Here’s some welcome news from our friends at Fox News Latino concerning Latino educational attainment:
“A new study conducted by the University of California, Berkeley revealed that the number of Latinos holding a doctorate degree rose 161 percent from 1990 to 2010, outpacing the non-Hispanic rate by almost double as that finished at 90 percent.”
The news is not only exciting, it’s also crucial. Educational attainment is a determining factor for success in other areas of life, and for many Latinos, obtaining a doctorate degree provides an escape route out of poverty and joblessness, and up the socioeconomic ladder.
Still, as the article points out, Latino educational achievement still desperately trails that of non-Latino whites:
“Despite the gains in higher education by Latinos, the group is still a minority compared with non-Hispanic whites. White students pursuing Ph.D.’s at Berkeley outnumber Hispanics almost 7 to 1.
At the start of the 2011 school year there were 385 Latino students working on a doctorate at Berkeley, a 46 percent increase in 20 years. Even though the number of non-Hispanic, white doctoral students fell 25 percent in the same period, they still numbered 2,529.”
In an effort to combat the lack of opportunity among Latino students and ensure that more Latinos are pursuing doctorate degrees, Vanderbilt University has teamed up with Fisk University (a traditionally minority school) to create the “bridge program,” which allows students to receive their Master’s at Fisk and then pursue their doctorates at Vanderbilt.
Kudos to Vanderbilt, Fisk and the other institutions tackling the issue of low educational attainment in the Latino community. It borders on redundancy to point out the manifold obstacles in front of Latinos pursuing advanced degrees — low-income, family needs, neighborhood poverty, fear, doubt, a lack of role models, and a lack of positive reinforcement, among countless others. Such obstacles, instead of linear, form a web that effectively binds many Latinos that would otherwise obtain a degree.
Educational attainment should be a cardinal principle of the Latino community. It is one of the pillars of community uplift — a road lined with open doors. More than knowledge, a good education equips Latinos with choice.
About Being Latino Contributors
It means more student loan debt. : )
But jokes aside, this is good news.
That is great news! That means more role models for my students. I’ll have to share this article with them : )
If any of ya’ll know someone who is either first-generation college students with financial need, or member of a group that is traditionally underrepresented in graduate education and have demonstrated strong academic potential, I recommend informing them about the McNair Scholars Program. The goal of the McNair Scholars Program is to increase graduate degree awards for students from underrepresented segments of society. Students who are accepted into the program gain valuable research experience and connections that are critical when applying to graduate programs. As a McNair Scholar, I encourage all students who are serious about earning a PhD to apply.
Albert Chavez, would you please post the link here. Thanks.
http://mcnairscholars.com/
Just because someone has a PHd doesn’t necessarily make them smart or valuable to any community. Sometimes the wisdom and knowledge of una madre or an old timer who never had any real education or fancy degree is more special and inspring than a plethora of know it all “doctors” professing their “knowledge” and ruining everything in their wake.
“To speacilize is to brush one tooth. When a person specializes he channels all of his energies through one narrow conduit; he knows one thing extremely well and is ignorant of almost everything else.”
Tom Robbins
Book knowledge does not a wise man make, but if you think that the superficial society, in which we live, doesn’t value advanced degrees, then you are kidding yourself.
But degrees don’t really mean everything – that’s why superficial society’s worship of these degrees is just that – superficial.
However, there are good and bad members of this community.
People are not toothbrushes, and while agree that a PhD doesn’t necessarily make someone smart, I can’t think of an instance when a PhD is not valuable. A degree is worth something, so we should encourage more Latinos to obtain them.
Congrats, Mario. You found a way to criticize the fact that there are more Latinos with PhDs. That’s impressive.
Well we can learn equally from a PHd as well as a wise person who might be illiterate. But even people with associates, bachelors, and masters are of value too in the Latino community – just noting doctorates as the end all is very elitist and snobby.
But a lot of the Latino PHds I have met have a high and mighty attitude and actually look down on the rest of us common folk.