In this episode, host Eddie Pickett and his guests explore the role of over 500 HSIs in the United States in serving millions students from both the admission angle and via student support programs. We dive into why a Hispanic-identifying student might choose these institutions for their higher education and discuss how HSIs are a refuge and support system for the growing demographic of Hispanic students in the U.S.
Guests: Belinda Sandoval Zazueta, Associate Vice President of Admissions at University of Redlands in California; Argenis Rodriguez, director of a support program for students. Moderated by Eddie Pickett, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions and Director of Recruitment at Pomona College.
Eddie: Hello and welcome to the College Admissions Decoded Podcast, an occasional series in the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. I'm your host, Eddie Pickett. I'm a longtime NACAC member and a member of the NACAC board of Directors. In my day job, I'm a senior associate Dean of Admissions and Director of Recruitment at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
NACAC is an association of more than 26,000 professionals at high schools, colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations, as well as independent counselors who support and advise students and families through the college admissions process.
Our topic today is Hispanic-serving institutions, also known as HSIs. Historically, HSIs are colleges and universities with Hispanic undergraduate enrollment of at least 25%. In 1992, Congress formally recognized HSIs and created federal appropriations to support these institutions. Today, there are over 500 HSIs in the United States. HSIs play a vital role in the communities they serve, offering culturally relevant programs, a sense of belonging, and services that help students succeed.
For this episode, we are joined by Belinda Sandoval Zazueta, Associate Vice President of Admissions at University of Redlands in California. Welcome, Belinda.
Belinda: Thanks, Eddie. Happy to be here.
Eddie: We're also joined by Argenis Rodriguez, director of a support program for students. Welcome, Argenis.
Argenis: Happy to be here.
Eddie: Thank you both for joining us today on the podcast, particularly after this summer and the Supreme Court decision that came down. So let's just get started with the first question. Belinda, can you tell us a little bit about your background and the work with HSIs that you've done?
Belinda: My pronouns are she, hers and her. I am a Mexican American. I identify as a Chicana and so I serve on the advisory council, which is made up of faculty, staff and students. And we work together as a council to write our first grant for Hispanic Serving Institutions, which we were proud recipients of this summer.
Eddie: And Argenis, same question. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and your work that you've done with HSIs?
Argenis: Yes. So, I'm currently the director of a program that's aimed to support the specific needs of students as they are pursuing an undergraduate degree. And the program balances academic advising and personal support along with career exploration, leadership development and community engagement.
Eddie: And so, what do Hispanic-Serving Institutions guarantee to offer students that other colleges and universities might not?
Argenis: Hispanic-serving institutions are intentional in supporting this population of students, like offering a sense of community and relatability. And Hispanic-Serving Institutions also offer a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And they will continue to play that critical role in providing Hispanic students with their education they need in order to enter their career fields.
Belinda: Very similar to Argenis, I think that institutions, they show their commitment to serving students. I was actually reading Gina Garcia's book on Hispanic institutions in practice, and part of that really has a call for us to not just be an institution that enrolls students but be an institution that serves Hispanic students or Latinx or Latinos. So I think Hispanic-Serving Institution is thinking about how to not just enroll them but really truly serve them and serve them well while they are students.
Eddie: I like that idea of serving but also being intentional. So Argenis, can you start this next one? Just how do institutions approach students' success for HSIs?
Argenis: So the way that HSI has approached student successes by utilizing data to determine what programming can provide support to Hispanic students and close equity gaps. So the data is utilized specifically to track multiple factors, such as first-year progress, graduation rates and cohort program involvement.
Eddie: And then to Belinda, sitting on the admission side, are there other unique factors that colleges and universities are tracking, such as first gen or anything else with this HSI population?
Belinda: We certainly track first gen. We also do a lot of programming at the recruitment level around language. So for example, we might do sessions in Spanish. We give tours in Spanish, just to give families an opportunity to really feel like they belong on a college campus. And I think that's a big part of that recruitment phase of being an HSI is really thinking about how to incorporate families into this process.
I would also say that student success looks at both how the student performs while they are a student, but it also is about how a student does once they transition out of the college community, and that professional sense of we're transitioning into the professional workspace. So we're still thinking about ways to do that. With our new HSI grant, we were able to infuse funds into existing programs that we know are doing very well to retain both Latino students, but really all students.
Eddie: Can you tell us a few of those programs that you're specifically referencing?
Belinda: Sure. The programs that I'm referencing are things like our first year journey, which are a couple of days of an outdoor experience that students do very well in transitioning to the university. And so we really want and encourage our Hispanic students, our first-generation college students to participate in things like that, as well as our summer bridge program and our mentor program, which is called STEP.
Eddie: Sounds like you're doing some great work over there at University of Redlands. Kudos to you all.
Belinda: Thanks, Eddie.
Eddie: What I've noticed also with HSI, similar to HBCUs, is there's an immense version of pride in their schools, both graduates, staff and students affiliated with these schools. So Argenis, coming to you, can you talk about how that pride is nurtured on campus and why so many students find the HSI experience attractive.
Argenis: Community colleges are an essential building block in the education journey of many Hispanic students. HSI has continued to be attractive because they foster community. Our commitment to Hispanic students and the status as an HSI is reflected in the college's participation in the Excelencia in Education national initiative. The seal is a national certification for institutions intentionally serving Latino students through data, practice and leadership.
Eddie: So you pointed out community colleges being a strong support system. Can we just talk about how to get students comfortable at the community college, and then also transitioning them from the two-year into the four-year and the importance of that, too.
Argenis: So an example of this is by one of our programs that we have on campus called Conexiones & Connections, which is a program designed for Latinx students, and the purpose is to increase engagement and clarify their academic and career interest. And another example, I guess, if we're talking about how we are assisting in transitioning them out, it's through a program that we also have on campus, which is Grow with Google, and that's a career readiness program that is centered on helping students, providing them with the preparation needed to enter the workforce through digital skills and career workshops.
Eddie: Yeah, thank you for that. I definitely always say thinking about what are the opportunities presented by different colleges, and we hear about certain schools, not about all. And so as we think about the vastness of higher ed, that's also really important. And so Belinda, similar question coming to you, but just how does the University of Redlands build pride on your campus?
Belinda: I think there's a lot of different ways that we build pride, certainly with the traditions that are just part of the institution and making sure that all students feel like they're part of the institution and the fabric of the institution and making them feel like this isn't just an age-old tradition that certain students happen to connect to, but that we try to infuse that into everything that we do.
But I think at the end of the day, it's really about validating who a student is. And I think that is a real big part of coming into the institution. I mean, a lot of what I talk about with families when I do Spanish programming, for example, is that this is their community too. And for a lot of our students that are first gen that identify as Latino or that are part of the Hispanic community, they have never been or have never stepped foot on a campus before.
And so really talking about this as your space too really is powerful for them. And we get questions like, "Can I bring salsa to my daughter on the weekends," or, "Can I go to a soccer game," or can I do those kinds of things that if you've gone to college feels so like, of course you can do that. But if you are a first-gen family who's never been to a college in the U.S. before, those are important questions to ask because they just don't know. And so I think that validation of who a student is and who their family is and the makeup of the dynamic of that family and where they come from really is important. It goes a long way.
Eddie: If you know me, I'm a numbers person. I love some good numbers. I want to give a shout-out to University of Redlands as well. They're about 50% first-gen students. You want to talk about creating opportunities, that's creating an opportunity. At Pomona we're about 20%, and we're really excited about that. For a private school being at nearly 50%, kudos to you. So thank you for doing that great work and creating those opportunities for everyone.
Staying in that numbers scene, I'm going to throw out this other stat that I saw was pretty interesting. According to Excelencia in Education, HSIs in the US enroll 66% of Latino students. For reference, there are 500 of them, there are about 4,000 colleges. So 66% of students in about an eighth of the schools. So more power to HSIs to start. But with this student population increasing in the U.S. faster than any other population in terms of higher education enrollment, what does that mean for the future of HSIs?
Belinda: Well, I think that it means good things for all of us that are currently identified as a HSI. We are committed to the work. We want to make sure that we are creating spaces that validate our students. I would also say that it really does speak also to all institutions, and I think it's a call for all institutions to really think about, you have this fast-growing minority group and so I think the HSIs are in a unique position and that we have been thinking about how we are serving our Hispanic Latino students, but I do think that all institutions really need to be thinking about that. But how they are serving this fast-growing group, demographic group.
Argenis: I mean it's a wonderful opportunity, right? Because HSIs are now at the forefront of educating and preparing Hispanic students for the future.
Eddie: And that seems like a very colorful future from the data that we're seeing as well, coming down the pipeline. Students are starting to make their choices. Many prospective HSI students have a variety of options when selecting a college, including PWIs or predominantly white institutions, which is a term that we've used historically by the Department of Education. What should students think about when considering whether to attend an HSI or a PWI? And what have you heard from students on this question? And we'll throw it to Argenis first.
Argenis: So students who have expressed interest on PWIs, from my perspective, they often worry about the cost of attendance. And HSI community colleges offer Hispanic students a quality, affordable education that can prepare them to continue their education at a PWI if that's what the student is wanting to go for afterwards.
Eddie: Belinda?
Belinda: What I would say is every institution opens the door. And so I think whether a student selects a PWI or an HSI, I think it really is about whether a student is going to take advantage of the resources that are available. And a student that is thinking about an HSI oftentimes really has a good sense of who they are and what it is that they're looking to do and what kind of community they're going to be able to be, let's say, successful in.
A student attending a PWI, and I was one of them, I was a student that came from the Inland Empire in California and went straight to a PWI, and I loved my experience there. It challenged me to think about who I was and my identity in a different way and how I could challenge the system a little bit to include me into it. But I would say that it made me that much stronger when I moved into the professional workforce.
So I wouldn't say that one is better than the other. I would just say that when you're looking at institutions, the HSIs are going to provide a different environment than a PWI. And there are some very basic things, like I give examples of you go from things like selling Mexican candy in the bookstore and playing Mexican music or Latino inspired music out in the commons in the quad area to the pedagogy. And that is being taught in the classroom to the faculty that are being hired. There's an intentionality there in a way that is not present in other places.
Eddie: Yeah, thank you. I always just tell students, know what you're getting yourself into. As you're making your choices, you don't have to have in a list of all PWIs or all HSIs, you can have a mix of them. As you get your decisions back, that's when you really have to make those choices. But understand the situation you're walking yourself into. And also what do you want out of college? Because what you want isn't always the same as your peer or somebody who looks like you. So understand what you are wanting and why I'm here at this school. So that's what I tell students.
And now the question that we've all been waiting for probably and particularly thinking about this Supreme Court case, the SFFA case that just came out. And so considering the recent decision on race conscious admissions in the Supreme Court, some may question the need to focus on and provide federal funding to HSIs and other institutions that serve specific populations. What would you say to those who question the value of supporting HSIs?
Argenis: The recent decisions are not a deterrent. HSIs understands that race does impact the student's access to higher education. This can also affect persistence, retention, graduation, and career outcomes. But that HSIs are also committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Belinda: And I would add that, and we talked about this fact earlier, that with that Latinos, they're the fastest growing demographic group in the United States. And I think a big part of what we are here to talk about is how do we make sure that our institutions are serving our students well? And so really thinking about what the value is of supporting HSIs. I think the value is that we are educating the future of the country.
Eddie: I want to be very clear to the students and counselors listening to this podcast that the Supreme Court has not limited a single way or discussion topic that you can write about in your essays. You can still write about whatever you want. Because I've been asked, well, I'm Latino, can I write about that in my application? Yes, you can write about whatever you want. What the Supreme Court has done is it's limited our abilities to evaluate race as a status alone. And so we can evaluate the discrimination faced, we can evaluate the motivation because of, and the characters you've learned because of your race. But we can't just use race alone. So that's what the Supreme Court has done, it has not actually limited your ability to speak about race in your application whatsoever. So I want to be clear about that.
I'm afraid that's all the time we have today. Many thanks to Belinda and Argenis for a great conversation. And thanks to you, our friends in the audience, for joining us for this podcast.
College Admissions Decoded is a podcast from NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It is produced by LWC Studios. Kojin Tashiro produced this episode. If you would like to learn more about NACACs guests, our organization and the college admissions process, visit our website at nacacnet.org. That's N-A-C-A-C-N-ET-.org. Please leave a review and rate us on Apple Podcasts. See you next time on College Admissions Decoded.