College seems out of reach to most Latinos

The San Francisco Chronicle cites statistics on Latinos and higher ed and the impact on California’s economy:

• Only 1 in 7 California Latinos who graduate from high school after four years completed the courses required to enroll in a four-year college, according to the California Department of Education.
• Only 13 percent of U.S.-born Latinos in California have a bachelor’s degree, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California
• The statistics for blacks are similar to those of Latino students, but the societal impact is less broad. Blacks make up 8 percent of the state’s public-school students, while Latinos represent 48 percent.

“It’s in Silicon Valley’s best interest that all of our students, with a huge emphasis on Latino students, get engaged in and excited about math, science and technology at an early age,” said Carl Guardino, chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “To the extent we fail, Silicon Valley fails.”

The question this blogger wonders is this – what is the call to action? How will the state, educators and parents come together and focus on the crisis in Latino education? The crisis in education in California is really a crisis in Latino education – just look at the numbers and the demographics. The inadequacies and shortcomings of Latino education have always been there – the high school graduation rate for Latinos was a disgrace in my father’s day. The only difference between then and now is scale.

Strategies for Cultivating and Promoting Latino Talent

• Devise a dual strategy of separate-but-equal AND integrated programs so we both develop strong Latino institutions while integrating with mainstream institutions and transforming them into stakeholders for Latino success.
• Cultivate, discover and place Latino leaders in strategic positions – boards, commissions, capital markets, philanthropy
• Develop a database of Latinos that are qualified to participate in decision making bodies on public policy
• Increase capacity of Latino professionals in private equity and venture capital either as general partners in top tier funds or creation of Latino-managed funds or some sort of farm team strategy to develop these professionals
• Develop a science/engineering pipeline of Latino professionals
• Build private sector based Latino leadership/participation in education to compliment and expand base of non-profit Latino leaders

Infosys Case Study

I recently publishd a case study titled "Infosys: The Challenge of Global Branding". My team worked with the Indian Infosys executives and Dr. Rafiq Dossani from Stanford University. We explored how Infosys created a model for global IT outsourcing (Global Delivery Model) which has helped transform th India IT industry into an engine of growth and prosperity for Indians. Perhaps Latinos can benefit from some of the lessons learned in the case study as they increase pariticipation in the Innovation Economy and work up the value chain of IT services.

The link to the case through the Richard Ivey Business School is:

  http://www1.ivey.ca/cases/caseabs.asp?IndexProduct=9B05A001&ptype=1

Programs for Value Chain Leverage

Education and Talent

• Encourage more college bound science and engineering students

Opportunity and Capital

• Venture funding: linking incubators and venture money to start-ups
• Small business development and microlending: focus on internet commerce sectors (encourage  Latino participation as eBay businesses) and women owned businesses through micro-lending

Networks and Access

• Incubate NGO’s for the development of networking, capital and expertise for entrepreneurs through alliances with existing networks for those purposes: TiE, Forum for Women Entreprenuers, SDForum, Hispanic-Net
• Accelerate entrepreneurial effort through inkage to post-institutional trianing: military discharged
• Latino fellowships  in tech parks and companies in countries such as Ireland, Israel, Taiwan, and India so they can learn and make contacts for future businesses