December 4, 1998
Washington, D.C. — According to a recent report in the New York Times, many of the nation's elite colleges and universities are outbidding each other to offer more scholarship money to top students, even if their families do not need this handout. The repercussions are that the best education in the country is less and less accessible to bright but financially needy applicants. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is an organization whose mission is to develop the next generation of Latino leaders and to help Hispanic youth achieve their educational goals. Through the National Educational Clearinghouse CHCI provides Hispanic-specific financial aid and scholarship information to help college-bound high school students, college undergraduate and graduate students further their education.
"Part of CHCI's mission is to help Hispanic students find sources of financial aid and make higher education accessible," said CHCI Executive Director Ingrid Durán. "As a community, we need to encourage our youth to seek higher education opportunities and identify the resources to facilitate their goal of obtaining a college degree. We must demonstrate that it can be within their reach."
CHCI's role in this process is through our leadership development programs —and the National Educational Clearinghouse is one of those programs. By calling toll-free, 1-800-EXCEL DC, and completing a brief questionnaire, students can have access to more than 200,000 financial aid resources. This services also can be accessed through the CHCI Web Site: www.chci.org. Bilingual assistance is available.
After receiving the student's completed questionnaire, CHCI does a personalized search based on the student's academic profile and particular field of interest and mails the information to the student. The packet includes criteria for each program, or potential source of assistance, as well as addresses and deadline for applications. There is no charge for the use of this service (just postage costs).
The Educational Quarterly, a newsletter distributed to more than 12,000 high school students, parents and educators across the United States, is the National Educational Clearinghouse's companion publication. Each issue offers profiles of colleges and universities, articles highlighting financial aid resources, and features on strategies for continuing education.
CHCI also offers Latino recent college graduates and currently-enrolled graduate students, who are interested in pursuing careers in public policy, a nine-month fellowship (September to May) in the nation's capital. Fellows choose their placements, which include congressional offices, federal agencies, Washington-based media, national advocacy organizations and government-related institutions. CHCI also administers a two month summer internship program for college undergraduates. Interns work full time in congressional offices (House or Senate) to which they have been assigned by Institute staff and learn about the federal legislative process.
CHCI is a non-profit and non-partisan educational and leadership development organization that was established in 1978 to help develop the next generation of Latino leaders. It also is the only non-partisan Hispanic leadership organization to have members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on its board of directors. For more information, please call CHCI at 1-800-EXCEL DC or at (202) 543-1771. CHCI also has a web site: www.chci.org.
Return
to Homepage