BIPOC access to Higher Education
Omar Lopez-Sanchez is studying automation robotics engineering technology at Hennepin Technical College. He’s also working part time at a manufacturing firm, and he’s being paid full-time wages under an apprenticeship program.
Paid apprenticeships
As a large technical college in Minnesota, Hennepin Tech’s relationship with industry partners is key to student success. Partners sit on all of the college’s program advisory boards and provide internships, paid career experiences, and apprenticeships.
The college also focuses on retaining students and helping them complete their programs.
“We are working with a really economically fragile population of students,” she explains. The average age of students attending the school ranges from 27 to 31, depending on the year. Some students have children. Many are working full-time jobs.
“At one point, 70 percent of our students worked full-time jobs while enrolled in school, so it’s really hard,” she says.
“Some students are hungry, homeless, and housing insecure,” she says. “Child care is a huge challenge for people, so we built resources to support all basic needs.”
These support services include gaining access to public assistance programs. Every month, students can get free groceries.
In 2021, the Minnesota Legislature directed colleges and universities to provide students with resources for basic needs and mental health.
Hennepin Tech already had resources that included advising, counseling, and tutoring, and it has expanded them since 2018, Lauritsen says. Since then, retention rates have risen by 5 percent.
“What we’re trying to do more of is get to the students and not have them have to find us,” she says.
“To be successful, the state should focus on increasing the high school graduation rate, postsecondary enrollment, postsecondary persistence, and postsecondary completion, with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, and students of color.”
Diversifying Minnesota Campuses
Excerpted from an article by Winter Keefer
Data shows that underserved populations often fall through the cracks in higher education—an issue the state of Minnesota has identified and that colleges, universities, and technical schools are working to remedy.
‘No shortcut solution’
Dunwoody’s Pathways to Careers program works to connect high schoolers with education opportunities and career prospects. Students selected for the program attend a three-week summer summit that focuses on career exposure and preparation. Those who choose to attend Dunwoody after high school receive continued support and a $10,000 scholarship each year while completing a two-year program.
The program now also works with community partners to identify disadvantaged adults with a high school diploma or GED who may want to continue their education.
Leaders of color program
Like Pathways to Careers, many universities have created pipeline programs that help show students what the trajectory from high school to college to the workforce looks like.
For the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, the Emerging Leaders of Color program, a free eight-month pathway program for underrepresented high school students, offers students of color this pipeline, says Geida Cleveland, assistant director for diversity and inclusion at Carlson.
Students in the program have access to business classes, professional development, networking with professionals from the Twin Cities corporate community, mentorship from current Carlson School students, and college preparation activities.
It’s one of many initiatives the school has implemented to increase enrollment and retention of underserved students, Cleveland says. The college also launched Analytics U last year, a day camp where students learn about business analytics.
Credit for life experience
It’s never too late to go back to school.
That’s the credo of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, a private Catholic university with an undergraduate residential college in Winona and an urban campus in Minneapolis, says Brian Schmisek, provost and dean of faculties.
It’s important to recognize that many people don’t complete the traditional four-year college degree right out of high school.
WHO
Institutes of higher education throughout Minnesota
WHERE
WHEN
In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature established a goal that 70 percent of Minnesotans 25-44 years old earn a certificate or degree—by 2025.
A 2021 report shows the state is making strides toward this benchmark, with 62.5 percent of this age cohort completing at least a postsecondary credential program
WHY
Increasing access to higher ed for BIPOC individuals.
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