2006 Recipients

Associate Level (PDF): Achieving a College Education (ACE) Programs at Maricopa County Community College District, Arizona (View PDF)

Stella Torres, Maricopa ACE Programs Director

The Achieving a College Education (ACE) Programs at Maricopa County Community College District, was selected as the 2006 Example of Excelencia at the Associate Level for its demonstrated results over the past twenty years to reach, engage and support high school students who aspire to a college degree. Over 60% of the program participants are Latino. Recent program data indicates that 88-96 percent of participants had graduated from high school, and 83 percent of ACE graduates had enrolled in college. ACE graduates outperform the general Maricopa Community Colleges student population.

Baccalaureate Level: Model Institutions for Excellence at the University of Texas at El Paso (View PDF)

Benjamin Flores, MIE Program Director

Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was selected as the 2006 Example of Excelencia at the Baccalaureate Level for its work over the past 11 years to accelerate success for Latino and other students in Science, Technology, Engineering at Mathematics (STEM) fields Support from federal NSF and NASA grants has allowed UTEP’s MIE to develop a model to support student and faculty development, outreach, curriculum reform, undergraduate research, and physical infrastructural improvements through six interconnected activities. MIE’s impact is seen in 2003 –04 data and UTEP's ranking 4th in the country awarding bachelors’s degrees in engineering (102 degrees to Latino students) and in biology (75 degrees to Latino students) and top 20 in awarding bachelor’s degrees in two fields, in computer science (33 degrees to Latino students) and in mathematics (9 degrees to Latino students).

View the Compendium of 2006 Examples of Excelencia Semifinalists (PDF) and see what our semi-finalists are doing to support Latino student success.