Undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. can fulfill their dream of earning a college degree or master’s through Casa Latina, an innovative program at Davenport University.
The Casa Latina university program at Davenport University in Michigan will offer scholarships to undocumented immigrants who want to pursue a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Can undocumented immigrants apply for this program? That question was posed to Carlos Sánchez, the executive director of Casa Latina, in a phone interview about the bilingual program.
“Yes, of course, yes, there’s no problem, we don’t ask for immigration status information; anyone can enroll in the school,” he said.
The online educational program is unique and offers programs in Spanish and English, depending on the applicant’s choice.
“The university creates a strategic plan every five years, and in the 2020 strategic plan, it decided to focus on the Latino community,” recalled Carlos Sánchez, the executive director of Casa Latina, in a phone interview.
At that meeting, the university’s vice presidency was tasked with creating a distinct program for the Latino population.
“In that research, we realized there were three main reasons why Latinos weren’t attending college. One is that they feel their English isn’t good enough,” Sánchez said. “The second is that they don’t see themselves reflected in the university environment, and the third is finances.”
Based on those reasons, Sánchez and the research team proposed a program.
“We set out to do something different—not just attract Latinos or Hispanics to the university and have them learn the way we teach, but for us to adapt to them,” he explained. “You know that we Latinos speak and live in English and Spanish and Spanglish.”
He added that 50% of the classes will be in Spanish and the other 50% in English, but they follow the same academic program.
The program has received $2.7 million in donations to date from groups such as the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation, the Frey Foundation, the Steelcase Foundation, and Steve and Tana Wessell.
How to Obtain a Scholarship
Since it’s an online program, an immigrant anywhere in the U.S. can apply for enrollment and access a scholarship.
“Casa Latina classes will cost the same as any class we currently offer at Davenport, however, we are offering $9,200 in scholarships per year for a bachelor’s degree,” Sánchez said.
Scholarships are also available for master’s programs, with $5,000 awarded.
“Obviously, it’s prorated depending on the number of credits the student is taking,” the academic specified.
What Are the Academic Options?
For bachelor’s degrees, the program offers accounting, management, health services, STEM programs, technology management, marketing, human resources management, among others.
For master’s degrees, the programs include human resources management, bilingual urban education, bilingual urban education certification, and accounting management.
Sánchez specified that validation of foreign studies will be handled by Davenport University’s administration.
“What we’re doing is that currently, at other universities, the person has to send their credentials and documents to an organization or company that will charge them, translate them, [but in this case] they send them to us. We’ll handle that entire process within the university,” he said. “We’re currently working so they can send them directly to us […] we evaluate them and grant the credits we believe they qualify for.”
Davenport University was founded in 1866 and serves about 5,000 students on campuses across Michigan and online in more than 60 dynamic undergraduate and graduate programs.
More Information
To request information about the program:
– Visit the Casa Latina webpage at Davenport University.
– Request advising: click here.
Image: Opinion
