Institution The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio State Texas Academic Level Graduate Issue Area Support Services Website https://exitotraining.org/ Key Personnel Cliff Despres Program Focus Pathway/Pipeline Overview The ¡Éxito! program’s mission is to increase the number of Latinos pursuing a doctoral degree and a career in Latino cancer health disparities. ¡Éxito! seeks to encourage Latino master’s-level students and master’s-trained health professionals to pursue doctoral degrees and careers in cancer control research. Program Description ¡Éxito! recruits an annual cohort of 25 U.S. master’s-level students or health professionals to attend a five-day summer institute covering Latino cancer, the need for Latino cancer research, networking with Latino researchers, and skills, resources, and support needed to apply to a doctoral program. They provide up to 10 annual paid internships to build research skills and experience in cancer research; promote an academic-support and career-building pipeline via interactive dialogue with program alumni consistently with quarterly webinars, as well as an annual newsletter and Facebook groups. They hope to drive at least 20% of ¡Éxito! participants to enroll in and stay in a doctoral program, with at least half of them focused on cancer control research. ¡Éxito! increases the number of Latinos enrolled in doctoral programs and new “insider researchers” conducting Latino cancer control research. ¡Éxito! has developed an academic-support and career-building pipeline for program alumni and peer-to-peer mentoring. Outcome Increased Latino enrollment in doctoral programs: About 27% of alumni are currently enrolled in a doctoral program (55) or have gone on to earn their doctoral degree (14). Of these 55 alumni, 51 are Latinos. Increase of Latinos in higher-paying technical occupations related to cancer: All alumni have jobs, or their academic focus is related to Latinos and public health. 69% of doctoral students indicated their career path will relate to cancer research, and among those not yet enrolled in doctoral programs, 51% have employment directly or indirectly related to cancer. Learn more about Latino College Completion in Texas Return to Growing What Works Database
