“Our partnership with Renacer Foundation strengthens our commitment to a community-driven approach to STEM education,” said Yashira Felicitano, Manager of the STEM Program at Hispanic Access Foundation. “Senderos a la Ciencia is about meeting Latino families where they are—physically, culturally, and spiritually—and empowering youth with role models who understand their experiences, and can help guide their journeys in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”
Renacer Foundation, a trusted community-based organization serving Latino families through holistic, bilingual programming, will serve as a key partner in implementing the project in Florida. By leveraging existing relationships and trusted spaces within the community, the partnership aims to foster genuine interest and support among youth and their families.
“The partnership with Hispanic Access Foundation through the Pathways to Science Program represents a transformative opportunity for the Renacer Foundation to empower young Latinos in vulnerable communities through health and science education,” said Father Hoower Cajicá, President and Founder of Renacer Foundation. “This program allows us to connect our community with STEM role models, foster scientific curiosity, and provide mentorship that inspires new academic and professional paths. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to equity, inclusion, and access to real development opportunities.”
The Senderos a la Ciencia project incorporates role model talks, near-peer mentorship, and resources for parents to support their children’s educational paths. The project focuses particularly on the critical high school-to-college transition—an often-overlooked stage where Latino youth face systemic barriers to STEM career exploration. The STEM achievement gap for Latino youth has been widely documented, with disparities in access and representation persisting from early education through college and into the workforce. Senderos a la Ciencia seeks to address these challenges by emphasizing the power of mentorship, representation, and trusted community-based support.

This project is funded by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The SEPA program supports innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and Informal Science Education (ISE) projects that serve pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students and their families.

To learn more about the Senderos a La Ciencia program, visit https://hispanicaccess.org/what-we-do/senderos-a-la-ciencia.