Miami, Jan. 17, 2014 – The Hispanic Access to College Education Resources Project, or ¡HACER!, program, based at Miami Dade College (MDC), is hosting two Teacher Collaboration Professional Development Days on January 25 and March 1, 2014, at the MDC's Wolfson Campus. The faculty-to-faculty events will bring together Mathematics and English teachers from Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) and professors from MDC to discuss a more seamless alignment between high school and college curricula for students. The overall goal of the program is to help students better integrate into post-secondary education, which supports long-term retention and degree completion.
M-DCPS teachers participating in the workshops have been selected from eight local high schools: Booker T. Washington Senior HS; Miami Jackson Senior HS; Miami Beach Senior HS; Miami Southridge Senior HS; Westland Hialeah Senior HS; Homestead Senior HS; Edison Senior HS and North Miami Senior HS. These teachers will work with MDC faculty throughout the semester to articulate instructional goals, determine long-term student goals and identify student needs, as well as methods by which existing challenges can be overcome.
About ¡HACER! ¡HACER!, Spanish for "to do," is a collaborative initiative with the Lumina Foundation and 17 community partners, including MDC; Univision; the City of Miami; the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; Miami-Dade County Public Schools; Bank of America; and FIU to support and sustain college preparation, access and success for Latino high school students.
Miami Dade College (MDC) is the higher education institution with the largest undergraduate enrollment in the America, with more than 175,000 students. It is also the nation's top producer of associate in arts and science degrees and awards more degrees to minorities than any other college or university in the country. The college's seven campuses and two outreach centers offer more than 300 academic pathways leading to baccalaureate degrees, associate in arts and science degrees and numerous career training certificates leading to in-demand jobs. In fact, its academic and workforce training programs are national models of excellence. MDC is also renowned for its rich cultural programming. It is home of the Miami Book Fair International, Miami International Film Festival, the MDC Live Arts Performing Arts Series, the National Historic Landmark Miami Freedom Tower, a major sculpture park and large art gallery and theater systems. MDC has served more than 2,000,000 students since it opened its doors in 1960. For more information, please visit www.mdc.edu.
Media-only contacts: Juan Mendieta, MDC director of communications, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu; Tere Estorino Florin, director of media relations, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu; Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu; Barbra Gonzalez, director of communications of Student Achievement Initiatives, 305-237-7187, bgonza2@mdc.edu.