♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey (funky music) - Good evening, and welcome "Horizonte," a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm Richard Ruelas from the Arizona Republic.

Our show tonight focuses on the recent naming of ASU as a Hispanic Serving Institution or HSI.

The Department of Education defines an HSI as an institution of higher education that has an enrollment of full-time Hispanic undergraduate students.

At least 25% of the student body.

Producer Julio Cisneros talked to several ASU students about what that means to them.

- I think it's very encouraging that ASU is being recognized with this distinction.

Hopefully, it gives ASU motivation to continue serving Hispanic students, and it also puts it on the radar for first generation college students and other Latina Hispanic students who are looking to go to college, and I think ASU is a wonderful choice for 'em.

- For me, as a transporter student, this means that more students will have the opportunity to come to ASU and be part of this broader community.

Be able to learn, get their degrees, and feel included on this big institution.

- I think diversity is absolutely paramount for any higher education institution.

I identify myself as Hispanic Latina.

I strongly believe that the way that for an individual to grow and to be better in future, and to be more, it's through diversity.

- I think preparing for college, it's never too early to start preparing for college.

As early age as possible, I think it's extremely beneficial to get kids aware about college and sort of the process, and making it known that that's an option for them.

- I believe that that is the most important resource that ASU can offer.

In my own experience, I had a program also that helped me - For being a first generation student, it's really difficult for you to, you don't know anything about financial aid, how to apply for college, and those simple things.

- I am very optimistic about the future.

The futures of Hispanic students that we have here at ASU, and I truly believe that they are the leaders of the future, and are sort of this next generation to help uplift our people.

- I'm really proud of being here, of being a student here, and I would like to promote this.

I would like to help to this movement of promoting higher education among Hispanics.

- Maria Anguiano has been named Executive Vice President of Arizona State University's Learning Enterprise, which focuses on breaking down barriers, and making sure educational opportunities are available to all.

She joined us now here on set to talk about what the HSI designation means for ASU.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- What does the HSI designation (chuckles) mean for ASU as a whole?

- Yeah.

Well, we are very proud of ASU to be named as an HSI.

And it's a personal point of pride for me.

I think what it allows us to do is to tell our Hispanic community that this is a place where our students belong.

And I know for me, that's very personal because when I went to college, as a first generation student, I never felt like I belonged.

When I looked around the campus, I didn't see students like me.

I didn't see students from my background.

And so, for my entire career in education, I wanted to make a campus feel that every single person that came to campus felt like they belonged.

And I think this designation allows us to have our Hispanic community know that ASU is a place for them.

- And I guess, I mean, the immigration story of Latinos in Arizona is the age old story of immigrants of grandparents, but it has continued.

We have so many first generation Hispanic students still going through the education system, it's not, I mean, it's a continual first arrivals here.

How is that more of a challenge to serve that community that keeps evolving?

- Yeah.

And I would say I think it's more of a ability for us to just serve the community slightly differently.

We know that they have perhaps different questions that other students that probably had, that had parents that went to college may not have.

And so, we've created special programs that outreach to the junior highs, and to the high schools to start preparing our Hispanic families for what it means to be able to apply to college, how to pay for college.

These are the types of services that we provide so that when you get to ready to apply, it already feels like something, a pathway that looks viable to you.

- And your job, I guess they've parceled out Dr. Crow's mission statement for the university, and sort of given every department or segment to take part in.

You're looking at the community as well.

How do you make sure this university is serving those who aren't necessarily your traditional students?

- Yes.

Well, we are serving a large number of students, right?

We have 31,000 Hispanic students going to ASU right now.

And just to give you a sense of context, that is like a Harvard and a half.

That means we have more Hispanic students than Harvard has students, period.

By a factor of, like I said, over 50%.

And so, my job is to make that number even bigger.

And we're doing that by reaching down to the high school pipeline.

We know that almost 50% of our students in Arizona are Hispanic.

And so, getting that percentage higher is really important for us to get them into ASU.

And I think what that means is making sure that our students see themselves as college goers even starting in elementary school.

And so, the job of my team is to provide resources, learning content, everything that ASU has to offer to every community member.

- I mean, is it just as simple as when you reach out to high schools, letting them know that the campus is open, letting them be familiar with what goes on here?

I mean, is it simple as just a tour?

- Well, it's a lot more than that.

We definitely have those services.

But it's also actually having exposure to what does college mean.

And so, we recently created a whole series that you can watch on YouTube called "Study Hall."

And if you go on YouTube and search it, you will find four to five minute videos, hundreds of them, from ASU faculty members helping students understand what is a college application?

What is financial aid?

What is a political science major, right?

There's all these questions that a first generation student, you don't really know what a major means.

You don't really know what it means to major in biology, right?

What does that mean?

What kind of careers can I get?

And so, we've created these resources that now high schools can use in their classrooms, and they don't have to create all that content, we've created it for them.

And so, it's things like that.

Courses, we actually allow high school students to take our college courses so they can get a chance to say, wow, I can succeed at a college course.

If you know that in high school, you are much more likely to go to college.

And so, yes, it's tours, of course, yes, it's outreach, but it's also content resources, courses that we have available for all the community.

- Making it not a stranger.

You also, it seems like with the mother daughter program, we're looking at reaching the parents of possible students coming in- - Yes.

Yes.

As we know, our Latino communities are very, I think, family oriented, or at least mine is, right?

And so, we know that the families are part of the decision that we make.

And so, one of the programs that we have is the Hispanic mother daughter program that really reaches out to the mothers, to help them help their students through the process.

- Right.

And what does that look like in having the mothers, I mean, at times, are you encouraging the mothers to sign up?

I mean, part of your other job is lifelong learning.

- [Maria] Yes- - So, you're trying to get - So, it's both helping them learn about how to get their student into college, but also letting them know the resources we have for them.

So, one example program we have is what we call the (speaking in foreign language) bootcamp.

And it's a financial literacy program that created specifically for the Latino community.

And so, mothers wanting to learn how to get a credit card, or what to do about their bank accounts, we have those types of resources available for the families as well.

- Put together by.

- By ASU.

- By ASU faculty.

- Yes.

- Okay.

Given the, I mean, 25 percent's a great number, 26 percent's a great number.

But right, 50% of K through 12 students are Hispanic.

What do you think that trajectory will look like?

What is success a decade or two decades down the road?

- Well, success, I think is- - And this we played during your job evaluation in 20 years.

(Maria laughs) - To see if you met it.

- That's great.

I think success means looking like the people of Cal, or of Arizona, sorry.

(chuckles) Success means looking like the people of Arizona.

And so, we'd like to match the demographics of Arizona, and what I think that means is actually operating ASU slightly differently.

So to give you an example, it means literally reaching out into the community very deeply.

So, we just opened a program called ASU Local in Yuma, Arizona.

And we had a population in Yuma working with the Arizona Western College that wanted to go to ASU, but wanted to stay close to their community, wanted to stay close to their family.

And yet we were asking them to come all the way to Tempe to go to college.

Instead, we went to them.

And so, we opened an ASU campus right on the community college, and we hear from our students, I thought I had to choose between my family and college, and now I don't have to.

- And so now, they can live in the Yuma community, San Luis, and still- - Exactly.

- Attend ASU, which is not, yeah, which might not have been, geez, they could have gone to Tucson.

Oh.

(Maria laughs) I shudder to think.

- [Maria] And so.

- As a Sun Devil myself, I shudder to think.

- And the more of those types of opportunities that we create, I think the more we're gonna be able to represent the full population.

- There is an argument, and there's some people who are state leaders, or want to be state leaders who are talking about, maybe there's too much emphasis on college.

Maybe we need to emphasize trades more.

Does Arizona have enough college graduates?

- No, we do not.

And I also don't think it's one or the other.

Actually, one of the jobs that we have here at ASU is really to create, I think, flexible pathways for people, so that you are getting career certificates, and you might also be getting academic credit.

And then you might be working full time, and guess what?

You can still be an ASU student.

So, this dichotomy of either/or I think is something ASU is working actively to break completely, and help people provide a pathway that works for them.

- Right, and then if there's a possible second career training, there's all that.

- [Maria] Exactly.

- There's a website people can go to for all this too, right?

- Yes.

It's asuforyou.com.

- ASU for you, I believe with an exclamation point.

- Yes, and for.

(both laugh) - Maria, I wish you continued success, as a Sun Devil, I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed.

And I thank you for joining us tonight.

- Thank you for having me.

- And that is our show for tonight.

For "Horizonte" and Arizona PBS, I'm Richard Ruelas, have a good evening.