The Scholars' Latino Initiative: About SLI

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Learn about the latest news in the SLI community.

View photos and videos from recent SLI events.

Featured: Watch a video of mentee Oswaldo Contreras featured on the NBC Nightly News

Support the SLI program and provide scholarships for program graduates.

You can help SLI as a UNC student, professor, or community member.

Learn about becoming a mentor or how to support our mission in other ways.

We are located in three North Carolina counties and have a main office in the Global Education Center on the UNC campus.

Click link for more information.

Feel free to contact our program coordinator Katherine Stalberg at 919.843.5286.

You can send an email with questions or comments by clicking the link to the left.

SLI students are given a window into life at college

Overview
Program
Leadership
History

Students and mentors are the heart of the SLI program.

The Scholars' Latino Initiative is a mentoring organization that helps promising Latino high school students achieve their dream of a college education. Selected UNC undergraduates serve as mentors to Latino high school students from under-resourced communities for three years.

The program provides Latino students from rural communities in North Carolina with resources and guidance as they seek to complete high school and move on to a college education. Sophomores in high school are paired with second-year undergraduates for three year, sustained mentoring relationships.

More than 100 undergraduates and faculty provide close to 8,000 service hours each academic year to help SLI high school students realize their dream of college attendance. In the four years since the founding of SLI, the program has enjoyed tremendous success, sending students to colleges throughout North Carolina and the nation.

The SLI program includes these key elements:

Mentorship

After their acceptance into SLI, the program's outstanding high school sophomores are paired with UNC sophomores for a three-year mentoring relationship. This pairing is the core of our program, and it is the development of close relationships that facilitates the realization of personal and academic goals.

College Prep

The Scholars' Latino Initiatve provides monthly college preparatory workshops to help high school students develop the academic skills necessary to perform well on the SAT, improve their writing and analytical thinking skills, and confidently face the academic demands of higher education.

Early College Course

College faculty and the SLI mentors provide an "Early College" class for the students in the program. This class offers SLI students the opportunity to experience the rigors and benefits of university-level coursework before they begin their higher education.

Public Service

SLI high school students participate in service projects to improve their communities. These projects show our students the rewarding nature of service in a variety of settings, providing an opportunity to focus on personal development as they prepare to enter the next phase of their lives. The holistic nature of SLI's program enables our students to put their best foot forward and positively affect their own communities.

Enrichment

Throughout the program, SLI provides its students with cultural enrichment opportunities, many of which taking place on the UNC campus. Exposure to the arts, athletics, and the multi-faceted university environment prepares students for daily college life while broadening their cultural horizons.

The Scholars' Latino Initiative is a student-led organization under the auspices of the UNC Center for Global Initiatives. The daily operations of the program are run by the SLI Operational Board. These students are elected each year by the UNC mentors. The Student Executive Board oversees mentor and high school student selection, day-to-day program logistics, event planning, and scholarship fundraising.

The SLI Advisory Board is composed of leaders in academia and the Latino community. This board meets twice a semester to advise the Operational Board in program administration, expansion, community outreach, and placement of graduating program participants.

As the SLI Program Coordinator, Katherine Stalberg oversees the logistics of the program, both at the high schools and at UNC. She works closely with the UNC leadership and on-site coordinators to ensure an efficient and effective mentoring program.

The Scholars' Latino Initiative was formed in 2003 under the direction of founder Peter Kaufman. The program began as a partnership between Jordan Matthews High School in Siler City and the students of UNC-Chapel Hill, with the mission of improving access to higher education for Latino high school students.

SLI has grown to include over sixty UNC students and accepts twenty-five new sophomores into its mentoring program each year. The Scholars' Latino Initiative has had a positive impact at Jordan Matthews High School, where the total number of Advanced Placement classes offered (as well as student enrollment) have increased. The desire to attend an institution of higher learning is becoming a part of the Jordan Matthews culture. SLI's success in Chatham County has fueled expansion: programs have been formed in Lee and Asheboro Counties, and a sister organization has been created in Virginia in partnership with the University of Richmond.

The Scholars' Latino Initiative began as a student organization and has achieved such success that it is now a part of UNC's Center for Global Initiatives (CGI). With the new resources and leadership available in CGI, SLI has been focused on expansion. The organization also maintains a scholarship fund so that the cost of higher education is not an undue burden for its students. In February 2009, SLI held its first benefit dinner, with all proceeds going to the scholarship fund.