This grant provides funds to bolster the efforts of an established consortium of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI). CAHSI is dedicated to advancing Latina/o/x representation in computer science, a discipline lacking in diversity (by gender and race/ethnicity), especially at the graduate level. CAHSI pulls together more than 60 two- and four-year Hispanic Serving Institutions to learn from one another and to work with industry, non-profit, and other partners to raise computing degree attainment by Latina/o/x students. With much success behind them, CAHSI leadership is expanding its focus from undergraduate to graduate education pathways.Funds from this grant will support a series of activities designed to develop multilevel shared responsibility across the network, build multidimensional structures and cultivate a talent development mindset at CAHSI member institutions. Moreover, the project is poised to capitalize on a growing number of R1 (i.e., very high research productivity) HSIs, including through CAHSI’s involvement in the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU), whose goals are to double the number of Hispanic doctoral students and increase by 20% the number of Hispanic faculty in their universities by 2030.

As of January 2022, Illinois state law guarantees admission to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for all students from the Community College of Chicago system with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. This grant supports a partnership between UIUC and Wilbur Wright College, a Hispanic Serving community college in Chicago, to help Wilbur Wright students take advantage of this new law, increase the number of Wilbur Wright students who transfer to UIUC, and enhance the educational resources available to these students, particularly those interested in STEM, so that they are well-prepared to succeed as their education continues.Primary activities funded through this grant include presentations for Wilbur Wright students and workshops for Wilbur Wright faculty on transfer and graduate opportunities; the launch of a one-week summer exploration program for Wilbur Wright students at UIUC; expanded professional development offerings and supports for Wilbur Wright students in the Transfer Pathways program, an annual STEM conference at Wilbur Wright; and sponsorships for 8-10 Wilber Wright students per year to participate in UIUC’s GearUp engineering education enrichment program. In addition, UIUC will use qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze lessons learned and promising practices from the collaboration and disseminate them to inform similar partnerships at other universities.