Institution California State University-East Bay State California Academic Level Baccalaureate Issue Area Transfer Website http://www.csueastbay.edu/ganas Key Personnel Gerardo Ureno Sotelo Program Focus First Year Support, Learning Community Overview GANAS is an innovative access and retention program at Cal State East Bay that targets and serves newly arrived community college transfer students. The GANAS model offers integrated academic and cultural approaches that welcome and socialize new transfer students while increasing their confidence, engagement, resiliency, academic success, persistence, and, ultimately, baccalaureate degree attainment rates. GANAS is open to all students. It provides a supportive environment that focuses on Latina/o and multicultural content. Program Description GANAS is an access and retention program that aims to smooth the process of transition for Latino community college transfer students and increase baccalaureate degree attainment for program participants. Once students successfully transfer to Cal State East Bay, they participate in a 1-year cohort-based learning community that is paired with a success seminar, intrusive academic counseling, and peer mentoring. Their cohort model establishes a sense of familia among its members and builds their academic and social support networks. By completing the required GANAS courses, students fulfill their upper division GE requirements. The courses focus on themes related to Latino identity, use innovative pedagogy, and three of the four courses are taught by Latino professors. During the program’s investigative phase, Latino faculty and staff met over a 2-year period to study disparities in Latino students’ retention and graduation rates and conducted literature reviews on promising practices. Beyond the first-year there is continued advising, graduate school exploration, and community support Outcome GANAS' 1-year persistence rate is 96%, compared to 86% of non-GANAS transfer students. The graduation rates of transfer students who take part in GANAS is 78% in 3 years, compared to 66% for overall transfer students. GANAS students' graduation rates for 4-years is 90% and 91% for 5-years. GANAS students graduate at a faster rate, within 1 to 2 years compared to non-GANAS students. Learn more about Latino College Completion in California Return to Growing What Works Database
