An effort was launched last week to help more local students attend and excel in college.
More than 75 people were on hand at Cabrillo College on Sept. 7 to watch as, with a fair amount of pageantry, education administrators from schools throughout the Monterey Bay Area inaugurated the Santa Cruz County College Commitment program, or S4C.
The program is a collaboration between the Santa Cruz County Office of Education; University of California, Santa Cruz; San Jose State University; Cabrillo College; Cal State Monterey Bay; and the assorted K-12 school districts throughout Santa Cruz County, including the San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley school districts.
The program will help schoolchildren think about college at a younger age, help them set college attendance as their goal and, ultimately, help them financially when the time comes.
The plan calls not only for field trips and giving additional college planning information to children and their families, but also for a closer partnership between grade schools and colleges to ensure students are prepared academically for a college-style environment and work load.
Many administrators were on hand to applaud the plan.
“A college education is what separates the working poor from the middle class,” said Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Dorma Baker during the ceremony.
UC Santa Cruz’s vice chancellor, Alison Galloway, said that while 3 percent of the university’s freshman student body hails from Santa Cruz County schools, a markedly higher percentage of county natives make up the transfer student population.
Students from the area, Galloway said, often serve as ambassadors to students from elsewhere who might not experience living in Santa Cruz County the same way.
San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District Superintendent Julie Haff said that the key of the program was to present a college education as a real and attainable goal.
“The goal is to get every fourth grader to (tour) a community college,” Haff said. “Waiting until they get to high school to start talking about (college) — it’s too late.”
SLV school district Trustee George Wylie also attended.
“If there’s even a small percentage of students who are turned to going to college (due to the program), then it’s a win,” he said.
The program does not seem to have any catches for schools in Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley, but will serve as a goal and commitment between local school districts and colleges.
Scotts Valley Unified School District board President Larry Beaman also lauded the efforts.
“I think this is a great opportunity,” he said. “This provides a helping hand.”
