Ethnic Diversity Program (PDE)
What do we do?
The Office of Student Orientation (OAE for its acronym in Spanish) provides academic follow up and general support to over 650 undergraduate students that belonging to vulnerable populations that are included in the national policy for affirmative action.
How do we do it?
We monitor our students from the moment they apply to USFQ to ensure that they have guidance in how to prepare for the tests and how to fill forms. Many of our students are first generation and the vast majority come from rural places that had very little access to good quality education. Taking the courage to apply for a private university is already a great step.<br /> Once a student is accepted, we help him/her in the process to apply for financial aid provided by USFQ own funds. After admission is confirmed, our students have a special orientation online course. During our orientation week, our students have a special session that allows them to meet their dean and program chair. Each semester we have seminars to learn studying techniques, how to cope with new environments, how to manage time, etc. We meet on a regular basis with departamental chairs and go one by one on cases that show some concern. Our students are monitored in all aspects of their health, with special emphasis in mental health. We have an outside group of therapists that help us with students that require treatment. This is very important because by law, USFQ can not provide Psychological counseling and in most cases our students do not have the means to pay for these services either. Students that require academic help will access a special service of one to one tutoring. We hire students from within our program, thus we provide a source of income for them, but they also know how to navigate through hard courses at USFQ.<br /> We look for external funds to promote that our students travel abroad. USFQ has a very strong exchange program and our students are often considered for special scholarships. We also help them to travel to international events and overseas internships. After graduation we provide guidance to find a job, and in many cases, we help them look for graduate programs.
Why do we do it?
FreedomLiberty is one of USFQ´s basic principles. There is no freedom without knowledge, and we want our graduates to lead and contribute to an international and globally free society. We know we are on the right track because some of our graduates have already accomplished great things.
David Romo Vallejo, Ph.D.
dromo@usfq.edu.ec
