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Miami, March 16, 2021 – Miami Dade College (MDC) is among only three exemplary institutions selected nationwide to receive a 2021 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization. Named after the late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, the NAFSA Simon Awards recognize outstanding innovation and accomplishment in campus internationalization in two categories.

MDC is set to receive the “Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award,” which recognizes a specific program or initiative that contributes to internationalization on campus. The program being recognized is MDC’s Educate Tomorrow Abroad, launched in 2017. Through a partnership with the nonprofit Educate Tomorrow, the program is the first of its kind in the country to facilitate study abroad opportunities for students who are homeless or in the foster care system. Since the program’s inception, MDC has expanded its partnership with many public and private institutions and organizations that have contributed to the expansion of the program.

Over the years, MDC has demonstrated its commitment to international education and creating unique opportunities for students. It has consistently ranked #1 among community colleges in the State of Florida and #7 in the country in the number of students sent abroad each year.

A strong advocate for international education and cross-cultural learning, the late Senator Paul Simon is also the namesake of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act. Introduced in nearly every Congress since 2006 with bipartisan support, the Simon bill aims to incentivize U.S. higher education institutions through competitive grants to increase the number and diversity of students who complete a study abroad experience prior to graduation and make study abroad an integral part of higher education.

Institutions selected for the Simon Awards will be featured in NAFSA’s report, Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall, and honored during International Education Week in November. To learn more about NAFSA’s Senator Paul Simon Awards for Campus Internationalization, visit www.nafsa.org/SimonAward.

About NAFSA
With more than 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world’s largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education. Visit us at www.nafsa.org/press. To learn more about our advocacy efforts on behalf of international education, visit www.ConnectingOurWorld.org and @ConnectOurWorld on Twitter. Resources to guide our members on these issues can be found at www.nafsa.org/reginfo.

About Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College is the most diverse institution in the nation. There are 167 nations and 63 languages represented in its student body. The college’s eight campuses and outreach centers offer more than 300 distinct degree pathways including associate and baccalaureate degrees, career certificates and apprenticeships. Baccalaureate degree offerings include biological sciences, engineering, data analytics, information systems technology, education, public safety, supervision and management, nursing, physician assistant studies, film and others.  MDC is the recipient of many top national awards including the Aspen Prize. As Democracy’s College, MDC changes lives through accessible, high quality-teaching and learning experiences.  It is the home of the Miami Culinary Institute, the Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex, the Miami Fashion Institute, the Eig-Watson School of Aviation, The Idea Center, the Cybersecurity Center of the Americas, the Cloud Computing Center, the Center for Learning, Innovation and Simulation, the School for Advanced Studies, and the New World School of the Arts, to name a few of its most innovative programs.  MDC has been named among the nation’s “Great Colleges to Work For” since the program’s inception.  The College embraces its responsibility to serve as an economic, cultural, and civic leader for the advancement of our diverse global community. Its alumni and employees contribute more than $3 billion annually to the local economy, and MDC graduates occupy top leadership positions in every major industry. MDC is renowned for its rich cultural programming. It is the home of the Miami Book Fair, Miami Film Festival, the National Historic Landmark Miami Freedom Tower, the Tower Theater, Dyer Building, Koubek Center Mansion and Gardens, Live Arts Miami at MDC, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives, the Museum of Art and Design, a sculpture park and a large campus art gallery and theater system.  MDC has admitted more than 2,000,000 students and counting, since it opened its doors in 1960. More than 100,000 students are currently enrolled. For more information, visit www.mdc.edu.

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Read Full Article on Florida College AQccess

Having entered Florida’s foster care system at the age of 10, Dominique Rosario hopes to eventually work with young girls who grew up in similarly challenging circumstances.

“My goal is to start doing therapy or some kind of work with girls in the DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice) system,” Rosario said. “I want to help in any way I can.”

Rosario, 22, recently earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social sciences with a concentration in criminology and sociology from the University of South Florida, but she was far from a dedicated student throughout her time at Miami Coral Park High School.

“I could not have cared less about college. There was an Algebra II class where I had 67 absences,” said Rosario, who eventually completed the necessary coursework at night and during the summer. “It was fear of homelessness that made me care about college.”

She credits members of the Positive Pathways network, which aims to improve postsecondary outcomes and career transitions for foster care youth and alumni, for helping her get to where she is today.

“I don’t usually need money-based resources, so I come to them for advice on classes, how to get my foot in the door for job interviews or how to pick a therapist. They really help give me the confidence to do these things,” said Rosario, who is currently working as an art therapy teacher at New Life Village, where she supports families raising adopted, kinship and foster children. “Without them, I wouldn’t have the job I have now and I don’t think I would be where I am now.”

Making College Affordable for Foster Youth in Florida

Each year, approximately 1,000 youth in Florida turn 18 and age out of foster care. Many of those interested in pursuing education beyond high school are not aware of the supports the state has in place to help them.

Florida is one of 28 states that offers a tuition and fee exemption for former foster youth who meet certain eligibility requirements. The waiver is administered by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), which also provides a monthly $1,256 stipend for living expenses to students enrolled in a postsecondary or vocational school up to the age of 23 through its Postsecondary Education Services Support (PESS) program.

Florida truly is an innovator in terms of the support they’ve provided and continue to provide these young people,” said Dr. Steve J. Rios, senior director for the Positive Pathways Program. For instance, foster youth in Florida may use the DCF tuition and fee waiver until they turn 28, whereas the waiver expires sooner for students in other states.

Postsecondary Attainment Grows for Florida Foster Youth

The number of former foster youth like Rosario who have enrolled in and graduated from college is on the rise.

According to a brief released by Helios Education Foundation and Educate Tomorrow, about 1,500 students in Florida’s public colleges, universities and technical schools utilized the tuition and fee exemption for former foster youth in 2008. That figure more than tripled in the ensuing decade, swelling to 6,372 students during the 2019-2020 school year. While the number of former foster youth who graduated from those institutions more than doubled — from 135 students in 2013 to 273 students in 2018 — Positive Pathways is trying to further bolster those figures by helping more students obtain the support they need to succeed in college.

Get to Know: Positive Pathways

Positive Pathways, formerly known as Florida Reach, is a network of individuals with the goal of increasing the number of campus-based support programs, according to Rios. Florida statutes mandate that Florida College System and State University System institutions provide “campus coaching positions” for current and former foster youth. All campuses have a designated foster care liaison but the level of direct support provided at any given institution varies.

Towards the end of 2016, DCF established a contract to create and fund Positive Pathways, which supports the foster care liaisons on each campus through technical assistance, professional development, connections to funding for postsecondary students, and more.

The Positive Pathways program — which Rios estimates has about 200 professionals in its network — is administered by Educate Tomorrow, a Miami-based statewide program with a long history of helping former foster youth graduate from college and succeed in life. Positive Pathways offers professional development to those serving foster youth on college campuses and to learn from practices that are leading to student success.

“The purpose of Positive Pathways is to have a united, evidence-based response to supporting youth from foster care and making sure they have dedicated programs on college campuses,” said Brett McNaught, CEO of Educate Tomorrow. That mission also includes making students, their families, and independent living professionals aware of existing resources. “What we realized years ago is that free college tuition existed, but there was a severe lack of knowledge about it, especially in disseminating the information to students and caregivers.”

Educate Tomorrow, which has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to complement the DCF contract that funds Positive Pathways, recently partnered with Florida’s Guardian ad Litem Program to help increase awareness about the tuition and fee exemption among volunteers supporting former foster youth in Florida, who can then pass along that knowledge to students.

McNaught said the creation of Positive Pathways has greatly expanded supports for foster care youth throughout the state.

“Prior to Positive Pathways, we didn’t have all these relationships on different college campuses…we didn’t have trusted partners that we could hand our students off to,” McNaught said.

One of those trusted partners is Dr. Althea Blake, program coordinator for St. Petersburg College’s RISE program. RISE (Road to Independence, Success, and Excellence) seeks to increase the graduation rate for students using the DCF tuition and fee exemption, as well as the Homeless Fee Exemption.

Although RISE was established in mid-2020, the program is currently accepting applications for its first official student cohort in Fall 2021.

“The goal is to enhance their overall academic experience,” said Blake, who will provide one-on-one success coaching through the program. “We plan on doing that through mentorship, advocacy, and a comprehensive series of workshops.”

The workshops scheduled for February through April will take place on Microsoft Teams due to COVID-19.

Supporting students during a pandemic

McNaught said students have been even more reliant on the services provided through Positive Pathways and Educate Tomorrow during the pandemic.

“We would’ve assumed programs like this might take a backseat, but it’s actually been the opposite response,” he said. “There’s been a recognition that there needs to be more dedication to vulnerable student populations that are suffering at this time.”

Positive Pathways and Educate Tomorrow partnered with AOK Scholars to survey former foster youth in college in September 2020, then again in February 2021. The percentage of students who said that their schooling is an urgent or high priority was 96% and 97%, respectively, while the proportion of students who said staying healthy physically or mentally is an urgent or high priority increased from 83% to 93%.

Rios and McNaught said Positive Pathways and Educate Tomorrow have already developed several supports for students during the pandemic, including virtual information and support calls that take place more than once a week to help keep students engaged, and a tutoring service to provide academic support.

“Many students were more willing to move to a virtual platform because they’d been quarantining and feeling isolated,” McNaught said. “They especially gravitate to the group sessions and even linger after the session is over to share their feelings and be a part of something.”