Valencia College in Orlando won national recognition this week for its participation in the DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ program, which guarantees university admission to graduates of four Central Florida colleges.<\/p>\n
Excelencia in Education chose Valencia as the nation\u2019s top program for increasing academic opportunities and success for Latino students at the associate level. Also honored at a gala on Oct. 2 in Washington were programs run by California State University Bakersfield and the University of Texas, El Paso.<\/p>\n
The honorees all were recognized for boosting Latino enrollment, performance and graduation.<\/p>\n
DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ was started in 2006 to expand access to higher education and has been shown to be one of the least expensive ways to achieve a bachelor\u2019s degree in the nation. The program ensures admission to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ for graduates of Valencia College, Brevard and Lake-Sumter community colleges and Seminole State College of Florida.<\/p>\n
Nearly a quarter of the baccalaureate graduates of Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½, the nation\u2019s second-largest university, are transfer students from Valencia.<\/p>\n
\u201cValencia College is at the forefront of meeting the challenge of improving higher educational achievement for Latino students,\u201d said Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education.<\/p>\n
Valencia\u2019s Joyce Romano, vice president of Student Affairs, accepted the award and a $5,000 check for the college. \u201cThis honor is\u00a0recognition of Valencia\u2019s commitment to Latino student success by building pathways for students to complete a bachelor\u2019s degree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s academic advisors work closely with advisors at Valencia and the other DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ partner colleges to help students make a smooth transition to the university.<\/p>\n
Valencia ranks fifth among the nation\u2019s colleges and universities in the number of\u00a0associate degrees awarded to Hispanic students, which account for almost 31 percent of the college\u2019s 60,770 degree-seeking students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valencia College in Orlando won national recognition this week for its participation in the DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ program, which guarantees university admission to graduates of four Central Florida colleges. Excelencia in Education chose Valencia as the nation\u2019s top program for increasing academic opportunities and success for Latino students at the associate level. Also honored at a gala on Oct. 2…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1323,18012,5030],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-41580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-direct-connect-to-ucf","tag-latinx","tag-valencia-college"],"yoast_head":"\n