Online Chat on Club Digital, an Online Training Course for Hispanic Community

Ed. Note: If you didn’t get to Jose’s live chat, you can still check out the text and participate in future chats with Administration officials at http://club-digital.com/live. 

Jose Rico, Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, participates in an online live web chat today at 12:00 PM PT (3:00 PM ET) as part of a free bilingual Internet training program, Club Digital. Rico’s chat will focus on the many ways the Obama Administration is working to reform America’s schools to build a world-class education system that prepares students for everything from college to career, and how the White House Initiative is working to build partnerships with the public, private, and philanthropic sectors to improve educational outcomes for Hispanic students.

Restoring the United States to its role as the global leader in education will require that we invest in strengthening and expanding educational opportunities for Hispanic students. As the nation’s largest minority group, Hispanics number more than 11 million students in America’s public elementary and secondary schools and constitute more than 22 percent of all pre-K–12 students.  More than one in five students enrolled in America’s schools is Hispanic.  Yet, only about half of all Hispanic students earn their high school diploma on-time; those who do complete high school are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college. Only 13 percent of Hispanics hold a bachelor’s degree, and just 4 percent completed graduate or professional degree programs.

Today’s chat is one in a series in which Administration officials will be engaging online readers on issues from education, to citizenship services, to health care in collaboration with Club Digital, a freebilingual Internet training course for the Hispanic community launched by ImpreMedia, one of the nation’s leading Hispanic media companies. Club Digital’s Internet training lessons cover everything from navigating the Internet to managing finances to connecting with family online. Other chats with Administration officials through Club Digital will also take place soon, including:

• Edna Ruano, Chief of the Office of Communications, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, September 7^th 3 PM EST/ Noon PST
• Mayra Alvarez, Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform, Department of Health & Human Services, September 26^th (Time TBD)

Tune in!