Dates: October 1, 2019 — June 30, 2024

Award Amount: $600,000/yr

The Abriendo Caminos grant intentionally centers Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x students and their intersectional experiences in the design and scaling of Guided Pathways at PCC.

The Abriendo Caminos Grant will:

  • bring Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x and other underserved students into PCC through an engaging, dynamic, and accessible intake process
  • create Career Communities that are hubs of exploration and empowerment for Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x students and their peers
  • provide the degree maps and predictable schedules needed to clearly identify a timely path to completion
  • redesign gateway courses through an equity-minded lens with a focus on culturally sustaining pedagogy; and
  • deploy technology that keeps students connected and supported through their journey.

Abriendo Caminos

Project Goals

  1. Academic Programs: Develop and implement a coordinated campus-wide initiative that reflects an institutional priority and commitment to equitable degree completion through a learner-centered and integrated model of instruction and support.
  2. Institutional Management: Build and foster an educational ecosystem focused on realizing a new equity-minded vision of institutional operations through a coordinated care approach to student support that eliminates barriers to success.
  3. Fiscal Stability: Increase student outcomes and close equity gaps to ensure alignment with state-mandated performance-based funding focused on student equity and student success.

Competitive Preference Priority 2: This project will support students’ personal financial literacy through an evidence-based holistic approach addressing the entire student experience. 

Project Objectives

By Sept. 30, 2024, PCC will increase: 

  1. Access: Increase proportion of students completing the following critical onboarding steps: Financial Aid Application, Orientation, Student Educational Plan 
  2. 1-Year Transfer-Level Math & English Completion: Increase the proportion of students completing transfer-level math and English in their first year and close the equity gap
  3. Persistence: Increase the fall-to-spring persistence rate  
  4. Excess Units: Decrease the average number of excess units at degree completion among degree earners
  5. Completion: Increase the State-defined Scorecard completion rate and close the completion equity gap 

Personnel

  1. Project Director – Carlos "Tito" Altamirano
  2. Project Assistant– Wendy Snyder
  3. Strategy 1 Developer-Guided Entry Student Success Team Lead – Desiree Zuniga
  4. Strategy 2 Developer-Gateway Course Experience Developer  – Dr. Cristina Salazar Romo