The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a five-year, $2 million

The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a five-year, $2 million grant to support recruitment, retention and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students.

The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution program, will fund academic and writing skills development, college preparation, career advancement and financial aid.

It is UIC’s second federal grant to serve this minority in the past year, said Kevin Kumashiro, UIC professor of Asian American studies and education, and the grant’s principal investigator.

Federal support “recognizes the diversity among our Asian American students, but also the many significant challenges they face, especially English-language learners and students with limited financial resources,” Kumashiro said. “This grant will be instrumental in expanding the capacity of UIC to support our students in achieving their educational goals.”

The Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution Initiative at UIC is led by the Asian American studies program and the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. It was established last year with a five-year, $1.86 million grant.

The latest grant will expand advising, assessment and workshops by the UIC Academic Center for Excellence and tutoring by the UIC Writing Center, Kumashiro said. It will allow the centers to better serve English-language learners, including but not limited to, Asian Americans.

Among other recipients of assistance is the UIC Office of Special Scholarship Programs, which will award $200,000 in scholarships per year to Asian American and Pacific Islander students. The UIC College of Education will partner with the initiative to lead tutoring for K-12 students and field-projects for prospective teachers.

Approximately 20 percent of UIC students identify themselves as Asian American and Pacific Islander. National census figures indicate the category embraces more than 50 ethnic groups and 100 languages. The UIC initiative’s goals include recruitment of underrepresented sub-groups within the Asian American community.

For more information about the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution Initiative at UIC, visit www.uic.edu/depts/aarcc/aanapisi.html.

UIC ranks among the nation’s leading research universities and is Chicago’s largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.