The Latine College and Career Network: Giving a Boost to Latino Students in Boston

Five nonprofits work together to help low-income young people tap their cultural wealth and thrive in college and careers

By Carnegie Corporation of New York May 31, 2024

Future of Learning & Work

Latine and English learner students experience disproportionately low rates of graduation from high school and enrollment in higher education institutions. The Latine College and Career Access Network is a partnership of five community organizations in Boston, Massachusetts, that focuses on the lack of college and career pathways for local Latine youth and youth of color. 100 percent of participants in the network are economically disadvantaged, and the majority have an immigration background and are Spanish speaking. 80 to 85 percent of participants are the first in their families to attend college.(Credit: Jack Duran/Carnegie Corporation of New York)

Emily Rivera, 16, says she used to be shy and a “really closed person.” The daughter of a parking valet and a property manager, she worried about gang violence in her section of Boston. College felt like a distant dream.

Then two years ago, she joined after-school and summer sessions at Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción — a local nonprofit offering mentorship and services to children of low-income families. The warm encouragement there helped her open up and express herself. As part of an initiative boosting arts for justice, Emily’s group created paintings, skits, and poetry illustrating the impact of guns and gangs on young people. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu came to watch a performance.

“Now I’m able to have a voice in my community and say ‘this is my story,’” Rivera says. She hopes to become a lawyer: “I want to be among the ones who make social change in our community.”

Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción is one of five Boston nonprofits that banded together in 2016 to form the Latine College and Career Access Network, which aims to help low-income students of color find a strong path to adulthood. The network also includes the Boston Higher Education Resource Center, East Boston Community Council, Hyde Square Task Force, and Sociedad Latina. They offer a broad range of free services, from dance classes and paid internships to mentoring and college application workshops, drawing hundreds of students a year. Most of the young people served are English language learners and the first in their families to pursue college.

By the Numbers

The Latine College and Career Network reports that its young people have achieved strong success rates. Outcomes in the 2022-2023 school year include:

• 89 percent of students achieved on-time grade promotion and were on-track for high school graduation

• 85 percent of youth moved on to postsecondary education

• 92 percent of those in postsecondary institutions maintained enrollment for at least four semesters

More than 36 percent of Latino children in Boston live in poverty, according to the city’s planning agency. Their parents are overrepresented in low-wage jobs like food service. Only 77.5 percent of Latino high schoolers graduate in four years - lagging behind white, Asian and Black peers in Boston Public Schools.

The network’s representatives meet monthly to discuss challenges, brainstorm solutions, and share best practices. They also collect data yearly to pinpoint needs. Sometimes members team up on a specific project. During the pandemic, for example, they held webinars for students on the importance of wearing masks and staying engaged in school.

"It was critical to be the messengers closest to our families and help our families stay safe during such a difficult time,” says Celina Miranda, executive director of the Hyde Square Task Force. Now members are focusing on the mental health crisis facing young people.

The network’s offerings are broad.

The Boston Higher Education Resource Center serves high school students by offering college and career workshops, campus tours, career fairs, resume writing, team-building opportunities and scholarships.
East Boston Community Council offers afterschool programs, provides homework help, English language tutoring, and access to computers. It encourages students to finish high school on time or get an equivalency degree.
Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción’s Youth Development Program offers academic support, arts enrichment, civic engagement, and workshops on job readiness and financial empowerment. Participants receive one-on-one mentoring to achieve their goals for college and careers.
Sociedad Latina gives high school students long term academic support, mentoring, one-on-one college coaching and scholarships. It also provides work readiness workshops and internships at local hospitals, cultural institutions, and other settings.
Hyde Square Task Force offers Afro-Latino arts and dance instruction, education support, and leadership development training to 130 middle and high school students, in the belief that tapping into their cultural wealth will help them be more engaged academically. Students also have access to one-on-one and group social-emotional support. About 50 high school graduates meet monthly to help each other, attend workshops and receive individual coaching on their next steps.

Ariana Monroig, 19, credits Hyde Square Task Force with pulling her out of her malaise during the pandemic, when all-day Zoom classes sapped her motivation. She found an answer in the group’s Afro-Latin dance classes, which made her fall in love with salsa — even practicing in her bedroom when dance lessons were remote during the lockdown. Dancing “worked wonders on my confidence, not just as a dancer but as a person,” she says.

Hyde Square Task Force also paired her with volunteer mentors who helped her apply to college and find scholarships on top of Pell grants. Such guidance was key for Monroig: A first-generation college student, her mother is disabled and her father, from Puerto Rico, does odd jobs and didn’t finish high school.

Monroig recently finished her freshman year at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where she is studying to become an architect and has no tuition burden. “I’m as far as I am now,” she says, “because of the connections I’ve made and support I’ve received.”

This article is part of a series featuring winners of Profiles in Collective Leadership, an initiative by Carnegie Corporation of New York in partnership with the nonprofit Transcend, that recognizes outstanding local partnerships that educate youth, bolster the workforce, and demonstrate the power of working together. The 10 nonpartisan collaborations in urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country draw on the strengths of local government, education, nonprofit, business, and health care professionals to catalyze socioeconomic mobility and civic engagement in their communities. The 10 recognized partnerships in eight states have been awarded $200,000 grants and will act as exemplars, sharing what they have learned with each other and more broadly.