SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Brothers of Gamma Delta Chapter, along with the sisters of Lambda Theta Alpha, hosted the 7th annual Barrio to Academia event to encourage high school students to go to college. The event featured a number of motivational speakers including Dr. Victor Rios, a sociology professor at UCSB who has been involved in a lot of research about what he calls “at promise” (in place of “at risk”) youth.
The event is timely as the U.S. has seen a significant increase in the number of Latino students attending college yet has not seen commensurate increases in college graduations. As of today, out of every 100 Latino kindergarteners only 12 will graduate from college, compared with nearly 36 for White students and 20 for African Americans. The Barrio to Academia event seeks to improve this trend by connecting high school students with current college students and graduates from similar backgrounds to show them that a college degrees is possible.
More information about this event and how Gamma Delta planned it will be coming in March.
Congrats to the Brothers of Gamma Delta and California Sector 3 for leading this effort.