Greeley UNC program lauded

Hispanic students recruited as teachers

An innovative program that recruits and trains Hispanic students to be classroom teachers more than doubled in enrollment this year at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

A benefit dinner last night at the Denver Merchandise Mart honoring Hispanic role models Federico Pena and Ken Salazar, will provide financial support for UNC’s Cumbres programs. Cumbres students receive a $ 1,500 tuition grant. Cumbres means “peaks” in Spanish.

The program addresses a shortage of minority and bilingual teachers across the country. In Colorado, 28 percent of kindergarten through 12th-grade students are minorities, according to the Colorado Department of Education, while only 9 percent of the teachers are minorities.

Pena, the former mayor of Denver, held two cabinet posts in the Clinton administration: secretary of energy and transportation. Salazar was elected state attorney general in November.

The program enrolled 97 students this year, compared with 45 in its debut last year. “Word about success of the program has gotten out, and a lot of that credit goes to the director who travels the state,” said UNC spokesman Ken McConnellogue.

The part-time director of Cumbres is Ernie Andrade, a retired Greeley public school administrator.

The program was initiated by a group of UNC alumni in response to a statewide need for bilingual and Hispanic teachers in public schools. The hope is that increasing the number of Hispanic faculty will in turn help more Hispanic students graduate.

Each Cumbres student is paired with a mentor – a Hispanic businessmen, teacher or community leader such as Weld County District Attorney Al Dominguez. Students take the same set of classes, share tutors and join together in study groups to create their own support group.



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