Gonzalez, HACU Director of Program Collaboratives, at HACU’s national headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 23.
"
The $1 million grant to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) will be used to support Proyecto Access, a summer program designed to provide logic and problem-solving skills to selected minority middle school and high school students interested in pursuing a college degree in engineering, science, information technology and mathematics fields.
“This generous gift from the world’s best known space agency represents the fourth $1 million grant in four years from NASA to HACU in support of a model program that is dedicated to reversing the severe shortage of minorities in science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields,” HACU President Antonio Flores said.
“Between 1988 and 1997, for example, Mexican-Americans were awarded less than one-half of 1 percent of all Ph.D.s in technology and the sciences,” Flores said, citing a recent National Science Foundation report. “NASA’s partnership with HACU in this endeavor to increase the number of minority students pursuing those fields of study will benefit all of us as a nation and as part of an increasingly technology-minded global economy,” Flores said.
Proyecto Access, which now is in place at nine college campuses in eight states, graduated 749 middle and high school students from its eight-week program in the summer of 1999. Proyecto Access is the national replication of the successful TEX-PREP program started in 1979 by Manuel Berriozabal, a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at San Antonio -- a HACU member campus. Berriozabal also serves as principal investigator for Proyecto Access.
Proyecto Access this summer will be in place at the following HACU member campuses:
*Hostos Community College, Bronx, New York *Jersey City State University, Jersey City, New Jersey *Florida International University, Miami, Florida *New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico *Community College of Denver, Denver, Colorado *Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona *Richard Daley College, Chicago, Illinois *Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California *Oxnard College, Oxnard, California
Rene A. Gonzalez, HACU Director of Program Collaboratives, said Proyecto Access began as a program for 350 students at seven campuses. More than 800 middle and high school students in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York are expected to “graduate” from this year’s summer program.
""This funding from NASA for Proyecto Access allows us continue expanding the educational opportunities for young students in our community in the area of math and science. The importance of receiving an adequate preparation in logic, critical thinking, math, science and problem solving cannot be over-emphasized,” Gonzalez said.
“This program was designed by TEX-PREP’s Berriozabal to be both challenging and enlightening. Thousands of students have graduated from TEX-PREP and gone on to successfully complete college. We expect to have the same success with Proyecto Access,” Gonzalez said. “This year we will be looking to improve the program through updates to the curriculum and improved communication among the program co-principal investigators.”
HACU represents 235 colleges and universities with high Hispanic student enrollment rates in the United States, Puerto Rico and abroad.
For more information, contact Rene A. Gonzalez, HACU Director of Program Collaboratives, at HACU’s national headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 23.
"