Adelante GCC Title V Grant

Name: Adelante GCC: Advancing Glendale College toward HSI Excellence

Duration: 10/1/20 – 9/30/25

Amount: $3 Million ($600,000/year for 5 years)

Purpose:

Adelante GCC aims to improve student learning and completion outcomes for GCC’s Hispanic and other disproportionally impacted students by furthering Guided Pathways efforts currently underway. Specifically, working collaboratively with and building on the knowledge and experience of colleagues already serving students in Instructional and Student Services, the grant aims to:

• develop a first-year experience within the Learning and Professional Pathways to nurture a sense of belonging and ensure that students receive the information, assistance, and support they need as they adjust to college

• expand opportunities for developing personal financial literacy, for exploring careers, and for work-based learning that meaningfully connect students’ academic experiences to career aspirations 

• improve student access to individualized and responsive support services tailored to address specific barriers and exit points 

• advance campus-wide efforts to increase student outcomes and close equity gaps 

• support professional development efforts to increase diversity among the faculty, cultural competency among faculty and staff, and the institutional practice of equity-mindedness

• through efforts listed above, boost fiscal stability under state-mandated performance-based funding (SCFF)

• bolster GCC’s identity and reputation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution through community outreach and involvement 

• help Glendale Community College become each year a more fully student-centered institution.  

Strategy #1: Culturally Responsive and Equitable Pathways to Support

Academic Access, Completion, and Career

-Clear pathways from noncredit to credit: Establish a well-designed, clear path for all stakeholders that will inform and educate students who want to move from noncredit to credit. 

 AB 540: Meet with all stakeholders to clarify/create a pathway for all students, especially Latino/a students including undocumented Latino/a students.

-With a team, host four seminars: about financial aid, moving from noncredit to credit, Canvas “getting ready to take credit classes” module, two in the fall (one on Zoom and one in-person), and two in the spring (one on Zoom and one in-person)

-Work in collaboration with a team of noncredit/credit support faculty and staff to create a “Canvas course preparing students for a “new” experience when taking credit classes and to help students learn how to advocate for themselves without fear, so they can achieve their goals.

-Promise Plus-Work with Promise Plus Counselors and Faculty Development Coordinator to design and pilot a “student check-in system” to support students at critical times in the semester, point them to services that will support success, and decrease drops and unsuccessful attempts.

-Promise Plus Faculty check-ins- Collaborate with Promise Plus Coordinator & Faculty Development Coordinator to support Promise Plus faculty throughout the semester.

-Work with the Faculty Development Coordinator to create and offer targeted various PD: about what it means to students and faculty to be a Transforming HSI.

-Support and participate in Team Internships: assisting with recruiting Latino students, supporting the instructor, and assisting with the final Team Internship event.

Strategy #2: Ensuring a Sense of Belonging and Well-being

-Platicas-Pláticas are unstructured conversations we have with friends, families, colleagues, mentors, and mentees in which we engage in every two weeks/ monthly for check-ins, advice, or different perspectives on a situation. These conversations may lead to laughs, tears, eye-opening perspectives, frustrations, and moments of clarity, but are definitely meaningful conversations where change can occur, and new knowledge is created. These unstructured pláticas are rooted in Chicana/o/x/Latina/o/x oral traditions of passing knowledge from another and self-discovery through these community conversations. Even though pláticas do not have a structure in which the conversations occur, there are important aspects that outline a Chicana/Latina methodological praxis. These five aspects of pláticas are to (1) view and honor participants as co-constructors of knowledge; (2) incorporate everyday lived experiences; (3) are two-directional and based on reciprocity, vulnerability, reflexivity (4) provide potential space for healing; and (5) draw heavily from Chicana/Latina Feminist Theory (Flores & Morales, 2021).

-Monthly student meetups. Work with one or two students to design student-led and driven meetups during the college hour. Thinking about interesting debate-like topics and games to begin. These meetups will attempt to enhance student belonging, break down cultural barriers, and connect students through similar likes and interests to address equity, justice, and liberation.

 

-Tap on the Shoulder Initiative emphasizes getting to know others, spotting skills or talents in others, and encouraging/inviting them to step out of their comfort zone and participate in a program, project, etc. This includes faculty, staff, and students. This initiative uses the construct of self-esteem to enhance a person’s social identity perspective, widen the circle,  and increase the overall contribution to the college and a sense of belonging for all. Tangentially, TAP can begin to break down silos and increase cross-campus collaboration and lead people to the creative spaces identified in the goal called Cultivating what it means to be a transforming HSI. Inviting new voices and perspectives to the table to foster harmonious environments where people can use their best thinking.

-HSI Collaborative: Establish a group of staff, faculty, administrators, and students that will meet at least each semester to provide guidance on HSI initiatives and activities.

-Puentes al Futuro: An annual Latino family outreach event to the community that invites families to visit GCC to learn about academic programs, financial assistance, and connect with a variety of student services.

Strategy #3: Cultivating What It Means to Be a Transforming HSI at GCC

-Raise awareness about what it means to be a “Transforming HSI: and how that should be seen in word and action across the GCC campus community which includes administrators, faculty, staff, students, and community. To accomplish this goal an HSI Newsletter will be written and shared with the GCC community. The newsletter will include information about what it means to be an HSI, faculty, and student highlights, and important information as it relates to the OHSI.

-The ONE book chosen for this year focuses on first-generation students. The book is First Gen by Alejandra Campo Verde. A first gen corner and celebration will take place in the library at the beginning of the Fall semester.

-Work with the Professional Development Coordinators to design professional development (PD) for faculty about the importance of asset-based teaching to uncover, cultivate, and empower Latino/students’ strengths and uniqueness. Evaluate and reimagine the Equity Minded Certificate, and create and offer more culturally responsive PD related to the themes and topics of a Transforming HSI.

-Identify spaces for teachers, lab techs, and classified staff to explore, tinker, design, and make. A place where teachers can co-create, perhaps across disciplines, and collaborate informally and continuously to enhance instruction and assessment.

-HSI Student Advisory Board:  Coordinate within the Office of Hispanic-Serving Initiatives to establish a much-needed HSI student advisory council to develop Latino/student leadership, and ensure Latino/student voice and participation in addressing matters of equity, justice, and liberation.

-Equity Amplified Mentor Program- Work with a team to coordinate the second year of a mentoring program for all employees, especially underrepresented individuals, who want to advance in their careers.

-Latino/a student outreach. Expand outreach to Latino/a students and their families by designing and presenting a “Benefits of a Community College” marketing tool at Catholic and Private schools. Understanding that choosing a post-secondary institution includes the parents; therefore, Latino/a and parents of marginalized and underserved students must have the correct information about financial aid, transfer, certificate, and degree options, as well as information about enrolling parents and extended family members.

-Work with the BIEN IN STEM Activity Director: to coordinate a field trip with GALA and other schools to invite students on campus.

Meet the team!

Hassina Baharloo, First-Year Experience Developer/Counselor
Silvana Carrion-Palomares, Interim Project Director 
Leticia Estrada, Project Assistant
Alice Martinez, Activity Director 
Cynthia Vazquez-Gonzalez, Persistence Counselor