N.C. State University has snared a $50,000 grant for a program aimed at increasing retention and graduation rates of incoming and current Latino students.

NCSU is one of 20 colleges and universities to receive the grant, which comes from the non-profit Excelencia in Education organization and supported by the Walmart Foundation.

The program "aims to accelerate Latino student success by refining and replicating model educational programs that are proven to advance Latino achievement in two-year and four-year colleges," according to a press release. "The long-term goal of the project is to increase the use of these effective programs for the country’s fast-growing Latino college age population."
 
Semillas is the Spanish word for seeds.  It also stands for Seeding Educational Models that Impact and Leverage Latino Academic Success.
 
According to the US Census Bureau, Latino young adults are less likely to have earned an associate degree or higher than other young adults. In 2008, eight percent of Latinos 18 to 24 years-of-age had earned a degree, compared to 14 percent of all young adults, according to the news release.

Latino adults, 25 years and over, were also less likely to have earned an associate degree or higher than other adults, with 19 percent of Latinos earning a degree, compared with 29 percent of blacks, 39 percent of whites, and 59 percent of Asians.  Meanwhile, census projections estimate that Latinos will be 22 percent of the nation’s college-age population by 2020.