SEMILLAS

An electronic student referral system, SCORE ensures access to advising and other free student resources such as referrals to peer mentoring services, tutors and specialists who are trained to provide academic skills support for first-year and first generation students. SCORE will facilitate connecting the identified students with the resources, paperwork, or personnel in order to enhance student retention and academic longevity.

The University aspires to increase students' grade point averages and also first to second year retention by helping students identify a clear pathway to graduation and a career/graduate program after completion of their undergraduate degree. In addition, the project will help students develop short and long term plans for their career/academic development; feel a sense of belonging and contribution to their academic discipline; cultivate relationships in their desired career for post-graduation employment connections; establish strong relationships with faculty in their academic discipline; complete experiences critical to obtaining admission to graduate school or obtaining a job after graduation.

This project is designed to build on the success of a prior pilot effort and to focus on the following: 1) Increase the number of students involved in the Southwestern College SDSU Peer Mentoring Program; expand the emphasis to include other students besides Education Opportunity Program transfer students. It is anticipated that as many as 125 students will benefit from this expanded focus. 2) Include San Diego City College in the initiative.  It is anticipated that as many as 75 students will benefit from this initiative. 3) Solicit other CSU campuses who want to investigate the feasibility of starting a Peer Counseling Program with their respective local community colleges which serve a significant number of Latino transfer students.

The University proposes to integrate services to expedite and ease the return of Latino/Latina students with 90 credits hours or more who left the university in good standing without completing a Bachelors degree. The project coordinator will evaluate students' transcripts to determine the courses to be completed for graduation and then work closely with each student to complete all necessary forms, a program of study with a timeline, register for face-to-face and/or on-line courses that meet the needs and schedule of each student, contact faculty when necessary, and essentially act as a concierge, guiding each student through graduation. The Coordinator will conduct an on-going review of transcripts and contact students every semester to determine if they are on track for their target graduation date.