Session Tracks

Track 1: Grant Development and Management proposals:

• Share best practices for effective implementation, management, evaluation, and institutionalization of HSI grant activities

• Provide examples of effective strategies to develop a case for institutionalization, and/or examples of scaling up grant activities

• Provide HSI staff and faculty with the do’s and don’ts to compete successfully for a range of funding sources, including Title III Part F, Title V, USDA, NSF and others

This track will highlight:

• Effective grant writing strategies that align with HSI priorities and demonstrate institutional capacity.

• Collaborative planning models that engage cross-functional teams in proposal development.

• Project management frameworks for implementing, assessing, and scaling grant-funded programs.

• Compliance and reporting practices that ensure accountability and position institutions for renewal or expansion.

• Sustainability planning to embed successful initiatives into institutional structures beyond the grant cycle.

Track 2: Servingness  - Academic proposals:

Sessions that offer a culturally responsive approach to education by “serving” students through programs that improve academic outcomes among Latinx/a/e/o and their intersecting identities.

Academic outcomes may include but are not limited to:

• GPA; DFW rates; course completion

• Outreach; recruitment; and enrollment

• Persistence; retention; graduation, and/or transfer rates

• STEMM: degree completion, course completion, science identity, recruitment and retention in STEMM

• Undergraduate research

• Employment post-graduation; successful enrollment in graduate or professional school

• Tutoring, peer navigation, cohort learning communities

Track 3 : Servingness  - Liberatory proposals:

Sessions that offer a social justice approach to education by “serving” students in culturally responsive ways that humanize, value, and honor Latinx/a/e/o students and their intersecting identities.

Empowering and liberatory outcomes may include but are not limited to: 

• Mental wellness

• Sense of belonging

• Anti-racist orientation; social justice orientation

• Bias Incident Reporting/programs

• Critical consciousness building

• Political participation; civic engagement; social activism

• Positive academic self-concept

• Racial-ethnic identity, intersectionality

• College Navigation

Track 4: Capacity Building and Innovation proposals:

Share transformative best practices and strategies that strengthen institutional capacity and foster innovation across Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Highlight how you have built sustainable infrastructure, enhanced academic quality, and implemented culturally responsive innovations that improve outcomes for Latinx/a/o/e students.

Provide examples that: 

• Expand institutional capacity through faculty development, student support services, and data-informed decision-making.

• Leverage innovation to redesign curriculum, advising, and technology systems in ways that reflect the lived experiences of HSI students.

• Align grant-funded initiatives with long-term equity goals and measurable student success outcomes.

• Move institutions from enrolling to serving, emphasizing intentionality, cultural relevance, and systemic transformation.

Track 5: Professional Development proposals:

Sessions that focus on innovative practices or programming that guide faculty, staff, and administrators at HSIs through a reflective process that enhances their cultural humility, leadership skills, anti-racist journey and increased awareness of the multicultural and intersectional strengths of the Latinx/e/o/a community.

Professional Development may include:

• Tool (kit) development/implementation, methods for inter- and intra-campus data collection and evaluation, project management, tools for institutional transformation, meeting facilitation and consensus building, leadership development, equity training, and/or skills to facilitate difficult conversations.

• Provide evidence of institutionalization, clear increase in skills, and/or campus-wide sustainability.

Track 6: For Students, by Students

Proposals being submitted under this track must be submitted under the Student Call for Proposals system.

40-minute presentations and 60-minute workshops created by undergraduate and/or graduate students that:

• present best practices for engaging undergraduate and/or graduate students as active participants and co-creators of HSI efforts

• center student experiences, knowledge and contributions to HSI efforts

• describe the successes and challenges faced in centering Latinx student voices in the implementation of HSI efforts

• model best practices for centering students’ knowledge, strengths, and contributions in campus decision making and development of the campus HSI identity

• position students as knowledge holders and experts in the development of HSI efforts including curriculum, pedagogy, tutoring, mentoring, basic needs, and student success efforts

• supporting graduate and/or undergraduate students through the writing and publishing process, undergraduate research and graduate school exploration, internships and career development, and action oriented praxis for pre-professional are welcomed