The goal of the project is to help strengthen and expand the educational pipeline to increase opportunities for Latinos to enter and complete college.

This Initiative annually recruits 30 peer mentors from CEP college and high school institutional partners who meet and speak to K-12 students during the academic year (including summer). Half of the selected peer mentors are students who have been identified as “at-risk.” Investing trust in the potential dropout will help reconnect him/her to the educational pipeline. Their insights are vital.

ENLACE peer mentors engage vigorously in thoughtful activities, creative environments, and reflective opportunities that bring them before groups of younger students to talk about their experiences and challenges, and to share their strategies for reaching their educational goals. The majority of the interaction occurs in classroom settings at K-12 Chicago public schools and at suburban K-12 schools with significant Latino enrollment.

The experience affords all mentors the opportunity to become valued shareholders of the Latino educational pipeline.