Since its founding in 2012, the White Plains-based nonprofit Latino U College Access Inc. has grown to the point it”™s now operating on a $1 million annual budget as it fulfills its mission to increase the number of Latino youngsters attending college.
Its founder and CEO Shirley Acevedo Buontempo said she will be succeeded in the role of executive director on July 1 by Cosette Gutierrez, who has been serving as deputy executive director.
Since its launch, it has delivered community information sessions to more than 5,000 parents and students. It described its Latino U Scholars program as providing one-on-one mentoring and support to Latino students in the junior and senior years of high school, including support from volunteer college coaches, free preparation for taking standardized tests such as the college entrance Scholastic Aptitude Tests, essay writing support and financial aid consultations.
Buontempo told the Business Journal that she founded Latino U to address education inequity.
“I recognized that there were so many talented students who were first-generation in their families to go to college right here in Westchester County that were unable to fulfill their potential not because of their ability or talent but because of the lack of resources, knowledge and information that it requires to successfully maneuver the college admissions and enrollment process,” Buontempo said.
“Often where you end up, where you go to college or what you choose to do after school is driven more by your parents”™ education and income level than by your own capabilities and what I recognized was that there were many talented low-income first-gen Latino youth who had this potential but were floundering through the process.”
Buontempo said she quite literally started the organization at her kitchen table and she was driven by a desire to help students with the college admissions process by providing bilingual support to them and their parents.
“It was important to me that we informed and guided them through everything from applications through financial aid, to enrollment and ultimately succeeding in college,” Buontempo said.
“We began to reach out to local companies right here in Westchester County like Morgan Stanley, MasterCard and now Danone to share with them the incredible talent of the students that are enrolled in our program.”
It took time to build support to the level it has reached today, with sponsors and supporters including PepsiCo, TD Bank”™s Charitable Foundation, Sculptor Capital Management, the Westchester Community Foundation, Bloomberg, Univision New York and Westchester County, among others.
According to Latino U”™s Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service for year 2019, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit had gross receipts of $846,217. It received $792,881 in contributions and grants.
“Corporations are also incredible partners in providing volunteer engagement and volunteer support to our programs as well as being mentors and advisers on everything from résumé editing to career guidance for the students in this program,” Buontempo said.
Buontempo said that the first student she worked with was homeless and, when he was accepted to college, she cried tears of joy.
“I still cry tears of joy when I hear these acceptances that are received by students who have worked so hard their entire lives, who have sacrificed so much and whose families have sacrificed so much so that they can get to this moment,” Buontempo said. “It”™s almost like the American dream is being fulfilled for them, for their families, and we know this is something that will benefit them for generations to come because once you educate a child you educate their families forever.”
When Gutierrez assumes the role of executive director, she intends to build upon the foundation that has been established for Latino U College Access. The organization has 10 staff members, 40 volunteer college coaches and another 20 to 40 volunteers with other specialties. There is a board of directors with 15 members.
“Our goal is to continue to raise that level hoping to reach hundreds of students annually and getting our whole entire organization to support up to 1,000 students annually,” Gutierrez told the Business Journal.
“The 222 students we have at the college level are completing their college degrees or have recently graduated.”
She said that over the next three years the organization hopes to raise an additional $1 million to help support increasing the number of students participating in the organization”™s programs.
“We”™re also creating and developing a walk-in resource center because we know that our community needs the additional support. So, we envision a space that has resources, information about college and a safe space where students can talk to our team to help them navigate the college process,” Gutierrez said.
“As a first-generation college graduate myself I know the importance that education has had on my life and how it has changed the destiny.”
Gutierrez explained that when the pandemic hit, the organization quickly had to transition to operating virtually, which had an unexpected benefit.
“It allowed us to expand and try different things that perhaps we may not have tried under normal circumstances,” Gutierrez said.
“When I joined the organization we were talking about scale, but we were limited to what we could actually do in-person and with our in-person volunteers. What the pandemic allowed us to do was to try a few different pilots to see how could this model work virtually, how could we engage a few volunteers who couldn”™t get to Westchester but would happily jump on a Zoom call with their student.
“We reached families in ways we hadn”™t before. Sometimes life gets in the way and families could not get to our office for events or sessions but virtually they were all able to join after work or in the early evenings so that gave us greater access.”
Gutierrez said that there are processes the organization will continue to do virtually because it allows them to be more efficient and productive while being cost effective. She said that the ability to operate virtually also raises the prospect that the organization might be able to expand geographically, making its services available to students and families in other parts of the nation.
“The short-term vision is to expand our presence here in Westchester County,” Gutierrez said. “Today we”™re in four of the top seven high Hispanic-serving school districts. Our vision is we want to be in all seven.”
Gutierrez said that this year some students who received help from the organization were attending prestigious schools such as George Washington University, Johns Hopkins and Villanova University.
“Our friends in guidance across the school districts that we work with understand and appreciate the value of Latino U College Access. We”™re the first call that they have when they”™re trying to provide programming to their Spanish-language families,” Gutierrez said.
