The Lumina Foundation for Education is partnering with dozens of organizations and educational institutions to launch a new website serving South Florida Latino students, called the Hispanic Access to College Education Project, or "¡HACER!".

College Resources for Latinos in South Florida

The new website, at www.hacermiami.org, has the goal of supporting and sustaining college access and completion for Latino students in Miami-Dade County. The initiative is the result of a $600,000 four-year grant from the Lumina Foundation Latino Student Success Initiative and a partnership with more than a dozen educational institutions, businesses and business organizations, government offices, and community groups.

The new іHACER! website, launched on Thursday, is a slick, Google-style scrolling affair, designed by Miami local digital media agency POP Creative. The website features resources for college-bound high school students, transfer students, continuing education adult students interested in college, and parents. There's links to financial advice, college planning, and information on college entrance exams, including a calendar of events with regular workshops for students to hone their test-taking skills.

"Working together, the іHACER! team is helping to address educational and achievement gaps for Latino students, providing them with the tools, access and opportunity to obtain a college degree," said Dr. Alanka Brown, program director of іHACER! and director of academic readiness for MDC's acclaimed Student Achievement Initiatives, in a release.

іHACER! has worked with six Miami-Dade County Public Schools in economically disadvantaged areas with the highest Latino student populations since its inception in 2011 to provide resources to those for whom college otherwise might not be an option.

The Big Picture

The program's ultimate goal for the Miami area is the same as that of the Lumina Foundation Latino Student Success Initiative (and the broader Lumina Foundation for Education, with respect to all U.S. students): to increase the percentage of Latinos with college degrees up from 38 percent to 60 percent by 2025. To that end, Lumina has also invested more than $11.5 million in Latino student success initiatives across the country, including in Arizona, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and New York.

Latinos have historically been underrepresented in higher education, but those numbers are changing, likely thanks to initiatives like іHACER!. The Pew Research Center recently found that, despite college enrollments falling in the U.S. between 2011 and 2012, U.S. Hispanic enrollments were up on average. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Latino enrollment in higher education has dramatically increased over the past decade, from between 30 and 35 percent to 49 percent in 2012 -- surpassing the percentage of both Whites and African Americans who completed high school and are enrolling in college.

While the picture is improving, Latinos are still vastly underrepresented in certain important areas of higher education, like the future-proof science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.