Project Excel APLC Pathways to College · In its first year, Project Excel has moved steadily toward being fully operational. Over the summer, we selected our first cohort of 27 students

APLC Phenomenal!

Faculty Outreach Grants Awarded

The Chancellor’s Outreach Advisory Board (COAB) has awarded $150,000 this year in Faculty Outreach Grants (FOG) for faculty-sponsored projects that support academic preparation of K-12 students and teacher professional development in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. According to Joseph Castro, Executive Director of the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Op-portunity which manages the grants competition, “This year’s group of projects was very diverse in the range of fields and topics which include arts, science, Mesoamerican culture, me-chanical design and engineering, general academic preparation, and teacher professional development – each of which will help students become better prepared for higher education”.

This year’s FOG Review Committee included Phyllis Brady, MESA Schools Program and College of Engineering, Sarah Fenstermaker, Department of Sociology, Mark Foster, Department of English, Ken Millett, Department of Mathematics and Chair, Chancellor’s Out-reach Advisory Board, Thuc Nyugen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ram Seshadri, Department of Materials, and Jin Sook Lee, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. The committee was chaired by Claudine Michel, Professor in the Department of Black Studies and the Director of the Center for Black Studies.

New FOG Awardees for 2006

Academic Writing Partnership: Teacher to Teacher CollaborativeAcademic Writing Program, Susan McLeod, Ilene Miele and Robert KrutProfessional development services for subject matter teachers and AVID instructors at Hueneme and Channel Islands High Schools focused on improved teaching, curriculum and student achievement.

CCS Pre-College Summer Arts InstituteCollege of Creative Studies, Robyn Bell and Caroline AllenA summer arts program for local middle and high school students focused on writing, painting, photography, sculpture and exposure to a higher education experience.

Community Arts PartnershipDepartment of Arts, Kim YasudaA public arts project with Villa Cesar Chavez, a farmworker housing project in Oxnard in which UCSB students and faculty engage family residents in creating public art projects to be installed at the facility.

Elementary School Quantum LEAPS After-School Science ClubsDepartment of Physics, Elizabeth GwinnAn expansion of Quantum LEAPS, an after-school science program that engages elementary school girls in scientific exploration outside of the classroom at Cesar Chavez School and Girls Inc. sites in Goleta and Santa Barbara.

Huehuetlatolli: experiential pedagogies and science literacyDepartment of Chicana/Chicano Studies and the Center for Facul-ty Outreach, Gerardo Aldana, Walter Yuen, and Marisela Marquez An after-school academic preparation program combining ancient Me-soamerican culture with modern science and technology.

Imagination GatewaysCollege of Engineering, Glenn Beltz, Bob Cota and Phyllis BradyMulti-educational teams of students (8th grade through undergraduates) from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties will participate in competitions in designing and building complicated mechanical devices to perform simple functions.

Project ExcelCenter for Black Studies, Julie CarlsonAcademic preparation, counseling, mentoring, and parent involvement programs for primarily African American and American Indian students, and other first-generation college-going students and families residing in the greater Santa Barbara area.

BOB DE BRIS BOB DE BRIS

Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity

2 96Project Excel Up and Running

Santa BarbaraPathways

College of Creative Studies

Summer Arts InstituteSponsors

Volume I • Issue 1 University of California, Santa Barbara Spring 2006

www.campusoutreach.ucsb.edu A Peek InsideProject Excel ...................2Arts Programs .................3Kellogg Foundation ........3

Chemistry Outreach ........4AWP ................................5x7 Institute ......................5APLC ...............................6SC Science Project .........6

EAOP ..............................7Development ..................8Profile in Philanthropy .....8SB Pathways ....................9Chumash Scholars ........10805.893.3105

Spri

ng 2

006

Please see Summer Arts on p5

Hatziri Ramirez, Chitchirri Ramirea, Caroline Allen (Instructor), Rene Liv-ingston, and Hannah Murray display Dia de la Muertos altar at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art last fall.

12-year-old Brittney Cotledge and her younger sister enjoy the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration.

German Hernandez, a student at Goleta Valley Jr. High School, dem-onstrates his new photography skills.

Paris Wines, a 6th grade student from Adams Elementary School, shows her flare for color.

16-year-old Etta Murray demonstrates her painting skills during CCS Institute.

BOB DE BRIS

BOB DE BRIS

BOB DE BRIS

In summer 2005, the College of Creative Studies premiered its first Pre-College Summer Arts Institute for local junior and high school students who may be the first in their families to attend college. Because funding for the arts has been cut in public schools, this program offers many students their first opportunity to study painting, photography and writing as creative expression. Studies have shown that skills acquired in the arts transfer to virtu-ally all other academic endeavors.

Thirty-seven students participated in the summer program, which met four days a week for five weeks. They took classes in writing, drawing, painting, and photography. In the writing class, taught by Robyn Bell, a CCS lecturer in Literature, these young artists wrote personal narratives about their lives, poems about their memories, haikus, and other short verse poems.

Caroline Allen, another CCS lecturer in Literature, taught the drawing and painting classes. Students were introduced to contour drawing, painting still-lifes, landscapes, and self-portraits as “superheroes”. They used pencil, ink, acrylic, and oil paint. Most students really seemed to enjoy the painting. As one girl wrote in her essay about painting, “Before I paint I feel normal. After I paint I feel good.”

Professional photographer Bob De Bris taught students how to create artistic compositions within the frame of the camera, how to use the shutter speed to increase focal depth and encouraged them to experiment. Students photo-graphed themselves, each other, strangers, landscapes, signs, cars—whatever caught their interest.

The program culminated in a large celebratory show at the CCS Art Gallery with family members and friends of the participants in attendance, as well as college administrators, staff members, and teachers. The best of the student’s writing and drawings was published in an anthology, which was distributed at the opening.

By Caroline AllenCollege of Creative Studies

Pathways to College

Director’s Message

P a t h w a y s t o C o l l e g e • S p r i n g 2 0 0 6

New Project Aims for

Project Excel students observe a tribal elder performing a special ceremony at the project’s kick-off event held last summer at the Franklin Neighborhood Center.

need of one, thanks to the generosity of David Stone from the Purchasing Department at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) and the computer expertise of Project Excel director, Keith Terry. In November, several families attended Black Family Weekend at UCSB where they took campus tours, visited with the current chair of the De-partment of Black Studies, and attended a barbeque for families of currently enrolled African American students. Some Project Excel students and families also attended a lecture by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who spoke at the Arlington Theatre on the “power of reconciling love”. The staff and coordinators have met with African Ameri-can and American Indian undergraduate students at UCSB, SBCC, and Westmont College who are interested in becoming mentors and tutors for the program.

We still have work to do in terms of getting Project Excel fully coordinated, but we are excited about our first group of students and families, eager to work with the college students willing to model what it takes to succeed in college, and looking forward to forming networks with community agencies and non-profits who share the goal of changing the face of higher education. We have received funding and support for Project Excel from the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity (APEO) and from the Chancellor’s Outreach Advisory Board (COAB) which has awarded us two con-secutive awards from the Faculty Outreach Grants (FOG) competitions.

Student Success

Project Excel is a far-reaching, new project designed to increase academic opportunities for under-represented students, including African American and American Indian students from the local Santa Barbara community, with the ultimate goal of increasing their enrollment in the UC system and other four-year institu-tions. It also seeks to strengthen relations between the university and these communities throughout the region.

Currently, only a little more than 2% of undergraduate students at UCSB are African American and less than 1% are American Indian. Project Excel hopes to improve this trend by providing local underrepresented students with the early academic guidance, mentoring, and family support they need to succeed academically and place them on a path towards college. By actively engaging parents, family and community members, and campus resources, we believe we can help students achieve their dreams of college.

In its first year, Project Excel has moved steadily toward being fully operational. Over the summer, we selected our first cohort of 27 students (and their families) ranging in age from the 5th through 12th grades. We are working to establish the program’s tutorial and mentoring com-ponents and have secured office and classroom space at the Franklin Neighborhood Center in Santa Barbara. We are also busy identifying the remaining funding needed to ensure the success of this program.

Project Excel students, parents, coordinators, and staff stay in close communication through home visits, group meetings, letters, and phone calls and have partici-pated in a number of activities. Last summer, several students from Project Excel participated in UCSB aca-demic programs, including the Summer Arts Institute, sponsored by the College of Creative Studies, and Tech Trek, a week-long academic preparation experience for girls interested in science sponsored by UCSB and the American Association of University Women.

In the fall, computers were provided to all students in

MONICA PESSINO / OCEAN O’ GRAPHICS

For more information, please contact Julie Carlson, Associate Director, Center for Black Studies, and Principal Investigator, Project Excel at [email protected] or (805) 893-8478.

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Claudia Martinez .......EditorMonica Pessino .........Creative DirectorJulia Kwinto ...............Graphic Assistant

I am pleased to introduce you to Pathways to College. For those of you who read Inside Outreach, we hope that you will find this an even more user-friendly and attrac-tive newsletter design and format. Changing the name to Pathways to College better links it to the guiding philoso-phy of UC Santa Barbara’s aca-demic preparation programs, each of which provides sup-port to regional students, families, and/or schools that enable more students to suc-ceed along the “pathway” from kindergarten through a college or university.

Our newsletter provides new information about many of our existing campus pro-grams and an introduction to some of our newest initia-tives. By focusing attention on first-generation college-going students who have a particu-lar academic interest or chal-lenge or who live in a par-ticular community, this array of programs complements and reinforces one another. The students are provided academic support at their schools, community centers, and colleges and universities such as UC Santa Barbara.

A key aspect of many of our programs is a focus on pro-viding support to entire fami-lies. One of our newest pro-grams featured in this edition of Pathways to College, Proj-ect Excel, serves a number of families who have children enrolled in Santa Barbara/Goleta/Carpinteria schools. In addition, our successful Padres Adelante Program is now serving families in Isla Vista and Santa Barbara. Serving the entire family helps to ensure that parents and students share the same edu-cational values about achiev-ing in school and preparing for a higher education.

Throughout the newsletter are many examples of collabora-tion between and among UC Santa Barbara students, fac-ulty and staff with educators in schools, school districts, community-based organiza-tions and other higher educa-tion institutions. We believe that such collaborations are

the most effective way to engage students and fami-lies. Our work on the Santa Barbara Pathways Program at the local level and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-support-ed California ENLACE initia-tive at the regional and state levels illustrates our commit-ment to such collaborative efforts. And our annual Fac-ulty Outreach Grants (FOG) program has inspired many faculty members to pursue their interests in launching collaborations with local K-12 schools and educators that help prepare more local stu-dents for higher education.

Finally, we have added a new regular feature, Profiles in Philanthropy, where you will be introduced to our expanded efforts to iden-tify business, foundation and community leaders who share our strong commitment to increasing the number of underrepresented regional students who are prepared for a higher education. One such leader, James Jimenez – a founder of the Mexican food products industry – has generously provided us with a major gift to support stu-dents and families in Fillmore. I have been inspired by his life story and by his philan-thropy.

With spring now in full bloom, it is fitting to see the many ways in which UC Santa Barbara is helping regional students to do better in school, prepare successfully for college and begin to ful-fill their dreams. We deeply appreciate your continued participation in and support of these efforts.

Joseph I. Castro, Executive Director, Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity

Pathways to CollegePaving the Road Ahead

Copyright ©2006Pathways to CollegeAll rights are reserved on material produced by Pathways to College. Reproduction or non personal usage for any purpose requires permission. Other material, including stories, photos, graphics, and illustrations may be protected by separate copyrights and trademarks. Their presentation by Pathways to College does not permit other use without written release by the original rights holder.

By Julie CarlsonCenter for Black Studies and

Department of English


Project Excel coordinators and staff, including Keith Terry (program director), Babatunde Folayemi (community leader) and Julie Carlson (UCSB professor), welcome participating students and families into the program. Also shown, Joseph Castro of APEO (far left).

Pathways to College is a publication of the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity, University of California Santa Barbara.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded a one million dollar grant to California ENLACE (ENgaging LAtino Communities for Education), a collaboration of the two ENLACE sites in the state, one led by UC Santa Barbara and the other by Santa Ana College which received funding from the foundation for pilot projects to support academic success for first-generation, college-going students in local communities.

CA ENLACE is a new statewide initiative charged with sponsoring forums, convenings, and institutes that spotlights best practices in addressing the achievement gap for Latino students in California. Specifically, CA ENLACE will develop statewide networks, focused on the areas of student achieve-ment and family/community engagement policies that improve college going in this state. CA ENLACE activities for UCSB are coordinated through the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportu-nity and led by a team of faculty and staff including Joseph I. Castro and Claudia Martinez in the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity, and faculty members, Richard P. Durán, Professor, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, and Denise A. Segura, Professor, Department of Sociology.

Kellogg Foundation SupportsNew CA ENLACE InitiativeUCSB Co-Leads Policy Initiative on Educational Achievement Issues Facing the State

Please see ENLACE on p10


UCSB faculty and students are currently engaged in a

variety of arts and theater programs designed to expose

local elementary, middle and high schools students to

visual and performing arts. These programs are adminis-

tered through the Center for Chicano Studies and led by

Carlos Morton, Professor of Dramatic Art and Dance.

ARTE • ARTE (Arts in Education) is a program that gives UCSB students the opportunity to work with teachers in the public schools. Based on the successful Arts Bridge pro-gram, an arts education outreach program of the University of California, ARTE undergraduate student interns in the fine arts are paired with teachers in schools and community centers to bring music, theatre, dance, and art instruction to language minority students and others.

Currently, these programs are serving students at Isla Vista Elementary School (Music, Theatre), César Chávez Charter School (Theatre), and El Puente (Art History). UCSB students teach elementary school students how to play musical instru-ments during after school programs, run drama classes for the students during school days, and teach classes in art appre-ciation to at risk high school students.

TEATRO AS A TOOL FOR TEACHING • For the past two years the Center for Chicano Studies has spon-sored a Teatro theatre tour that has brought the dramatic arts to several high schools in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Plays address serious themes, encouraging and challenging “at risk” high school students to avoid risky behavior and to stay in school. The third tour in spring featured new skits written and performed by UCSB students. Schools that will be part of the spring tour include Pioneer High School in Santa Maria, Renaissance School and La Colina Junior High in Santa Barbara, as well as El Puente and Casa de La Raza.

TEATRO PIPELINE • Teatro Pipeline is funded by a 2005-2006 FOG grant and designed to coordinate Latino theatre activities between Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara City College, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Teachers in all three institutions share resources, men-tor students, and stage performances with the goal of engag-ing students interested in careers in the theatre. In February and April, Teatro Pipeline sponsored a free performance for local teachers and students of “Brown Baby”, written by Professor Carlos Morton, as well as a free performance in April of a new Josefina Lopez play “Roma Goes to Lola” at Santa Barbara City College.

The UCSB Summer Theatre Lab brings some of the most exciting theater artists in the country to UCSB each summer. During the Lab, visiting artists work intensively with UCSB faculty, students, and community activists in innovative collaborations. Students who enroll in the Lab take master classes with the guest artists in Playwriting, Acting, Directing, Solo Performance, Beatboxing, Spoken Word Poetry, and Choreography.

In 2005, the UCSB Summer Theatre Lab featured some of the finest Latino theatre artists in the coun-try including: award winning San Francisco-based theatre company Campo Santo, playwrights Luis Alfaro, Carlos Murillo, Anne Garcia Romero, Ricardo Bracho, and director Lisa Portes.

The UCSB Summer Theatre Lab is also home to Nuestra Voz, a theatre outreach project in which UCSB undergraduates mentor teenage residents of Isla Vista in creative writing. Participants of Nuestra Voz create an original play, which is per-formed during the Lab for members of the UCSB and Santa Barbara communities.

Isla Vista teens who participate in Nuestra Voz work with visiting Lab artists in workshops. The Summer Theatre Lab and Nuestra Voz are directed by UCSB faculty member Naomi Iizuka, an award-

PROGRAMS

UCSB Arts Enrichment Programs Encourage Young Students to Stay in School

Summer Theatre Lab

3

RT S

If you would like more information, please contact: Professor Carlos Morton at [email protected] or (805) 893-8303.

A

[ ]

Strengthening Community Connections

winning playwright, and coordinated by Judy Bauerlein, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Dramatic Art and Dance. According to Iizuka, “By bringing Isla Vista teens together with prominent theater artists, UCSB undergradu-ates, and UCSB faculty, Nuestra Voz provides an innovative and powerful forum for mentor-ship and creative partnerships”.

This year we will work with performance artist Luis Alfaro on the Monument Project, a collabora-tion between Nuestra Voz, the Department of Chicana/o Studies, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and retirement community Friendship Manor. Undergraduate mentors who participate in the Nuestra Voz will be enrolled in Community Stud-ies 195C: The Work and Heart of the Commu-nity, taught by Professor Marisela Marquez in the Department of Chicano Studies.

Over the past three years, the Summer Theatre Lab has received support from UCSB’s Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

If you are interested in obtaining information about the UCSB Summer Theatre Lab 2006 and Nuestra Voz, please contact: Linda Flegal at [email protected] or Judy Bauerlein at [email protected].

UCSB and SBCC students perform solo readings as part of UCSB theatre program.

Dramatic Arts professor, Naomi Iizuka, works with UCSB undergraduate students in developing original theatre projects during the Summer Theatre Lab in 2005.

High school students from Isla Vista take a bow during their theatre performance finale.

By Judy Bauerlein, Department of Dramatic Art and Dance

HUTCH AxILRODHUTCH AxILROD

HUTCH AxILROD

UCSB Researchers Mentor Secondary School Students with Science ProjectsOver the past two years, the UCSB Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) has been engaged

in mentoring local secondary school students with science projects. The California State

Science Content Standards include Investigation and Experimentation among the key com-

ponents of secondary science education. In conducting long-term, independent investiga-

tions, junior high and high school students can express their creativity and curiosity while

learning to analyze and interpret data using appropriate tools and technology. Recognizing

this, local teachers have encouraged their students to conduct such investigations either as

class assignments or as projects designed for submission to the Santa Barbara County Sci-

ence Fair. However, students have limited access to the scientific guidance and expertise

needed to help them develop their ideas into appropriately-scaled projects.

In order to address this need, the MRL provides assistance through UCSB ScienceLine. Stu-

dents contact ScienceLine with their project ideas and mentor requests and are individually

matched with UCSB mentors. Graduate students and researchers volunteer their time and

expertise to guide students, and together they work out a science project that not only is in-

teresting, but that is manageable at home. Alternatively, some mentors have invited students

into their laboratories to get an idea about research and to discuss their projects in detail.

You can discover more about ScienceLine at its website at www.scienceline.ucsb.edu.

Researchers that have helped support these projects over the last school year: Uri Raviv,

Stacey Peterson, Bridget Bowens, Patti Halpin, Jatila Van der Veen, Miriam Polne-Fuller, Emily

Brumeister, Mark Kastantin, Michael Malkoch and Dotti Pak.

Local elementary school students and Professor Petra van Koppen conduct hands-on science experiments in UCSB’s Chemistry Outreach Program.

We anticipate more students requesting mentors this year and invite you to be a Science Project Mentor. Please e-mail [email protected] for more information.


Physical Science Summer Workshop for Elementary School Teachers

• Provide standards-based content and activities for 4th and 5th grade teach-ers

• Give teachers the opportunity to design and present activities

• Provide ready-to-use classroom les-sons

• Provide hands-on activities and ap-plications to real world problems and everyday experiences

• Enable teachers to apply learned skills in their classroom: prepare their students to participate in a chemistry outreach workshop at UCSB

“The workshops have strength-ened the instructors’ knowl-edge of important grade level physical science standards and increased their ability to deliver inquiry-based science instruction to their students.”

—Michael Vail, Principal,Cleveland School

“I think what made your entire presentation so worthwhile was that it fostered additional questioning. It showed how we can take almost anything and extend it to allow for more of an investigative attitude.”

—Susan Hughes,Brandon School, teacher

“I love seeing the way the kids’ faces light up when they under-stand how a reaction works and are excited about applying it to new and different concepts.”

—Chantelle Woods,undergraduate volunteer

“When I saw all those chemi-cals react, I knew I was going to enjoy it here.”

—Madeline Dawson, 5th grader

UCSB Chemistry Outreach ProgramSparking an Early Interest in Science

Chemistry Outreach Program for Fifth Grade Students, Parents and Teachers

• Enable students from diverse back-grounds to work with UCSB students who are also from diverse back-grounds

• Spark new interests in sciences and fuel current interests

• Show students the relevance of chemistry

• Engage students, parents and teach-ers in exciting hands-on activities

• Enable volunteers to share their enthusiasm for science with young students

• Inspire students to pursue a higher education in science

• Show elementary school students the excitement of working in a college setting

The Chemistry Outreach Program, sponsored by the UCSB Department of Chemistry promotes Chemistry awareness and provides information on career and educational opportunities for elementary, middle, high school, college students and parents.

IMPACT

This year we will see approximately 1200 fifth grade students, parents and teachers. By introducing both students and parents from diverse backgrounds to UCSB, and enabling them to work with UCSB students who are also from diverse backgrounds, we hope to provide them with a new impression of the University. We want them to see that the university is in fact an attainable goal for them, with the long-term goal of stimulating interest to pursue a higher education in science at a four-year college or university.

In the summer, a physical science workshop is offered in collaboration with the South Coast Science Project. K-12 science teachers are provided standards-based content experiences, lesson plans and activities. During the school year, each quarter, 14 hands-on workshops are offered for fifth graders in the lab at UCSB. Each workshop includes a class of 25 to 30 students, parents and teachers. Undergraduates in the chemistry club and in chemistry lecture classes are provided with the opportunity to teach in the chemistry outreach program by leading various hands-on activities. Teachers and fifth graders love working with the undergraduates. We are in the process of developing inquiry-based modules that target specific concepts in the fifth grade physical sciences curriculum, and provide teachers with take-home materials and follow-up support in their classrooms from our UCSB Chemistry and Materials students. A keystone of the program will be extensive interaction between UCSB students and fifth grade students and teachers providing first-rate science role models for the fifth-graders and encouraging our students to consider careers in science teaching.

The current depth of the program would not have been possible without the sup-port received over the years. Chemistry Outreach is supported by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, UCSB Faculty Outreach Grants, and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

What We Offer

By Petra van Koppen, Professor, Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryTamar Raviv, Education Programs Coordinator, Materials Research Laboratory

For more information about chemistry outreach, please visit www.chem.ucsb.edu/~outreach or contact Tamar Raviv at the Materials Research Laboratory at (805) 893-7928.

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Originally conceived as a collaborative approach to the improvement of mathematics education for Santa Barbara High School District students in 7th grade, the Teachers Improving Mathematics Education for Stu-dents in 7th grade (TIMES7) was launched in Spring 2005. The TIMES7 leadership team, comprised of Kelley Baeza, Janet Hollister, Craig Schneider and Tracy Thompson, all Santa Barbara math teachers who earned their single subject teaching credentials from UCSB’s Teacher Education Program, chose 7th grade standards as their focus. Baeza, Assistant Director of UCSB’s School-University Partnerships, explains that this focus is important because “Seventh grade is usually the first time students encounter mathematics taught as a self-contained discipline”.

During the spring, 15 teacher participants from Santa Barbara area schools met to align courses, improve course placement criteria and identify individual 7th grade math teaching issues at the four junior highs. Then, during the a three day summer institute on August 17-19 at La Colina Junior High School, the participating teachers focused on deepening mathematical content and pedagogy of the teachers, emphasizing effective strategies for teaching mathematics to English Learners, and providing time to build collaboration across the district. Video case studies, district data and current mathematics education articles were incorporated.

A special presentation entitled “Turning on and Tun-ing in our English Learner Mathematics Radar” by Dr. Carl Lager proved to be a powerful learning success. One teacher commented “that was the best profes-sional development session I have had in 33 years of teaching! All teachers in the district should have that

experience.” Another said “I learned good ideas and insights into teaching English Learner students: for example, the importance of writing, high expectations, encouraging students to help/teach each other, etc.” The participants representing all four of Santa Barbara’s junior highs will meet seven times during the academic school year to continue their work.

In addition to School-University Partnerships, the Times7 Institute is supported through funding from the UCSB’s Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Op-portunity and the Santa Barbara High School District.

Teachers Improve Mathematics Education for Students in 7th Grade Institute

Academic Writing Partnership

it begins its sixth year, the award-winning Academ-

ic Writing Partnership (AWP) at UCSB is building on its achievements and working toward expanded, institution-alized change in local school districts. Beginning in 2000 with four Ventura County high schools, the Academic Writing Partnership began as a collab-orative effort of the South Coast Writing Project (SCWriP), School University Partnerships (SUP), and the Writing Program. AWP helps teachers integrate writing into the curriculum and encour-ages the use of writing to promote learning. By connecting partner high school teachers and their students to the university and to university writing, this project aims to develop students’ awareness of the expectations for college level academic work and help them to see themselves as potential college students, confident in their

Ilene Miele and Bob Krut, shown here, both lecturers in the UCSB Academic Writing Partnership.

Asabilities to succeed at the university. For the past three years, the AWP has been funded through a UCSB Faculty Outreach Grant with additional sup-port from Hueneme High School. After winning the prestigious Golden Bell Award last year, demand for AWP programs and services has grown in 2005-06.

Led by UCSB Writing Program Lecturer Ilene Miele, AWP is expanding the work previously established at Hue-neme High School in Oxnard with strategies developed by participating teachers as the project has evolved. In addition to team teaching with Writ-ing Program instructors, collaborations between teachers will be developed in hopes of institutionalizing this sort of teacher cooperation. Working together, teachers benefit from each other’s experience, skills, and ideas. By making collaboration a normal practice that can sustain itself throughout the year, teachers generate knowledge and skills in a manner that is not only teacher ini-

tiated and directed but also designed to meet the specific needs of their schools and their classes.

This year the partnership has the ben-efit of equal funding from both UCSB and the Oxnard Union High School District, which in addition to allowing the collaborative work in the classroom to continue will provide a variety of other professional development activi-ties as well. During the 2005-06 school year, the AWP will conduct a series of workshops co-presented by former high school teacher Randy Sandford and Ilene Miele to disseminate infor-mation about collaboration and the use of writing to teach content. The workshops will allow ideas to de-velop into practice so that writing can be both an end unto itself and a vital tool for learning subject area con-tent. Through this year’s funding, the AWP has also added Writing Program Lecturer Robert Krut, who is working with teachers and students at Channel Islands High School.

In addition to the workshops, the AWP conducts campus visits for District teachers. Visits allow high school teachers to attend UCSB Writing classes in the spirit of collaboration, demon-strating a typical first-year writing class. Following the observations, teachers will be invited to meet with faculty and other campus representatives.

A new subject area for the AWP is the high school Advancement Via Individ-ual Determination (AVID) classes. AVID classes focus on college preparation, giving students strategies for suc-cess. Students who take AVID classes frequently fall in the academic “mid-dle”—B, C, and even D students—who are capable of success but may not be maximizing their abilities. By collabo-

By Kelley Baeza, School-University Partnerships

Gevirtz Graduate School of Education

For more information about this and other pro-fessional development programs for K-12 teach-ers, please contact Kelley Baeza at [email protected] or (805) 893-8663.

x7 InstItute

Please see AWP on p7

Growing in Oxnard

By Ilene MieleAcademic Writing Program


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Strong Interest in the program led to the CCS Arts Institute providing art courses two to four Saturdays each month throughout the school year. In October, students created papier-mache skulls, paintings, decorative foil frames, and pa-per flowers for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Dia de Los Muertos exhibition and celebration. The CCS Arts Institute and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art have plans to create a museum guide with artwork and writing by our students. “We believe that these collaborations and exhibitions give students a great sense of themselves as artists, writers, thinkers, and problem-solvers and hope that we see many of them choosing UCSB when it comes time for them to attend college,” expressed Bell.

The CCS Pre-College Arts Institute and follow-up academic year activities were made possible through two Faculty Out-reach Grants (2005 and 2006), financial support from both William Ashby, the for-mer provost, and Bruce Tiffney, the new Dean of the Center for Creative Studies, as well as the Office of Academic Prepara-tion and Equal Opportunity (APEO). The program received assistance from APEO-and Project Excel staff who helped to identify students from the local school to participate.

This years CCS Pre-College Summer Arts Institute will expand to six weeks and will be held June 26 through August 4, 2006 at UCSB.

Summer ArtsContinued from p1

CCS Arts Institute

For applications and more informa-

tion, please contact Robyn Bell at

[email protected] or (805)

893-3495, or Caroline Allen at ms-

[email protected] or (805) 893-4540.

O

For more information about the 2nd Annual Asian Pacific Leadership Conference, please contact Me-lissa Kwon at APEO, [email protected] or (805) 893-3105.

By Melissa Kwon, Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity


n November 11, 2005, thirty-three undergraduate students from across California arrived at the University of

California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for the first Asian Pacific Leadership Conference (APLC). Asian Ameri-can students from all segments of higher education in California, including the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and Commu-nity Colleges, as well as private institutions, gathered to learn about career opportunities they can pursue in leadership. The APLC brought these students together on the UCSB campus to participate in intensive workshops on developing leadership and fos-tering community and public service in Asian Pacific Islander communities through working with community and political leaders. The Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity (APEO), the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project, and Educational Opportunity Program Asian Resource Center at UCSB sponsored the event. This intensive three-day conference consisted of a series of work-shops where the students explored various careers in leadership that they can pursue while serving the Asian American community.

Guest speakers focused on their leadership experi-ences and how they balance the their careers, their culture, and community service. Angela Oh, a promi-nent Asian American trial attorney in the Los Angeles area, Charmette Bonpua, the highest-ranking Asian Pacific legislative staff member in California, and Janet Yang, an award-winning Asian American movie producer, all shared their experiences in leadership roles with the young students. Two UCSB Professors, Bryan Kim, Associate Professor, Counseling, Clinical

he UCSB South Coast Science Project held two teacher professional development insti-tutes for the region’s teachers in the summer

of 2005. These included a two-week, 4th and 5th grade institute focusing on the California Standards in Earth Science, and a one-week, 8th and 9th grade institute on the Physical Science standards for these grades.

Now in its 16th year, the South Coast Science Project (SCSP) provides teachers with an op-portunity to expand their skills in the teaching of science. It is one of three California Subject Matter Projects housed at UCSB. Participants in the institute include teachers from school districts in Goleta, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Vista del Mar, Los Olivos, Ventura, Fillmore, and Rio Mesa among others. Ac-cording to Tom Ostwald, SCSP Director, “This year

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

and School Psychology, and John Park, Associate Professor, Asian American Studies, provided stu-dents with a historical and psychological perspec-tives about Asian Americans in the United States and how their history and culture influence their pursuit of leadership roles. Workshops conducted by Ronald Brown, founder and president of BanksBrown, a San Francisco-based management consulting firm specializing in business diversity for Fortune 500 companies, encouraged students to think about the various power dynamics they have encountered in

their lives. Erin O’Brien, a popular performance artist, worked with the students on how they can effectively organize within their communities to cultivate change. The conference concluded with a forum where students learned about career and educational opportunities that they can pursue in graduate school and internships.

Students were provided with an excellent oppor-tunity to engage with their peers regarding Asian Americans in leadership. One student summarized his experience as “Without a doubt, phenomenal. The group dynamic of the student conference at-tendees was open and enlivening. I felt that every-one I met was respectful of one another’s opinions and most importantly, supportive of one another’s personal stories. The speakers…were thought-pro-voking and each brought a different perspective and understanding of politics and the API commu-nity’s role in shaping California’s policies.

Due to the success of the 1st Asian Pacific Lead-ership Conference, plans are underway for the second conference that will be held at UCSB on November 9-12, 2006.

AsiAn PAcific

The South Coast Science ProjectSupporting Teachers in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Kern Counties

we expanded our base to include teachers from Kern County for the first time, a region that needs support for students to achieve their full academic potential. We have begun an effort to support the teachers there to provide more and better science instruction, emphasizing excellent science content, first and foremost, but also effective pedagogy for the diverse needs of students, especially second-language students.”

Teachers participating in the institute work together to learn teaching and content knowledge while participating in classroom investigations they then integrate into their classrooms. Many will take on responsibility for helping other teachers provide good science instruction in their classes. UCSB faculty is regularly engaged in the project, providing important content expertise. For instance, chemist

Dr. Petra van Koppen, an award-winning lecturer in UCSB’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemis-try, works directly with participating teachers and provides opportunities for their students to visit her teaching lab on campus.

During the 2005-06 academic year the South Coast Science Project staff plans to meet with teachers to review changes that have occurred, share problems and issues that they have experienced in their sci-ence teaching, and of course learn more science. They work with districts and schools upon request and this year will be working with Lompoc, Fillmore and Santa Maria districts among others.

For more information about the South Coast Science Project please contact Director Tom Ostwald at (805) 893-5663.

By Tom Ostwald, School-University Partnerships Gevirtz, Graduate School of Education

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New Partnership Launched with Oxnard Schools

This year, Oxnard High School and Rio Mesa High School, both in the Oxnard Union High School District, became the newest partnership schools for UCSB’s Early Academic Outreach Pro-gram (EAOP). As an EAOP partnership school, students attending Oxnard and Rio Mesa High Schools will receive a full array of academic preparation and advising services and college preparation programming that will help to support increases in college-going rates and academic achievement at these schools. Griselda Sanchez, the new Outreach Site Coordinator for Rio Mesa High School, and Jaime Padilla, the new Outreach Site Coordinator for Oxnard High School are assigned full time to the high school pro-viding students with personalized tran-script evaluations, essential information about college entrance requirements, financial aid, and academic support services. Both of these new partnership schools will provide critical support for the site coordinators, including office space, computing resources and sup-port, data access, and oversight per-sonnel at the school site. Rio Mesa and Oxnard High Schools join Channel Islands and Hueneme High Schools, which have been partner schools since 1997-98.

Staff Expands to Meet Needs of Local Students

For the first time since 2000, EAOP has increased its staff to be able to serve more schools and students throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. In addition to Sanchez and Padilla, newly

Expands PartnershipsEA Early Academic Outreach ProgramOP

The UCSB Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) has had a busy

start to the year, sponsoring and coordinating many programs, events

and services that help local students become informed about college

requirements, complete a-g courses, and succeed academically.

added staff includes Luis Gonzalez (Santa Maria Bonita School District), Gema Espinoza (Hueneme High School) and Sylvia Lizama (Channel Islands High School). Additionally, five former UCSB EAOP staff are now employed in three partnership high school districts or with local pre-college programs. These former staff members are David Gallegos (Dean, Hueneme High School), Emig-dio Cordova (Counselor, Oxnard High School), Jaime Vega (Counselor, Santa Paula High School), Eric Blanco (Coun-selor, Righetti High School), and Adriane Perez (Director, Central Coast Cal-SOAP).

Annual Kick-Off Events Bring Pre-College Partners Together

This past fall EAOP staff members hosted 3 kick-off breakfast events at Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Bakersfield area high schools. School site counselors, career technicians, teachers, and various pre-college partners at each site shared their annual calendars and showcased their upcoming programs, services, and scheduled events for the year. This repre-sented a unique opportunity for collabo-ration and all partners to start on the same page and better coordinate services and resources at the school site level.

Students Experience College Life through Campus Visits

EAOP site coordinators and academic service coordinators hosted matriculation visits for UC eligible seniors and juniors from Santa Maria, Lompoc, Fillmore, and Santa Paula. Students toured the campus, spoke with academic advisors, and met with student affairs staff from campus departments including the Educational

Opportunity Program (EOP), Finan-cial Aid, the Visitor Center, Counseling Services, Career Services, the Registrar, and the Admissions office. Partnership students interacted with current under-graduate and graduate students and even “shadowed” them for part of the day. All participants had the chance to sit in on a lecture and/or meet UCSB faculty.

EAOP Expands Services to Santa Barbara City Students

This year marks the return of EAOP ser-vices to the local Santa Barbara schools after a year and half hiatus related to the state budget cuts and ensuing staff vacancies. EAOP now has a new Santa Barbara county coordinator, Jesus Vega, who will work in tandem with EAOP in-terns to provide school wide classroom presentations about college require-ments. EAOP interns will help replicate “UC-I-CAN” clubs in the local middle schools. Over the last three years this student club service model has proven successful at increasing participation and has served as an excellent conduit for teaching middle school students about higher education, career options, and how to form study groups.

Plans are underway to launch the first EAOP “College Knowledge Bowl”

between local middle schools. The event is a new academic competi-tion designed to promote academic achievement, higher education awareness, and generate cooperative competition among pre-college pro-gram participants. Competitions will take place in math, writing, spelling, speech, current events, and higher education awareness.

Saturday Academies Continue at Fesler Middle School

EAOP is now in the third academic cycle of coordinating Saturday Acad-emies for 7th and 8th grade students at Fesler Middle School in Santa Maria Bonita School District. Students learn about preparing for college and study skills for academic success. Classes are taught by EAOP staff and university interns conduct student panels and serve as tour guides when the middle school students visit UCSB at the end of the academy. Feedback from par-ent and student participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

For more information about EAOP, please contact Britt Ortiz, Director, at [email protected] or (805) 893-5185.

By Britt OrtizDirector, Early Academic Outreach Program

rating with AVID classes, the AWP can help students fulfill their potential through writing skills.

Despite the many changes and challenges it has en-countered, the AWP has been fortunate to have the continued support of both administrators and faculty that is crucial to its success. The partnership is pleased this year to have the encouragement of two new prin-

cipals: Sylvia R. Jackson at Channel Islands High School, and John Saunders at Hueneme High School, as well as the involvement of teachers in AVID, English, and Social Sciences. Throughout the academic year, the AWP aims to involve more teachers in additional disciplines. As the program becomes further integrated into the actual course work, the more long-standing the collaboration

can become, which in the end will benefit both teach-ers and students.

Guadalupe Zamora,AVID TeacherHueneme High School

Danika Briggs, AVID TeacherHueneme High School

Tom McCollum, AVID DirectorHueneme High School


For more information about the Academ-ic Writing Program, please contact Ilene Miele at [email protected] or (805) 893-4241.

9th grade students from Santa Maria High School graduating from a six-week Summer Algebra Academy sponsored in 2005 by EAOP and the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity and the University of California Office of the President (UCOP).

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AWP Collaborates with AVID


For the first time in the history of the University of California, K-12 student academic preparation programs have been assigned a university development officer. This “first” has occurred at UC San-ta Barbara to support private fundraising needs for the Office of Academic Prepa-ration and Equal Opportunity (APEO). This is a concrete expression of support and recognition of the importance of and criti-cal need to prepare all students for admis-sion to UC and other colleges and univer-sities from Chancellor Yang and Executive Vice Chancellor Lucas.

It is my honor and privilege to serve as the first APEO university development officer. Since coming on board July 1, 2005 I have worked closely with APEO’s Executive Di-rector Joe Castro, Associate Director Clau-dia Martinez and the Chancellor’s Out-reach Advisory Board (COAB) to identify priorities and goals for our first year.

A major goal this year was to develop marketing materials that would clearly and concisely explain the breadth and depth of programs and initiatives that

New Development Efforts for Academic Preparation:

we support. A key objective was to cre-ate a strong “brand” that would capture all aspects of K-12 academic preparation – from After-School Programs in Language Arts, Math, and Science; Academic Ad-vising for College Preparedness; Leader-ship Development Workshops and Con-ferences; and Professional Development Services for Educators – to name only a few! You may wonder what connects all of these programs – I will tell you. Each and every one is a “Pathway” to college. Each of these programs plays a vital role in paving the road on the path to college admission.

APEO’s new brand - Pathways to College – Paving the Road Ahead - identifies the segments of the work that we do in K-12 schools – Preparing Young Scholars, Con-necting Parents and Families, and Engaging Community Partners. This is the strong and clear message we are now communicat-ing to potential donors.

We’ve begun to reach out to the communi-ties of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties to introduce business and civic leaders

and philanthropically minded individuals to the work of APEO. The results of our first efforts have been gratifying. There is recognition of the need for our work and an excitement about our programs. There is also an understanding that we must raise private dollars to supplement the state budget to make these programs financially sustainable.

It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have secured our first major private gift of $500,000 from Mr. James Jimenez to fund the James Jimenez Fillmore Schol-ars Program. Because of the generosity of Mr. Jimenez we will be able to provide a “pathway to college” for Fillmore students.

Each newsletter will feature our generous donors in a new column titled “Profiles in Philanthropy”. Please enjoy meeting Mr. Jimenez in this column.

We have many giving opportunities to sup-port a great variety of programs across campus – Kids in Nature; Let’s Explore Ap-plied Physical Science; Chumash Scholars Program; Project Excel; Santa Barbara Path-ways; Teatro Pipeline – to name only a few!

Pathways to College — Paving the Road Ahead

It is our pleasure to introduce you to Mr. James Jimenez, whose generous gift of $500,000 to UC Santa Barbara will launch the Fillmore Scholars Program to en-sure the academic preparedness of Fillmore students for this generation and future generations. Executive Director Joseph Castro says,

I have been privileged to work with many people who share our campus’ commitment to expanding educational opportunities for K-12 students in our region. Mr. Jimenez is one such extraordinary person.

James Jimenez was born 93 years ago and attended public schools in Los Angeles. After discovering in his sophomore year of high school that he was enrolled in

courses that were considered “vocational track”, he went to his counselor and asked her to place him in “college track” courses. With support from the principal, he made this transition successfully.

Jimmy graduated at the top of his high school class and was elected Senior Class President. Despite working sev-eral hours each week, he received excellent grades and was admitted to Stanford University, planning a career in medicine. However, attending Stanford University and pursuing a career in medicine was set aside. As Mr. Ji-menez remembers,

I was the son of a Mexican immigrant, the second of 12 children, and my family needed my wages in order for my younger siblings to remain in school.

Later in life, Jimenez recalls “My father earned a living with a pick and shovel as a railroad worker in San Ber-nardino. He told me that if you study, you wouldn’t end up doing this.”

James Jimenez has had an extraordinary career. He was a fast learner who relied on vision, tenacity, and his ability to solve problems. To help support his family he worked a variety of jobs – washing dishes, sanding floors, book-keeping, and as a machinist. After marrying his wife, Kay, Jimmy pursued a position in sales in the newly emerging Mexican food products industry. He quickly became one of the top salesmen in the industry, but he thought he could do more. Guided by the belief that Mexican food products were being made inefficiently, Jimmy designed and built equipment that revolutionized the industry.

Jimmy’s inventions soon found themselves in major fast food outlets throughout the world.

However he never lost his deep and abiding belief in education. He believes strongly that, “The key to joining the mainstream is education. The more educated people are, the better they can solve problems.”

After retirement Jimmy and Kay bought a farm in Fillmore and fell in love with the community. In Fillmore, Jimmy started a scholarship fund to provide direct support to Fillmore High School students who enroll in college. He continues this scholarship fund providing support for 40 students this year.

Mr. James Jimenez’s recent gift to UC Santa Barbara will create an endowed academic preparation program that will focus primarily on Fillmore students who would be the first in their families to attend a college or university. The James Jimenez Fillmore Scholars Program will help students become university-eligible and help pro-vide essential support to their families that will ensure their children’s success.

Executive Director Castro says,

It is my hope that James Jimenez will serve as an example to other community leaders. With this support we will sustain our existing programs and develop new initiatives that create a “pathway to college” for more K-12 students in our region.

We are proud to feature James Jimenez in our first “Pro-files in Philanthropy” column.

I look forward to sharing more news of our successful development efforts in future issues. If you would like to know more about development opportunities please contact me at email [email protected] or (805) 893-2460.

Profiles in Philanthropy:Introducing James Jimenez

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Suzanne Oliver, first Development Director for the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity.


Mr. James Jimenez, successful businessman and philanthropist, gives generous gift to support Fillmore students on their road to college.

• Introducing Santa Barbara Pathways •This past year, the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity officially launched its Santa Barbara Pathways program to help more local students succeed in school and become academically prepared for college.

Helping Students Pursue the Road to CollegeCurrently, the Santa Barbara Pathways program is comprised of a joint partner-ship with Dos Pueblos High School that provides services for students and entire families, including elementary and middle school age siblings. In the near future, we hope to expand Pathways services within the Santa Barbara School Districts to Santa Barbara and San Marcos high schools and their feeder schools.

The Santa Barbara Pathways program pro-vides services for students and families that include personal and academic counsel-ing, mentorship by college students, an af-

ter school Homework Center (coordinated by the UCSB Gevirtz Research Center), ac-cess to summer programs, field trips, and Padres Adelante, a parent leadership pro-gram which supports greater involvement by parents in schools. Students have also formed an ENLACE Club that focuses on building leadership skills, learning about college requirements and community ser-vice. On May 16th, the ENLACE Club is sponsoring a field trip to UCLA.

The Santa Barbara Pathways program is based on the Kellogg Foundation-spon-sored ENLACE (Engaging Latino Commu-nities for Education) program that was designed to support academic prepara-tion and college aspirations for a cohort of students and families from Isla Vista. With new funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation, those original ENLACE stu-dents along with newly added students, will continue to get the support they need to stay on track for success in higher edu-cation. Currently, 40 students are partici-pating in the high school component of Santa Barbara Pathways.

The partnership between UCSB and Dos Pueblos High School (DPHS) is strength-ened by the shared goals of Santa Barbara

Pathways. Silvina Pereira, a counselor at DPHS, has worked with the students for the past two years. She provides gener-ous support services for these students including counseling and advising, track-ing their academic progress and assisting with coordination of the Homework Cen-ter. Eugenia Ambrocio, the UCSB Pathways Coordinator, says, “ENLACE, and now Path-ways, is making a difference by providing continued support and encouragement to students who will be the first in their fami-lies to attend college. Working together with the Dos Pueblos High School coun-selor and teachers, we are helping these students and their parents understand the steps they need to take in order to stay on the path to achieving their dreams of col-lege and careers of their choice”.

IV Elementary Students Get a “Jumpstart”Santa Barbara Pathways also supports younger students in getting prepared for success in school. The “Jumpstart to Pathways” program works with 5th and 6th grade students at Isla Vista Elemen-tary School to help get them ready for the transition to middle school. Paola Juarez and Jessica Rodriguez, both UCSB under-graduates, are coordinating the Jumpstart

to Pathways Club. Juarez says, “With the help of other UCSB undergraduate student interns, we have been working with the IV Elementary school students after school, providing them with homework assis-tance, mentoring, talking with parents, and bringing other college students as guest speakers to talk with the students about the importance of education.”

Jumpstart students also play sports and have designed their own club t-shirt. UCSB student organizations, such as Hermanas Unidas, have been providing assistance to the club members. The club is planning a field trip to UCSB as well as an end-of-the year barbecue celebration for the students and their families.

For more information about Jumpstart to Pathways, you can contact Paola Juarez and Jessica Rodriguez at [email protected].

Padres Adelante Helps Santa Barbara Parents Understand The College ProcessParents of ENLACE Pathways students are learning about the educational system through the Padres Adelante program. Classes are currently running at both Isla Vista Elementary School and César Chávez Charter School and are conducted by in-structors, Eugenia Ambrocio and Graciela Fernandez. In Isla Vista, Padres Adelante is co-directed by staff at the Isla Vista Youth Projects.

Parents in the Padres Adelante program attend a series of workshops, designed for Spanish-speaking parents, which fo-cus on topics such as Leadership Skills, How School Sites and School Districts Function, Parent/Teacher Conferences, Test-ing, University Admissions Requirements, and Financial Aid. At the Padres Adelante graduation ceremony in December 2005, local Assembly Member Pedro Nava ad-dressed the proud Isla Vista graduates and their families at a special dinner at the UCSB Faculty Club. In his address, given in Spanish, he congratulated the parents

for their hard work and for supporting their children’s success and complimented their efforts as community leaders.

Surveys show that the program is helping parents become more familiar with what it takes to help their child become academi-cally successful. Parents are reporting that their confidence in discussing their child’s educational progress with teachers, coun-selors and school administrators has in-creased, as has their knowledge of how to help their children participate in the public school system and prepare for college. Over 160 parents have participated in Padres Ad-elante since it was established in 2004.

Padres Adelante utilizes the Parent-School Partnership (PSP) curriculum established by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Information about the MALDEF program can be found at www.maldef.org. For those who are inter-ested in being trained in the PSP curricu-lum, periodically APEO sponsors “train-the-trainers” workshops. Our next training is scheduled for May 28-June 2, 2006 and will be held at La Casa de la Raza in down-town Santa Barbara. Padres Adelante is supported through funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Verizon Family Literacy Foundation.

For more information about the Padres Adelante program please contact Eugenia Ambrocio at [email protected] or (805) 893-3105.

For more information about the Santa Barbara Pathways program, please contact Claudia Martinez, Associate Director, APEO at [email protected] or (805) 893-3105.

Assemblymember Pedro Nava at special recoginition event for Padres Adelante honorees.

Pathways students from Dos Pueblos High School enjoy a free moment with Silvina Pereira, DPHS counselor, and teacher, Allyson Giampietro.

10th grade Santa Barbara Pathways students mentor Jumpstart students at Isla Vista Elementary School.



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In fall 2005, CA ENLACE helped to sponsor a new grants initiative as one of its first activities to sup-port emerging, regional P-20 collaborations and initiatives that address educational achievement gaps throughout the state. Known as ARCHES, the Alliance for Regional Collaborations to Heighten Educational Success, this program is a joint initia-tive of the California Academic Partnership Program (CAPP) and the California Education Round Table/In-tersegmental Coordinating Committee. Information about ARCHES can be found at http://www.arches-cal.org/.

On March 17-18 at UCSB, CA ENLACE hosted a Family/Community Networking and Best Prac-tices Workshop. Leading policy organizations, parent-led community groups and researchers came together for those two days to share their most ef-fective strategies for increasing parent involvement in schools. Representatives from the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), Padres Promotores (Santa Ana ENLACE Partnership), Padres Adelante (UCSB ENLACE Pathways Partnership), and the Boyle Heights Learning Center among others, formed a statewide network of organizations that hopes to increase funding for parental involvement programs and to engage policymakers in supporting this work. Later this year, the network plans to sponsor a Family-Community Leadership Institute that will feature workshops aimed at leadership skills-build-ing for parents and community leaders who want to improved college-going rates among underrepre-sented students.

For information about CA ENLACE and upcoming activities, please contact Claudia Martinez in the Office of Academic Prepara-tion and Equal Opportunity at [email protected] or (805) 893-3105.

New Program Supports Local American Indian Students

The Chumash Scholars Program is a new initia-tive launched this year by the Office of Academic Prepa-ration and Equal Opportunity to address the educational achievement needs of primarily American Indian students living in Santa Barbara County. The goal of the program is to expand educational opportunities for students and their families and to increase college-going rates for American Indian students to attend UCSB or other colleges and uni-versities. Students participating in the Chumash Scholars Program will receive intensive academic support, includ-ing tutoring, mentoring, and access to college prepara-tion and summer academic programs and services.

According to Leslie Koda, the program’s Project Director, “Parents and guardians will also be invited to workshops, campus events, and other activities designed to empow-er and increase their understanding of how to help their child develop his/her own pathway to college. This way, the program will engage the whole family and showcase exciting educational opportunities offered by UCSB.” She has begun to recruit the first cohort of elementary, middle, and high school students and to create awareness within the local community about the benefits of the program. The Chumash Scholars Program is supported in part with a grant from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.

10 Meet the Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity

Shown: Joseph I. Castro (Executive Director), Shubra Agrawal (Staff Analyst),

Suzanne Oliver (Development Director), Lisa Figueroa (Graduate Student Researcher),

Claudia Martinez (Associate Director), Veronica Carlos (Program Analyst), Claudia

Cox (Program/Development Assistant), Mirian Gutierrez (Student Assistant), Melissa

Kwon (Graduate Student Researcher), and Amy Omoregie (Faculty Analyst).

Not shown: Leslie Koda (Project Director), Joe Bishop (Graduate Student

Researcher), Frances Correa (Student Assistant), and Olivia Lee (Student Assistant).

Graciela Fernandez, Padres Adelante coordinator and graduate student, Jeanett Castellanos, Director of the Academic Resource Center at UC Irvine, and Richard Durán, Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education attend the CA ENLACE Family and Community Networking workshop in March at UCSB.

For more information about the program, please contact Leslie Koda, Program Director, at [email protected] or (805) 893-6012.

Students participating in the Chumash Scholars Program will engage in a variety of academic preparation programs similar to those shown above.


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Kellogg Foundation

Documents

Project Excel APLC Pathways to College · In its first year, Project Excel has moved steadily toward being fully operational. Over the summer, we selected our first cohort of 27 students