UIW Receives Major Funding for New Mentoring Program

$2.9 Million Grant to Help Retain and Graduate Hispanic Students

San Antonio – The University of the Incarnate Word is proud to announce that it has received a $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to start the new FLIGHT program.

FLIGHT is an acronym for: Financial Literacy, Integrated Guidance and Health career Tracts. The FLIGHT program will provide transformational, multi-pronged mentorship to Hispanic students who might otherwise not complete their degree and graduate. Research shows that a network of mentors, who contribute diverse skills and backgrounds to assist students at varying stages of the college experience, is more effective than one or more stand-alone mentoring programs.

The UIW FLIGHT program includes three activities:

1. Establish a FLIGHT Mentoring Center to implement a coordinated mentoring program that affords students access to mentors to guide them to graduation with a developed academic and financial plan.
2. Establish a first-year seminar course taught by FLIGHT-certified faculty and embedded in learning communities with FLIGHT-certified peer mentors.
3. Establish a health professions pathway guided by a FLIGHT-certified mentor/advisor who works with the Health Professions Advisory Council, which is comprised of undergraduate faculty and mentors who support the pre-health academic programs at UIW.

“This project will allow UIW to build and sustain support to help increase the graduation rate of our Hispanic students,” says Sandy McMakin, UIW associate provost. “It will also increase the number of Hispanic students who enter graduate health programs and help students carry out a sustainable financial plan for their future.”

The initial $2.9 million grant from the Department of Education will be distributed over five years beginning in October of 2021.