Access

The Transitional Bilingual Learning Community (TBLC) program is a two-semester, full-time college credit initiative, which has become an effective mechanism for recruiting and serving nontraditional Latino students. TBLC offers Latino students who are learning English an opportunity to earn more college credits than are usually available to them in a traditional program. Unlike other programs at Truman (GED, Adult Learning, ESL), TBLC students receive college credit for the majority of the courses taken while enrolled in the TBLC program. Except in the English class, both English and Spanish are the languages of instruction at the beginning of the program. Spanish language instruction gradually diminishes during the second semester. 

The program addresses barriers to college transition and retention by maximizing access to student services. This innovative model begins to provide the full complement of college student services to high school seniors at participating high schools during the regular school day and then provides ongoing support to students through community college to the completion of the baccalaureate degree. A one-stop, case management counseling approach ensures that students and their families develop a long-term relationship with their assigned counselor. 

Pathway was first implemented in fall 2005.  Since its inception, the program has grown from 14 high schools in two school systems to 30 high schools in four school systems.  In 2008-2009, over 2,800 students will participate in Pathway, with nearly 45% of those students identifying themselves as Latino or biracial/Latino.  Over 93% of Pathway students meet one or more U.S. Department of Education "at-risk" criteria, including students with disabilities, immigrants or children of immigrants, minorities, first-generation college-goers, students from low-income and single parent households, and wards of the state.

The Medical Professions Institute is the center on campus for students who wish to pursue postgraduate studies at medical, dental, veterinary, physician assistant, or optometry school. It provides a wide range of services to some 500 advisees, with outreach to several hundred more area youth. Services include junior high, high school, and community college outreach, academic support and advising, professional development, MCAT preparation, community service, personal growth, and leadership.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature funded a program at the University of Florida College of Dentistry with support from the Florida Board of Dentistry, Department of Professional Regulation, and the Florida Dental Association, to address the need in the State for educating foreign-born and -trained dentists who had legally immigrated to Florida with the knowledge and skills of U.S. graduates of accredited dental school in order to qualify for state dental licensure. 84% of the 160 program graduates have been Latino.

The two-year highly competitive program has enrolled 12 candidates per year. Their average GPA has been 3.44, and they have all successfully completed both Part I and Part II of the National Board examinations (prerequisites for state dental licensure in the United States). The first year of preclinical and clinical training occurs in Gainesville at the College of Dentistry. During the second, clinical year, the majority of the students train at the dental clinic in Hialeah in Dade County, a community facility that provides dental care to a largely Latino population.