2007 Recipients

Associate Level: Enlace Program at Evergreen Valley College, San Jose, California (View PDF)

Richard Regua, Enlace Chair

The Enlace Program, which began in 1983, is composed of a team of college staff and community mentors with the mission of helping Chicano/Latino students succeed. Enlace is an academic program supported by counseling, tutoring, community mentoring, and student organizations. Enlace serves underrepresented Chicano/Latino students of San Jose and nearby communities. The mission of the Enlace Program is to enable Chicano/Latino students to successfully complete the academic core (English, Math, and Science) and to guide Chicano/Latino students effectively through transfer and occupational courses in a timely manner.

Baccalaureate Level: Compact for Success, San Diego State University and Sweetwater Union School District San Diego, California (View PDF)

Dr. Lou Murillo, Director

The goal of the program is to provide education reform that would involve the teachers of SUHSD to work with the faculty at SDSU to examine the rigor and alignment of math and English course offerings and to design a school curriculum that would be directly related to the A through G requirements for college admissions. In effect, the Compact for Success Program focused on Five Benchmarks:

• Maintain a 3.00 GPA through the senior year of high school
• Complete all of the A-G course requirements
• Must have been enrolled in the SUHSD since the 9th grade
• Satisfy both the ELM and EPT placement tests
• Take SAT or ACT exam

The initial contact with the SUHSD student is made at the seventh grade. Students are informed about the requirements that need to be met in order to be admitted to a CSU or University of California campus.

Over the past seven years, the University has worked extensively with the Sweetwater District to plan and host signature events and outreach activities, facilitate faculty-to-faculty collaboration for teachers and counselors, and design a program that would utilize the best resources that each institution has to offer to support students on the road to higher education. The Compact for Success has successfully been implemented in all of the eleven high schools in the district. In addition, all the junior and middle school have also been fully involved.

Graduate Level: Psychological Services for Spanish Speaking Populations Department of Psychology, Our Lady of the Lake University San Antonio, Texas (View PDF)

Dr. Monte Bobele, Professor and PsyD Training Director

The Psychological Services for Spanish Speaking Populations Program (PSSSP) was implemented in 1997 as an optional specialization for students in the MS in Psychology and Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) programs or as a postgraduate certificate program. Courses added to the curriculum for the PSSSP program included: a technical Spanish course taught by a faculty member from the Spanish Department, Language and Psychosocial Variables in Interviews and Assessments with Latinos, Sociocultural Foundations of Counseling Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Two courses that are required for all PsyD students, Normal Family Processes Across Cultures & Latino Psychology are also required for M.S. and postgraduate students enrolled in the PSSSP certificate program. In addition, students must spend a minimum of 8 hours per week at a bilingual practicum site for four consecutive semesters, including one semester of supervised supervision of Spanish language service (PsyD students only). Optional practica in México or other Spanish speaking countries are available.

Prior to development of the PSSSP, 18% of students admitted to the Psy.D. program were Hispanic. Since offering the program 42% of students admitted have been Hispanic. (Hispanics comprised only 6% of incoming doctoral students in Psychogy in 2002-03, the most recent data available from the American Psychological Association.) The implementation of the PSSSP program has focused faculty and student research and scholarship on topics related to the Spanish language services and training bilingual students. Faculty and students have published two articles in refereed journals, have two additional manuscripts submitted for publications, and presented 13 papers or workshops at professional meetings regarding our training model. The program has also generated five doctoral dissertations.