(NAME-MCE) Latino College Dollars

[Anselmo Villanueva]

 FREE LATINO SCHOLARSHIP WEBSITE RECEIVES OVER 110,000 UNIQUE VISITORS IN
FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF THE YEAR

 September 18, 2008

Los Angeles, CA. *Latino College Dollars*, a website offering interactive,
no-cost information about scholarships available to Latino students,
received over 110,000 unique visitors in the first eight months of 2008.

"We are continually updating the website," said Corina Espinoza, Director of
the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) Kids to College program. "And the
2008-09 directory will be coming out in late October."

*Latino College Dollars* currently offers over 325 sources that students may
contact for college scholarship information. The website grew from a TRPI
research project assessing information available on the web to Latino
students. "Curiously, we found that half of the websites on Latino
scholarships were not functional," stated Wendy Chavira, Associate Director
of Operations at the Institute. "However, the remaining websites offered
relevant information. Rather than saving the information, we decided to
publish it."

According to TRPI research, lack of information on college financing options
is widespread among Latino youth and parents. Latinos lag behind in college
preparation, resulting in only 7.2 % of Latinos between the ages of 18-24
enrolled in a 4-year college institution.

To visit TRPI's *Latino College Dollars *website, go to:

http://www.latinocollegedollars.org/

To view the 88-page 2007-2008 directory, go to:

http://www.latinocollegedollars.org/Scholarship_Directory.pdf

TRPI encourages organizations offering scholarships for Latino students to
contact the Institute to be included in the next *Latino College
Dollars*directory.

*About TRPI * Founded in 1985, the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute advances
informed policy on key issues affecting Latino communities through objective
and timely research contributing to the betterment of the nation. TRPI is an
affiliated research unit of the University of Southern California School of
Policy, Planning, and Development, and is associated with the Institute for
Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University.

The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute
 email: trpi at trpi.org
  phone: (213) 821-5615

 The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute
School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern
California
 650 Childs Way, Lewis Hall, Rm 102, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
  email: trpi at trpi.org
  phone: 213-821-5615