High School

The Michigan Hispanic Collaborative (MiHC) exists to ensure that educational and professional opportunities are made available for first-generation Hispanic students. We address and eliminate barriers that stall high school and college academic and employment opportunities.

La Puerta is an online tool that will help students navigate the complex higher education systems and connect them with specific resources and information that will accelerate their journey to and through college. No more second guessing if the information you are reading online is reliable or accurate, La Puerta contains the most important pro tips, simple steps, and resources for the student to make informed decisions about their future.

La Puerta will offer high school juniors and seniors with the following resources to ensure that they have access to the necessary tools to begin building their college roadmap:

College Access Navigation:

Learning how to apply to college, understanding the college terminology, figuring out how to pay for school, deciding which scholarships to apply to, and organizing your college essays are all made simpler with our La Puerta roadmap.

Financial Aid:

Learn about the resources available to you that will help pay for some of your college expenses.

Essay-writing:

Get tips from writing experts on how to write your personal essay. No more stress figuring out what to say, La Puerta gives you the tools and framework to write a powerful essay for admissions directors and scholarship application readers.

Scholarships:

Don’t be overwhelmed anymore with the numerous scholarship links online. La Puerta houses a list of all the important local and national scholarships based on your interests and qualifications.

College Application Plans:

Applying to the best school for you that aligns your career interests, academic qualifications, and student support needs is an important and often overlooked step for college bound students. Matching with the best school for you will influence your chances of graduating college in four years. La Puerta has tools and resources clearly organized to help you make the best college application decisions. As a prospective college student, we help you interview schools to determine which ones will graduate you and help to inform your college application roadmap.

Academic Enrichment:

Student success in college is not solely determined by the ACT/SAT score. Factors that also predict student success include GPA, and consistent commitment with leadership, work, or athletic extracurricular activities. However, ACT/SAT scores are still looked at by major universities as a college readiness predictor and admissions tool. As such, students need to focus on achieving the highest possible score for these standardized tests. La Puerta gives students a high level overview for these tests, tips for understanding how to improve their scores, sample study schedules, and fast math and reading exercises to help students prepare for the exams.

Career Exposure/Readiness:

You can’t be what you can’t see! Oftentimes, students limit their career choices because they are unaware of the world of careers available to them. La Puerta hosts information for students and parents about under-represented careers, careers in demand, salary charts, and college majors for each profession.

With our focus on cultural relevance, La Puerta gives students and parents access to Hispanic professionals and their stories to demonstrate how they selected their profession, how they persisted through college, and what life is like in their respective field of choice.

La Puerta also gives students immediate access to opportunities that will make them more marketable as they build the skills necessary to dominate their career of choice. Oftentimes, students are not aware of internships, volunteer opportunities, or work experiences commonly available to students with access to influencers and networks where opportunities are plentiful. La Puerta organizes these opportunities for our scholars so that they can accelerate their career readiness.

Cohorts and “Padrinos” Mentorship Program:

Adults have more experiences failing forward! And, through mentorship, MiHC and La Puerta have organized a host of pro tips and resources so that students receive the benefit of powerful advice. Our network of mentors that we call Padrinos and Madrinas are excited to share their experiences with MiHC scholars so that students can accelerate their opportunities and not experience the hardships our Padrinos and Madrinas were forced to learn on their own.

La Puerta gives scholars insights on how to be great mentees and be coachable students! Students that are coachable experience greater lifetime outcomes because they learn from the mistakes of others.

Using the power of teams, La Puerta gives students insights on the power of student cohorts or small families of support to ensure they get through college and onboard into their early career.