By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University hosted the ninth Hispanic College Institute last week. The event introduces Hispanic High School students to the main campus and informs them about on-site programs and services. The community-oriented event prepared attendees for higher education with mock classes, tours, engagement activities and lectures about succeeding at the university.
Assistant Athletic Director Matt Cook gives a tour of Cunningham Hall. 
Cook shows a group of students Gross Memorial Coliseum. 
The tour stops through the men’s basketball locker room. 
Cook engages students in trying to land a Golf ball on a tee inside a snow globe. 
High Schoolers from various schools across Kansas and Colorado are led around FHSU. 
A TED Talk-style lecture inside the Black and Gold Room given by Karely Solis-Enriquez of the High Plains Mental Health Center. 
Students learn how to practice self-care and avoid stress. 
One group works together during the Issues to Action session. 
Ana Oliveros Avila presents solutions for the Hispanic Community to Joanna Victoria Sanchez and Ashley Mancera-Rubio. 
A presentation about issues pertaining to Hispanic Americans. 
Sanchez engages her group in a Dance-Off.
Fort Hays hosted students from various schools across Kansas and Colorado, all of whom were treated to overnight stays at Victor E. Village to grasp what college life would be like for them.
“Our main goal is to educate students, especially those from minority backgrounds and first-generation students,” HCI Co-Chair Erica Meneses said. “We use it as a retention tool because we hope some or many of them will come to Fort Hays, but the overall goal is to let them know that higher education is possible, whether they go to a two-year school, trade school, or four-year school.”
Meneses measures the event’s success based on the progress visiting students made over the three-day period.
“They’re having fun and enjoying it,” she said. “We like to see the progress they make from day one to the last day, and we’ve been getting positive feedback from the students.”
The biggest hurdle HCI has had to overcome is the attention span of visiting students, given that they are younger than college-aged students at FHSU.
“I think it’s a generational issue,” Meneses said. “Some of them struggle with focusing, but we try to keep them moving. We’re like, ‘If you need to drink some water or go to the bathroom, that’s perfectly fine,’ but they’ve enjoyed what they’ve learned from the topics and classes they’ve been to.”
HCI’s purpose was not only to highlight FHSU’s aspects but also to serve the community in Hays.
“We do a mixture of everything,” Meneses said. “They get to go on a campus tour, and we took them to Frontier Park to experience a little bit of that. They learn about admissions, financial aid and Student Engagement. We highlight a variety of things on campus to get them to know Fort Hays.”