Finalist

Latino Student Services and Outreach (LASSO) is a unit under the area of Student Retention and Undergraduate Studies at Georgia State University. The primary function of LASSO is to promote an inclusive community that enhances the success of Latino students. We seek to recruit, retain, empower, graduate, and advance Latino/Hispanic students at GSU. LASSO's mission is accomplished by offering students support services, mentoring programs, volunteer and outreach opportunities, leadership and career development programs, academic support programs, as well as referral services. We are also interested in collaborating with other offices and departments on campus to develop partnerships focused on student learning that compliments the academic, personal, career, social, and cultural development of Latino/Hispanic students. 

There are 16 Grow Your Own (GYO) consortia, 8 in Chicago and 8 in other high need areas in Illinois. The cohorts of GYO Latino candidates featured in this nomination live and work in two diverse, largely Latino neighborhoods in Chicago and attend the College of Education at Northeastern Illinois University. A state law with state funding, Grow Your Own supports the teacher candidates with tuition assistance, tutoring, child care, transportation and supports by cohort coordinators who are academic liaisons with the College of Education and also by coordinators at the two community organizations who support the candidates and help to develop them as community leaders.

The Community Scholars Program provides Georgetown students with the unique opportunity to thrive. Scholars are carefully selected during the admissions process based on their academic achievement, impressive co-curricular accomplishments, and commitment to the transformative power of education. They are often first-generation college students, and typically represent diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The Community Scholars Program encompasses six core components:

1. Summer Program: During the summer before their first year, Community Scholars have the opportunity to spend five weeks in residence at Georgetown University, and take two credit-bearing classes.
2. Continuation of Humanities and Writing 009 during the Fall semester: Scholars continue taking this core class, in most cases with the same professor, during the Fall semester for a total of six (6) credits.
3. Fourth Hour Study Group Sessions: During the Fall semester the program organizes study group sessions for a few core courses such as Calculus and Chemistry. 
4. First Year Support: All first-year Scholars receive academic and personal support through various mandatory programs.
5. Ongoing Support: Throughout the remainder of a Scholar's Georgetown career, they continue to get ongoing academic and personal support.
6. Scholarship: Scholars who have received a need-based financial aid package may be eligible for a $1,700 scholarship to compensate for lost summer wages, which will be applied directly into the student's account. 

In 1971, two Detroit social services agencies, Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development, Inc. (LASED) and New Detroit, Inc. jointly founded the Latino en Marcha (LEM) Leadership Training Program. A year later, the Wayne State University's (WSU) Board of Governors formally approved its incorporation into Monteith College as the renamed Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies (CBS), making the Center the second oldest Latina/o undergraduate studies program in the Midwest. CBS was created to empower underrepresented groups and first generation students from working class backgrounds. Over 2,000 students have participated in the CBS Scholars Program since 1972.