About the HSI mini grant series
Each year, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion awards a variety of high-impact mini grants to campus projects that support Latino students through targeted initiatives. Last year, the office distributed $35,000 across 17 projects. This story is one of 11 Mustang News features highlighting where and how those grants made an impact.
Last spring, Cal Poly staff, faculty and students visited newly accepted applicants from Santa Maria as a way to promote the university and encourage enrollment come fall 2025.
The welcome event aimed to serve Cal Poly’s local community of prospective students, as well as support a majority of these students from the region who are also Hispanic.
“It’s really important that we create an equitable opportunity to expose them to Cal Poly,” said Mandy Blackburn, assistant director of student engagement at the university and leader of the event.
As Cal Poly continues its path towards becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), projects like Blackburn’s have recently been supported through funds from the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion called HSI Mini-Grants.
Blackburn said her project under Admissions and Recruitment at Cal Poly received $4,000 to host the event.
Cal Poly invited recently accepted students and their families to the Historic Santa Maria Inn as a way to welcome and introduce them to financial aid resources and support groups on campus like La CASA, Blackburn said.
In the past, Blackburn said the university hosted similar welcome events for prospective students across California and out of the state. However, this was the first time Cal Poly had been to Santa Maria.
Cal Poly serves prospective students in Santa Maria
For Blackburn, last year’s project for Admissions and Recruitment in Santa Maria was a success given that almost 22 of the 32 prospective students who attended the welcome event had confirmed their acceptance to Cal Poly.
Out of all the Santa Maria students in attendance, Blackburn said that about 88% of them identified as Hispanic.
Jeremiah Hernandez, coordinator for the Latine/x Center for Academic Success and Achievement, or La CASA, was among some of the staff, faculty and students who attended the welcome event.
Hernandez grew up in Santa Maria and said attending the event for Cal Poly was a “no brainer” having gone through high school and community college there.
“It’s not just my job, it’s very personal because this is my hometown, this is my community,” Hernandez said.
As a Hispanic staff member and Cal Poly alumni, Hernandez emphasized the importance of speaking to prospective students who share a similar background to him, and acknowledged his admiration for the students who were accepted to the university from the event.
“If you were admitted into Cal Poly, you earned that admission, rightfully so, on your merit,” Hernandez said. “And you deserve to be here.”
