Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the University Advancement Fall 2025 Donor Impact Report, whose theme is “Thank you for believing in me.”
An 18-month, $100,000 grant from the Barr Foundation is helping the Latino Education Institute (LEI) at Worcester State in its work to improve the academic achievement and wellbeing of local high school students and their families. The award represents the first time this major Boston-based foundation has supported Worcester State.
LEI—which marked its 25th anniversary in 2025—provides holistic support to Worcester students and families from kindergarten through college. Programs offered at LEI encourage academic achievement, embrace cultural differences, and promote community engagement.
The new Barr grant helps fund two LEI programs aimed at high schoolers: the Youth Civics Union (YCU), which is a student-led afterschool program focused on civic engagement projects, and Familias Latinas Activas en Misión de Aprendizaje (FLAMA), a leadership and civic-action program for parents and caregivers that is part of LEI’s signature Parent Engagement Navigation Services.
“A key priority for Barr Foundation’s Education Program is making sure that education policy decisions are informed by the voices and experiences of young people and families,” said the foundation’s senior program officer in education, Natasha Ushomirsky. “LEI’s Youth Civics Union program and family outreach work help to do just that.”
Already, the grant has supported several LEI efforts. Last semester, for example, the Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project drew 28 students who, after identifying issues facing their schools and community, conducted months-long research on those issues and proposed solutions. The semester concluded with the annual Youth Summit, which attracted 110 attendees in May 2025, surpassing the 50 participant target. There, students explored strategies and policies around issues that directly or indirectly affect their schools, families, and communities, including addiction, immigration, discrimination, gang violence, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The grant also supported a dual-enrollment sociology course on civic engagement that 29 high schoolers finished in 2025, as well as college readiness sessions that assisted high school seniors in completing college and financial aid applications. Those students also toured colleges and explored their educational and career goals.
In addition, the Barr Foundation grant helped fund family engagement programs that recently drew 84 parents and their high school youth to five workshops and one peer coaching session. Workshop topics included college readiness, STEM career pathways, navigating the public school system, and using civic engagement to improve the educational experience.
While looking back on the past year and the support of the Barr Foundation, LEI Executive Director Maria Juncos-Gautier also reflected on the institute’s founding a quarter century ago. “There was concern about the educational gaps many Latino students were having in school,” she said. “Many students were English language learners.” They struggled against deficit thinking, she explained, associating their inability to speak English with their overall academic ability. The Worcester Working Coalition for Latino Students—which later became LEI—worked on behalf of these students and their families.
Over the years, many students in LEI programs have gone on to graduate from college. An example is Moises Chauca ’21, who earned a bachelor’s in psychology at Worcester State and master’s in clinical psychology from Assumption University. He has been working at LEI since he was in college and is now an LEI program coordinator and facilitator.
At a 25th anniversary kick-off celebration in September 2024, members of the community gathered at Worcester State to celebrate LEI and its plans for the future. In May 2025, LEI held a 25th Anniversary Legacy Celebration Breakfast, a well-attended fundraiser supported by leaders in the public, private, and community sectors.
“When I began as executive director three years ago, I inherited a Latino Education Institute that had already been so successful,” Juncos-Gautier said. “We will continue to provide culturally sensitive and high-quality after-school and out-of-school programs to underserved youth and families in Worcester. We also want to expand our programming to strengthen civic engagement opportunities for leadership development and the pipeline to higher education.”
Now, alongside the community—and with the help of partners such as the Barr Foundation—LEI is embarking on its next quarter century of education and action.
Photo: LEI’s Youth Summit, one of the programs that the Barr Foundation grant supported, drew 110 young people from Worcester in May 2025.