The 2023 Excelencia Finalists empower Hispanic students to excel

POSTED ON Oct 23, 2023

Excelencia in Education recognized the Wright College Engineering Pathway Program as an Example of Excelencia for its intentional, culturally relevant, and evidence-based practices tailored to Latinx students and their communities. Wright College received the Seal of Excelencia in 2021.

The Engineering Pathway at Wright College aims to empower all students to excel in engineering and computer science, especially Black, Latinx, and female underrepresented students.

The program provides Latinx students with holistic support and personalized attention to accelerate their success in pursuing and completing an associate or bachelor’s degree in engineering or computer science.

The pathway seeks to increase the enrollment, transfer, bachelor’s degree completion, and job placement of underrepresented students, particularly Latinx communities, to expand diversity in engineering.

In related news, Dr. Doris Espiritu, the dean of the Center of Excellence for Engineering and Computer Science at Wilbur Wright College, was named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2023 Notable Women in STEM.

In 2018, she established the Engineering program at Wright with just a handful of students, and under her leadership, it has grown to more than 500 students in five years.

Graduate engineering students are guaranteed admission to the highly-ranked engineering programs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) or Illinois Tech.

Dr. Espiritu has also formed partnerships with leaders at world-class institutions to provide internships and research opportunities to students, including Northwestern University, Princeton University, Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, among others.

These opportunities have paid off immensely, as engineering students have transferred to four-year universities nationwide and successfully launched careers in the field.

Dr. Espiritu’s impact on her students, like Wright Engineering alumnus Jonathan Cifuentes Barrios, is undeniable.

While Barrios was a student, his mother was battling cancer, and he had to work to support her. Nevertheless, he completed his degree at UIUC in 2022 and had a job waiting for him after graduation.

Dr. Espiritu also serves as a senior advisor to the provost. She has been teaching and leading chemistry, biophysics, engineering, and computer science programs at City Colleges for over fifteen years.

Congratulations to the @Wright_College Engineering Pathways Program which has been named the 2023 Example of Excelencia by @EdExcelencia for its intentional, culturally relevant, evidence-based practices tailored to Latinx students and their communities.https://t.co/opJaUOphf5 pic.twitter.com/TJ7a9YnsEW

— City Colleges of Chicago (@ChiCityColleges) September 29, 2023