Aida McCammon founded The Indiana Latino Institute (ILI) in 2001 due to the lack of a working health and education system throughout the state for the Latino community. According to Maria Quiroz-Southwood, the Education Program Director at ILI, McCammon wanted to bring the Spanish language into the healthcare system for Spanish-speaking patients. The ILI offers programming in health and education, including the Indiana Tobacco Program, and the Education Program that started in 2005.

ILI started basic – connecting Latino students with colleges. The very first Education Summit had 500 students and has grown. In 2019, ILI had over 2,800 students between Indianapolis and South Bend. This year they are working to host it in person in Indianapolis, South Bend, and Evansville, aiming to reach over 3,000 students.

There are different areas for education, including the College Access program, where the staff prepares students for college, offering workshops, college coaching, and their Education Summit.

Daniela Lopez is a senior at Marian. She said that when in high school, she told her teachers that she wanted to go to college, but she didn’t know how. This teacher connected her with ILI in 2016, and she attended the Education Summit.

Lopez said “I needed to hear a professional that had a similar story, a similar journey… I didn’t know what the process was to go to college. They really filled me in, asked me the hard questions, and just really advocated for me.”

The second piece of ILI is College Success a program run by Kennya Santiago, a College and Workforce Development Specialist who works specifically with college students. She does one-on-one coaching and coordinates the summer internship program.

Lopez said that the coaching helped her to be a better advocate. They inspired her to find a solution to any problem she faces. That as a student who doesn’t qualify for financial aid, ILI helped her find scholarships and opportunities.

One program is Systems Change, where ILI is working with higher education institutions and focusing on issues and areas of retention, recruitment, and graduation rates of Latino students at their schools. ILI has been meeting with chancellors and presidents of higher institutions since 2017. Last year at the Higher Education Consortium in 2020, the results were memorandums of understanding (MOU) that ILI offered higher education institutions. This occurred due to issues impacting Latino students going to their higher education institutions, such as financial aid: eligible for financial aid, first-generation and they need money, DACA or undocumented and there are financial constraints, along with understanding the process of applying to college. ILI is working with higher institutions to make it easier and more understandable.

Last February, the Indiana University of Bloomington signed an MOU with ILI stating that for the next five years they will take two students who have worked with ILI, offering a full scholarship. Twenty-two other institutions have signed that MOU, including Marian, who is giving two scholarships to Latino students. Quiroz-Southwood said that Marian is wonderful to work with.

They do one-on-one college coaching. Quiroz-Southwood said that students usually want to get connected with an internship or a scholarship, or they are interested in graduating college. Quiroz-Southwood said that students need guidance on what to do next and are looking for mentors.

Quiroz-Southwood directs students to sign up online at http://indianalatinoinstitute.org/, Under the education tab. Within 48 business hours, they will contact that student to set up an appointment.

Quiroz-Southwood talked about Marian, saying that ILI is excited to continue working with them and see that collaboration grow. Along with college coaching, there are other programs built for student success.

Ashley Anderson, the College Program Manager, talked about Pathway to Careers, a five-year program to reduce poverty among the Latino community through education. They are trying to increase the number of Latino high school students going to college. There currently is a gap of 15% between Latino students and Caucasian people attending college. ILI is trying to close that gap, and one of the first steps is to recruit more Latino students in Indianapolis.

ILI is partnered with three institutions in Indianapolis- Ivy Tech, Marian, and IUPUI. They are concerned with making sure students are getting connected with academic advising, succeeding in classes, and are on track to graduate. ILI works with their student’s success offices, helping Latinos get involved with student clubs and organizations all for the betterment of their future

Anderson said that the goal is to help students go to college and get a job and help support families. ILI’s goal is to provide access to good jobs for students, as well as to drive down poverty in Marion County within the Latino population. By doing this, it will not only help students, but generations to come.

Lopez said that after going through programs with ILI, “I can speak for myself, I didn’t know what the process was to go to college. They really filled me in, asked me the hard questions, and just really advocated for me, and they don’t just do that for me, but with everyone in the community they serve.”