The first Hispanic Youth Symposium aimed at increasing the number of Latinos enrolled in Texas colleges and universities opened Tuesday at SMU.

AMANDA LUCIER/DMN

Sheila Nicolas and Josue Jimenez played icebreaker games at the Hispanic Youth Symposium on Tuesday. The program continues all week at SMU in Dallas.

Despite rapid population growth, Hispanic student enrollment in the state's private and public institutions is well below goals that state higher education officials set.

About 200 high school students, mostly from the Dallas and Carrollton-Farmers Branch school districts, are participating in the four-day program.

"We teach them that they can go to college," said George Cushman, vice president of the Hispanic College Fund, which hosted the event. "We teach them to believe that they belong here."

Students will attend motivational speeches and college admissions sessions and take part in speech competitions. Tuesday, they participated in icebreakers led in part by Los Angeles comedian Ernie G. They will also compete for $14,000 in scholarship funds.

To participate in the program, each student had to write an essay about his or her role model and have at least a 2.5 grade point average.

Celeste Aguirre, 15, an incoming sophomore at Samuell High School in Dallas, said she learned about the opportunity from a teacher. Neither of her parents attended college, nor did they finish high school in their native Mexico.

"This is a very good thing for the Hispanic community because not many kids get to go to college and it's helping our community to be a great success," said Aguirre, who is Mexican-American.

Jaziel Leija, 16, an incoming junior at Adamson High School in Dallas, learned about the symposium after recently attending the annual Hispanic Issues Forum at the university.

He said students often have a perception that they can't succeed.

"They're not comfortable they can make it in college because they're Hispanics," he said. "But I want to go to college. And mostly the kids I hang around with do want to go to college."

Last fall, there were 842 Hispanic students enrolled at SMU, making up about 7.7 percent of the university's total undergraduate and graduate enrollment.

Dallas leaders including Mayor Tom Leppert and Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa spoke Tuesday. Of the 189 students participating, 129 are from DISD and 34 are from Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.

Hinojosa said that he hoped students would walk through SMU's beautiful campus and think: "My life can change."

"We are changing the conversation in Dallas," he said.

The scholarship fund has held 17 such events across the country since 2004 and will hold 23 by the end of this summer.

This is the first one in Texas. So far 3,000 students nationally have participated, with about 90 percent going on to college.

Hispanic student enrollment in public and private Texas colleges and universities is increasing but still lags goals set by state higher education officials. Here are highlights of a state progress report:

•Hispanics' enrollment numbers in higher-education institutions is "well below target." Enrollment of black and white students is "somewhat above target."

•In 2007, 345,284 Hispanic students were enrolled at public two- and four-year colleges, universities and private schools, up from 237,394 students in 2000.

•The state's goal is for 474,000 Hispanic students to be enrolled in Texas colleges and universities by 2010.

•In North Texas, 39,947 Hispanic students were enrolled in college in fall 2007, up from 20,142 in 2000. White enrollment was 139,239 in 2007, up from 117,576 in 2000.

SOURCE: Closing the Gaps by 2015: 2008 Progress Report, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board