University encourages Hispanic teens to pursue higher education

All of the recent statistics and talk about the growing Hispanic population across the nation has hit home for administrators at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago.

They are launching an eight-week summer research program targeting local Hispanic high school students called “Hispanic Incentive.”

The program, conceived by university President K. Michael Welch, is an effort to extend access to higher education to Hispanics in Lake County.

“Only 1 to 2 percent of our student population is Latino and none are from Lake County,” said Lee Concha, the university’s executive director of marketing and communications.

“Whether it’s the inability to afford higher education, lower GPA’s, lower standardized test scores or lack of role models, the university wants to address these challenges head on.”

The university will work with faculty at St. Martin de Porres High School and Waukegan High School to identify candidates for their program. So far, they have recruited four students who will receive a stipend to conduct research during the program’s pilot run beginning mid-June.

“We will offer them stipends that are better than what a student earns working at a store or restaurant,” said Hector Rasgado-Flores, associate professor of physiology and biophysics.

He has been assigned to conduct outreach for the privately funded program and will be one of the professors working with students this summer. His aim is to teach young Hispanic students how to conduct research and think like scientists.

At the end of the summer, students will present their research and findings to the scientific community within and outside the university as part of their final evaluation.

Rasgado-Flores’ research shows only 3 percent of area Hispanics have graduate or professional degrees even though U.S. Census data ranks Illinois as having the fifth-highest concentration of Hispanics in the nation.

“There is a lot of pressure among youth to dress well, to have a nice car, and a lot of pressure to earn fast money,” said Rasgado-Flores, explaining the lack of higher education in the numbers.

Rosalind Franklin’s program is also intended to be a vehicle for mentorship and networking opportunities for Hispanic youth looking to pursue careers in health and science, areas in which the university offers advanced degrees.

“During their high school years we monitor them and meet with them and their families. We will explain what we are doing to their families in Spanish,” said Rasgado-Flores. “It’s very important to involve the family because it is a part of the Hispanic tradition.”

He said their goal is to help students graduate from four-year universities, go back to work in Lake County and become role models of the success of higher education for new generations to come.

“The best advice we can give (students) is to not limit themselves based on circumstance, and instead to dream that they can achieve anything they want — it’s all about having the energy and the desire to do it,” said Rasgado-Flores.

The university is still reaching out to private organizations and corporations in order to obtain funding to continue the program beyond this summer.