Hispanic students enrolled at higher rate than ever before

CORRECTION — Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this story said the number of UNC-CH freshmen who identify as Hispanic increased by almost 25 percent from 2009 to 2012. The increase actually occurred from 2009 to 2013. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

A year ago, 18-year-old Paula Gomez, a Hispanic student and the first in her family to attend college, said no one thought she would be accepted into UNC-Chapel Hill — but she had hope.

“Everyone says when you go to college, you can feel if it’s right for you,” she said. “I worked hard to get the grades, and I worked hard to get here.”

Gomez was born in Colombia and moved to the United States at age 10. Now a U.S. citizen, she moved to North Carolina four years ago.

Gomez said she went to high school with other Hispanic students who felt like they didn’t have a chance at a big-name, academically rigorous school like UNC-CH. But college is becoming a reality for more Hispanic students.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the enrollment rate for Hispanic students 18 and older has increased from 8.8 percent to 9.5 percent from 2011 to 2012. In the same year, total college enrollment fell by about a half million.

The UNC system has also seen growth in Hispanic enrollment. From 2008 to 2012, the total number of Hispanic students enrolled in the UNC system increased by 73 percent — a little less than 3,500 more students.

UNC-CH Assistant Director of Admissions Ashley Memory said in an email the number of freshmen who identify as Hispanic increased by almost 25 percent from 2009 to 2013.

As of last fall, Hispanic students are the third-largest ethnicity at UNC-CH — after white and African-American students — with more than 1,500 total undergraduate students, or 8 percent of the student body.

Memory said North Carolina is experiencing one of the largest growths in Hispanic population, allowing the University to reach more Hispanic students at high schools and college fairs across the state. UNC-CH’s admissions office partners with the office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs to invite Hispanic students to campus for special events, she said.

Gomez took advantage of one such event called Project Uplift, a program for under-served communities like minority groups to experience college life, during her junior year of high school. She said her mailbox was constantly flooded with invitations from UNC-CH for different programs for minority groups.

“Schools are branching out to us, giving us a reality check that it’s not just another dream, and it’s not impossible,” Gomez said.

Other system schools like Western Carolina University and UNC-Charlotte have seen an increase of more than 100 percent in Hispanic enrollment from fall 2008 to fall 2012.

UNC-C’s Senior Associate Director of Admissions Barbara Seyter said the university is reflective of the state — as North Carolina becomes more diverse, UNC-C’s applicant pool becomes more heterogenous.

According to UNC-C’s Institutional Research Office, they have about 1,500 undergraduate Hispanic students enrolled as of fall 2012.

Gomez said she appreciates the efforts universities have made to reach Hispanic students.

She said she knew as soon as she stepped foot onto campus during a trip to the Morehead Planetarium that this was where she belonged.

“I applied to other schools, but nothing felt the same,” she said. “Mom pushed for other schools, but I knew this was right.”

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