A partnership between Pasadena City College and UCLA is paying dividends for community college students who hope to transfer

Pasadena City College and the UCLA Center for Community College Partnerships are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of an innovative collaboration that has helped more than a thousand community college students transfer and earn a university degree. 

At a gathering held Wednesday on the campus of PCC, students, faculty, staff, and elected officials reflected on the program’s success in creating a smooth pathway from community college to four-year universities and colleges.   

“So today isn't just a celebration of 10 years; it's a celebration of every student who walked this journey and got the support they needed to reach their academic and professional goals,” said José A. Gómez, president of PCC, speaking to about 150 students, faculty and staff gathered in Westerbeck Recital Hall. 

The event shined a light on the transfer process, and the experiences of community college students who aspire to continue their education at a university. The UCLA Center for Community Partnerships grew out of a recognition at UCLA that “if we are serious about educational access, we have to be serious about community college transfer,” said UCLA’s Associate Vice Provost for Student Diversity Jonli Tunstall. Tunstall is also the director of the Academic Advancement Program.

The transfer process can be complicated and difficult for community college students. Without coordinated support, students can easily become lost and never fully realize their potential. With guidance that begins while they are at the community college, those same students can be prepared to be admitted to and earn a degree from UCLA.   

“We cannot simply wait for students from the community [colleges] to find their way to UCLA,” Tunstall said. “We have to build pathways. We have to share information, demystify the transfer process, remove barriers, hold the university accountable to become a place that has a transfer receptive culture. And work alongside community colleges that work to educate and to prepare extraordinary students.“ 

UCLA’s center began 25 years ago and partners with community colleges across the state. Its longest relationship is with Pasadena City College. The Transfer Center at PCC is headed by Associate Dean Tameka Alexander and works with UCLA’s CCCP program headed by Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Partnerships Claudia Salcedo.  

Congresswoman Judy Chu, Assemblymember John Harabedian, and Councilmember Jason Lyon–who represent PCC in their respective governing bodies–were on hand to congratulate and thank the two institutions for their successful partnership and their commitment. 

“This work is vital because we all know that higher education is the pathway to success,” said Chu, who was a community college professor for 20 years and is an alumna of UCLA.  

As a community college instructor, she witnessed firsthand students whose life trajectories were changed through education. “Many of my students were from low income households, or were the first in their families to go to college…. some had very difficult journeys,” she said.   
  
Lyon thanked UCLA and PCC and called the college a jewel of the state’s community college system because of its success in transferring students. No college transfers more students to the CSU and UC systems than PCC.  

“PCC is not only number one in transfers in the state, but it has been for years on end,” Lyon said. “Now it is the premier community college in Southern California and I’m so proud to be associated with it.” 

A highlight of the celebration was the stories of Yazmin Gonzalez and Tristin Fowler. Both started their education journey at PCC, participated in CCCP, and were admitted to and graduated from UCLA. Both are now doctoral candidates. Each praised the collaboration for its role in their success. 

Before her 18th birthday, Gonzalez had become, in some eyes, a statistic: a mother, a recent immigrant, a low-wage worker, she said. She was a student at PCC when she had a “meeting that single-handedly shifted my trajectory.” 

Through CCCP’s Saturday academies, mentoring, and many other activities, she found her views of herself and her possibilities changing.  

 “UCLA began to shift in my imagination from a place that belonged to others, to a place where I could belong,” Gonzalez said. “Faculty challenged me intellectually. Peer mentors showed me what was possible. Counselors and staff helped me navigate systems that I did not understand.  And the community recognized in me what I had not fully recognized in myself.” 

Gonzalez now serves as the director of programs for student success within the division of engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology.

Fowler credited PCC and UCLA’s CCCP for contributing to his transformation through education. One of his greatest accomplishments, he said, was coming home to PCC where he now works as a full-time counselor and instructor. 

“I once needed someone to show me the way forward,” Fowler said. “Now I get to do that for others.” 

His success was possible because people at PCC and UCLA believed in him, and invested time, energy, and focus to help guide him on a journey that could have left him wandering and lost. 

“Twenty-five years of CCCP represents thousands of moments just like this—a conversation, an application. A campus visit. A student who begins to see themselves a little bit differently. One person investing in another person. And that investment keeps moving.”

In the evening, following the celebration, Alexander of PCC and Salcedo of UCLA spoke before the PCC Board of Trustees describing the program and its impact on students. At PCC, the Transfer Center is a strategic hub connecting a transfer ecosystem across the campus that encourages and supports students who are transferring.   

“Every college provides transfer services,” Alexander said. “What distinguishes PCC is the scale, intentionality, and coordination of our work…We make the process easier and bring support directly to them.”  

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Since its founding over 100 years ago, Pasadena City College (pasadena.edu) has been a beacon of higher education for residents of the West San Gabriel Valley. Today, PCC educates more than 22,000 students in a wide range of programs for degrees and job-training certificates. The college is a three-time Aspen Institute Top Ten Community College and consistently leads the state for transfer to the UC and CSU systems, as well as public and private universities around the nation.