A Fort Wayne-based nonprofit that annually awards scholarships to local Latino students is encountering other effects of anti-DEI efforts – donor hesitancy.
Latinos Count is exploring ways people can still financially support the organization but in a less obvious way, such as through a generically named fund, Executive Director Steve Corona said.
“It might be helpful in focusing on our outcomes and events instead of having our name at the top of the page,” he said.
Latinos Count, which also serves students in northwest Indiana, wants to increase the number of Hispanic youth who graduate from high school with a plan and to boost the number of young Latinos who attend college.
In Allen County, 49% of Hispanic students sought education or training immediately after graduating from high school in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available through the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. This rate was last exceeded in 2018, when the local Hispanic college-going rate was 53%.
In comparison, the college-going rate for white Allen County students was 61% in 2022 and 69% in 2018.
Latinos Count’s activities have included career exploration workshops for high schoolers and its Viva College! Scholarship program, which last year awarded $2,000 scholarships to 34 Latino students in Fort Wayne and Lake and Porter counties. Corona isn’t satisfied with the financial aid his organization can provide.
“It’s not enough,” he said.
Latinos Count has a nuanced response to recent attacks on diversity initiatives.
“We’re not going to change our name,” Corona said, adding the nonprofit also will not back away from its scholarship program’s commitment to Hispanic students.
But, he said, Latinos Count will welcome any students to its career exploration programs to avoid criticism that the events are for just one group.
