The Casa Latina university program, at Davenport University, in Michigan, will offer scholarships for undocumented immigrants who want to pursue a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Can undocumented immigrants apply for this program? Carlos Sánchez, the executive director of Casa Latina, was asked in a telephone interview about the bilingual program.
“Yes, of course, yes, there is no problem, we do not ask for information on immigration statusanyone can access the school,” he said.
The online educational program is unique in its kind and offers programs in Spanish and English, depending on the selection of the interested person.
“The university makes a strategic plan every five years and in the 2020 strategic plan it decided to focus on the Latino community,” recalled Carlos Sánchez, the executive director of Casa Latina in a telephone interview.
At that meeting, the vice president of the university was tasked with a different program for the Latino population.
“In that research we realized that there were three main reasons why Latinos were not in college. One is that they feel that their English is not good enough,” Sánchez said. “The second is that they do not see themselves reflected in the university environment and the third is finances.”
Based on these reasons, Sánchez and the team in charge of the investigation proposed a program.
“We took on the task of doing something different, not only attracting Latinos or Hispanics to the university and for them to learn in the way we are teaching, but we adapt to them,” he explained. “You know that we Latinos speak and live in English and Spanish and Spanglish.”
He added that 50% of the classes will be in Spanish and the other 50% in English, but they follow the same academic program.
The program has received $2.7 million in donations to date. from groups such as the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the ME Davenport Foundation, the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation, the Frey Foundation, the Steelcase Foundation and Steve and Tana Wessell.
How to get a scholarship?
As it is an online program, an immigrant from anywhere in the US will be able to request registration and have access to a scholarship.
“Casa Latina classes are going to have the same cost as any class we have here now In Davenport, however, we are offering them $9,200 dollars in scholarships in one year for their bachelor’s degree,” said Sánchez.
There are also scholarships for master’s degrees, those will be $5,000 dollars.
“Obviously it is prorated, depending on the number of credits the student is taking,” the academic specified.
What are the academic options?
The bachelor’s degree offers accounting, management, health services, STEM program, technology manager, marketing, human resources management, among others.
In the case of master’s degrees, human resources management, bilingual urban education, certification in bilingual urban education, and accounting management will be taught.
Sánchez specified that the validation of studies abroad will be run by the administration of Davenport University.
“What we are doing is that currently in other universities the person has to send their credentials, their documents to an organization, to a company where they are going to charge them something, they are going to do the translation, [pero en este caso] He sends them to us, we are going to have that entire process within the university,” he said. “We are currently working to have them send us directly […] We evaluate them and give them the credits that we think we can give them.”
Founded in 1866, Davenport University serves approximately 5,000 students on campuses across Michigan and online in more than 60 dynamic undergraduate and graduate programs.
More information
To request information about the program:
– Enter the Casa Latina website at Davenport University.
– Request advice: Click here.
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