Underprivileged students at three area school districts will receive greater attention to make them more aware of what it takes to get into college, from preparing them with the required classes and graduating from high school to enrolling in college, thanks to a $3.2 million federal grant to Cal State San Bernardino.
The university has received three five-year U.S. Department of Education Talent Search grants, each for an annual $240,000, to boost college awareness and readiness programs for middle and high school students in Colton Joint Unified, Rialto Unified and San Bernardino City Unified school districts, said Olivia Rosas, CSUSB associate vice president for enrollment management.
“The goal is to help prepare low-income students so they are ready for college,” Rosas said.
The Talent Search program identifies and helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have the potential to succeed in higher education. The program provides academic, career and financial counseling to participants, encourages them to graduate from high school, and continue on to and complete their postsecondary education.
That help includes: tutoring, mentoring, career advisement and exploration, educational counseling, financial aid workshops, financial and economic literacy, and offering workshops to parents and family members about college because of the high numbers of students who are first-generation college students, Rosas said. The program also focuses on students who have dropped out of middle or high school, assisting them with re-entry programs to get them back into school and completion programs so that they will graduate.
Edward D’Souza, the associate superintendent for secondary education at Rialto Unified School District, said the grant will help focus on at-risk children in the district at the sixth through ninth grades levels, and help them get and stay on track to graduating from high school.
“We want to catch them earlier by targeting those grades,” D’Souza said.
The grant will also help the district continue its focus on college preparation, encouraging students to complete the A-G requirements and more specific courses to prepare them for college, such as taking a fourth year of mathematics as seniors, D’Souza said.
“It’s important to take that fourth year of math or they won’t be ready for math when they get to college,” D’Souza said.
John Conboy, coordinator of assessment and evaluation for the Colton Joint Unified School District, said the grant will help in the district’s efforts to reach younger students on the importance of college.
“We’re not waiting for them to get to high school. We will be approaching them in middle school,” Conboy said. “We are gearing them toward four-year colleges.”
Tex Acosta, Secondary Education Principal on Assignment for San Bernardino City Unified School District, said the Talent Search grant “will give the district the opportunity to identify students that have the potential for post-secondary education.”
“It will help us provide tutoring, guidance and mentorship to these students,” Acosta said. “This will give them a better chance of obtaining a college education.”
The grant will also help beef up existing district programs such as AVID and link students with actual representatives from colleges and universities, bridging them even further with higher education, Acosta said.
The educators said another important aspect is educating and working with students’ parents and families on preparing students for college.
“Kids may do well to get into a four-year college, but they and their families may not know how to apply and what is needed to get into college,” Conboy said.
In the Colton Joint Unified School District, the participating schools are: Colton, Bloomington and Grand Terrace high schools; and Baca, Colton, Harris and Terrace middle schools.
In the Rialto Unified School district, the participating schools are: Rialto, Eisenhower and Carter high schools; and Frisbie, Jehue, Kolb, Kucera and Rialto middle schools.
In the San Bernardino City Unified, the participating schools are: Arroyo Valley, Cajon, Indian Springs, Pacific, San Bernardino and San Gorgonio high schools; and Arrow View, Chavez, Curtis, Del Vallejo, Golden Valley, King, Serrano and Shandin Hills middle schools.
California State University, San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in Inland Southern California. Opened in 1965 and set at the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, the university serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually.
CSUSB reflects the dynamic diversity of the region and has the most diverse student population of any university in the Inland Empire, and it has the second highest African American and Hispanic enrollments of all public universities in California. More than 80 percent of those who graduate are the first in their families to do so.
For more information on the Talent Search grant, contact the CSUSB Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news@csusb.edu.