UNC Asheville, together with K-12 education leaders from Western North Carolina, announced the new Juntos program, a partnership to help provide a path to college for Latino students.

Juntos, which is supported by a $25,000 charitable contribution from AT&T Foundation, works to unite community partners to provide Latino students and their parents with knowledge, skills, and resources for high school completion and college entry and success.

“Students, this gift, this grant is about opening doors for you,” said UNC Asheville Chancellor Mary K. Grant, turning to students from the high schools participating in the program. “Juntos, which means together, is how we in the education world are connecting to create pathways and open access for Latino youth in our communities. This is essential. Thank you to our partners in the schools, to Juntos staff and to AT&T – I’m so proud of this and happy to have you as part of the UNC Asheville community.”

Carlos Sanchez, external affairs director for AT&T North Carolina, said that Juntos is showing success in other parts of the state and that he is excited to see it start in Western North Carolina. “At AT&T we’re investing in a well-educated workforce, and we think it’s the single most important thing we can do to help the United States remain the leader in a digital global economy.”

“I’m looking forward to being part of the Juntos program, especially having UNC Ashville students as mentors and getting to know other local students,” said Luis Funes, a 10th-grade student at Asheville High School, who expressed gratitude to everyone involved in the program. “I’d like to go to a four-year college and work as an automotive engineer, and build cars from scratch,” he said.

Juntos will link UNC Asheville students as mentors and tutors and provide other enrichment and support, beginning with 35 students in Asheville High School, Erwin High School and Mountain Heritage High School. Students from all three schools came to the launch announcement, accompanied by the superintendents of each district, Pamela Baldwin of Asheville City Schools, Tony Baldwin and Tony Tipton of Buncombe and Yancey County Schools, respectively.

For more information, visit https://oscopp.unca.edu/juntos-unc-asheville.