ETS and ASPIRA leaders recently reviewed the history of their longstanding ties through which they have provided 25 years of educational opportunities for Hispanic youth. ETS Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Yvette Donado and ASPIRA Association, IncExecutive Director Ron Blackburn-Moreno reflected on the collaboration and recognized the promise of their new initiative, ¡Sí! The New American Workforce Scholarship and Internship Program.
"The ¡Sí! Program is among several effective initiatives launched by ETS and ASPIRA over the course of 25 years," says Donado. "It helps Latino students obtain a quality education by developing the skills they need to successfully begin a career."
Client Account Lead Rob D'Avanzo from Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, also attended the meeting and discussed his organization's participation in the program.
"The ¡Sí! Program is an important part of our ‘Skills to Succeed' initiative for which Accenture is committed to equipping 250,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business," D'Avanzo says.
Developed by Scholarship & Recognition Programs and ASPIRA, ¡Sí! links students to jobs early in their academic careers. The combination of scholarships and internships with mentor and intern training provides a comprehensive, mutually beneficial experience. The customized approach makes each ¡Sí! program unique, enabling corporations to acquire talent relevant to core business requirements and to develop human capital and increase diversity at higher levels of employment.
"This as a 'win-win' for students and employers," says Blackburn-Moreno, "progressing from identification and selection of talent, to internships and development of an employee pool with prospects for reaching senior management levels. Demographic trends alone indicate that participation in the program is a wise investment."
The ETS-ASPIRA collaboration began under former ETS President Greg Anrig in 1987. He provided ETS resources to help ASPIRA counselors offer programs to encourage students to apply to college.
After Blackburn-Moreno spoke at ETS's Hispanic Heritage Month in 2006, the ETS-ASPIRA collaboration expanded to identify new areas for collaboration and advance a proposal from Scholarship Recognition Programs to create the ¡Sí! Program. ETS certified ASPIRA as a Test Administration Site (CTAS) to deliver the TOEFL iBT™ Test in Puerto Rico through its computer labs on the island. ASPIRA offers the TExES™ Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) at its computer labs, and is familiar with and supports the use of the Examen de Admisión a Estudios de Posgrado™ (EXADEP™) in Puerto Rico. The ASPIRA website also features ETS's ProofWriter™ Online Writing Tool.
More information about the ¡Sí! The New American Workforce Scholarship and Internship Program is on the ETS website.