How the Army Hispanic Access Initiative is helping Hispanic students graduate from college

The United States (U.S.) Army and the nation have a growing population of Hispanics. Yet Hispanics are still lagging in filling white-collar positions in the U.S. and Army. The Army has taken notice and implemented the Hispanic Access Initiative (HAI) through its Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at colleges and universities that are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). It has done this in order to recruit more Hispanic Officers into its Officer Corps. This study follows seven Hispanic students and discusses their experiences with ROTC at an HSI. They faced the same issues many Hispanic students deal with when attending an institution of higher learning. In addition, they also had the added responsibility of completing all the required work for ROTC. In an effort to become leaders in the Army, these students overcame traditional challenges Hispanics face, and they graduated from college. A qualitative study was conducted with the seven students to understand what made them successful in completing their four-year college degrees. Their phenomenological experiences highlighted four main themes from their responses: (a) challenges, (b) benefits, (c) support system, and (d) role models. These themes surfaced at one point or another throughout their education. In the end, the goal to graduate and be commissioned into the U.S. Army was reached by each of the former students. As a result of this study, colleges and universities can look to ROTC to increase their graduation rates among Hispanic students. Since the Hispanic population is continuing to increase, it is in the interest of colleges to graduate more Hispanics in order to provide highly qualified graduates for a large number of white-collar jobs. HOW THE ARMY IS HELPING HISPANICS GRADUATE 1 Chapter 1. The Problem California has the eighth largest economy in the world in gross domestic product (GDP), larger than Russia and smaller than Brazil according to California Legislative Analyst’s Office. Thirty-four percent of California’s population is located in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, and it produces 36% of California’s economic output (Garosi & Sisney, 2014). Clearly, the Los Angeles area plays a vital role not just locally but globally. If California does not prepare for the future economy, then it is possible that it can lose its position in the world as an economic power. Having the top-notch education for the jobs of the future is going to be vital to California’s future, and that starts with the education system in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, California, is facing issues in educating the Hispanic community. According to the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District, n.d.) website, the Hispanic population in the LAUSD was at 73.4% for the 2009-2010 school year. K-12 is just the beginning of problems facing the Hispanic community. According to Hadedorn and Cepeda (2004), “Latinos are less likely to graduate from high school and be eligible to enter either the University of California or California State University systems (p. 200). ” Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group but the least educated (Gandara, 2010, p. 24). Latinos make up the largest group of immigrants in most states . Mexico is the biggest source of immigrants in 33 states (Krogstad, 2014). With Hispanics taking up such a large percentage of the population of the Los Angeles, it is important to develop programs that will help produce the next generation of college educated Hispanics. But graduation rates for Hispanics do not seem promising. The graduation rate for Latinos is 42% with 52% for whites, completion per 100 for full-time equivalent, Latino’s 15% with 18% Whites (Excelencia in Education, n.d.). If not, a large part of Los Angeles’ general population will not have college degrees. HOW THE ARMY IS HELPING HISPANICS GRADUATE 2 The United States (U.S.) Army also faces a similar issue that the Los Angeles area is facing, which is that the Hispanic population is expanding and it needs to fill it Officer Corps with more Hispanics. Hispanics Officership accounts for only 6% of the Army Officer Corps (U.S. Army, 2013a), and this number is lower compared with the percentage of the population of 25to 54-years-olds in the general Hispanic population with a bachelor’s degree, which stand at 8% (U.S. Army, 2013a). Therefore, the U.S. Army has begun to actively engage the Hispanic community. One of the ways it is doing that is in its recruiting efforts of Hispanic Officers. In an effort to increase Army’s Hispanic Officer representation, the U.S. Army implemented the Hispanic Access Initiative (HAI) at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). In order to qualify for Army Officership, Hispanic students must graduate from university with a bachelor degree. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is one of the pathways that the Army has chosen to help the Hispanic students get through college with the added benefit that it will be able to increase its Hispanic Officers.