Visit with Latino Student Fund
On Friday, we visited one of LSF's college prep program, which serves 9th-12th graders. LISTO is a free, after-school program that helps students apply to college, apply for financial aid and work study, SAT prep, and network for career opportunities. Depending on the grade level, students are paired in groups with volunteer mentors, or instructed as a group by a professional.
On our visit, we worked with 12th graders, who were either accepted to college or were waiting to hear back, so it was a bit of a slower session. During our time, the Program Director Lauren Rice, was able to tell us about some of their other programs and how they were started. She told us that their most popular program is the Saturday tutoring sessions, and that parents would stay around for these sessions and watch their kids learn. Because they saw the need in the community and the motivation of the parents, LSF started English classes and computer literacy programs for adults. This shows that Latino Student Fund is truly inclusive and makes generational impacts.
LSF has very high retention rates for volunteers and mentors, and also has high attendance rates to their classes. Without a doubt, Latino Student Fund is absolutely meeting a need in the DC area, since only 66% of Latinx people in DCPS graduate compared to the national 76%.
Below are pictures from their LISTO program.
