The goal is to encourage academic excellence by providing first- and second-year African-American UMKC students with mentoring and academic support services that promote the improvement of academic excellence, persistence, and ultimately successful graduation. A.A.C.E. program services include Academic support check-ins, monthly success workshops, professional mentors, UMKC Peer Mentors, diversity programming and an A.A.C.E. celebration event.
Avanzando is the result of a partnership established between the Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) and the UMKC Division of Diversity and Inclusion. Implemented in August 2011 with 27 participants, the Avanzando program is designed to support all Latino Students on campus as well as HDF, IME Becas and Agapito Mendoza Scholarship recipients with individualized support in reaching their academic and career pursuits. Avanzando currently serves 250 students.
Program goals include:
Program components include:
Emerging Research Scholars is a program that offers undergraduate students research opportunities with faculty mentors in their field of study. Scholars will receive academic, social and financial support while becoming integrated into the intellectual climate of the university. Scholars will attend presentations, panel discussions, workshops and gain information to prepare them to present at the annual UMKC Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship each Spring.
The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs is a proud grantee of AmeriCorps and receives funding to operate the Lift As You Climb program.
The program will consist of peer mentors to increase college-going and persistence of students of color in Kansas City, Missouri. AmeriCorps members will provide support to the scholars within the African Americans Cultivating Excellence (AACE) Mentoring and the Avanzando Latinx Mentoring Programs but also programming and outreach to students in the K-12 pipeline.
