A California State University, Stanislaus effort to increase the percentage of Hispanic and low-income students in graduate programs, and the rate of degree completion among those students, will continue for a second year following renewal of federal grant funding.

“This second year of funding is further acknowledgement that the university has demonstrated substantial progress toward the grant project’s primary goals and objectives,” said President Hamid Shirvani.  “I am very pleased with the headway we made in the program’s first year.”

The Center for Excellence in Graduate Education, funded by a five-year, $2.76 million U.S. Department of Education Title V grant, has been in operation since October2010.

Specifically, the center aims to increase CSU Stanislaus graduate degree completion by Hispanic and low-income students by 20 percent within five years, and then sustain that increase. The center also looks to bolster enrollment from the same student group by 15 percent, within the same timeframe.

To achieve those goals, the center offers support to graduate students like assistantships and an intensive writing program to aid in the thesis or dissertation writing process. Collaboration between the center and the Office of Service Learning also provides CSU Stanislaus graduate students with real world experience, such as allowing nursing students to provide health-screening clinics in low-income Stockton communities, or allowing graduate students to work with local government to research issues important to residents.

The center also works to better track and monitor the retention and graduation rates of graduate students.

For more information on the center, call http://www.csustan.edu/cege/