Transfer programs offer students chance at a UC

By Graciela Sandoval
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]

  ED LIN/DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF

Lafayette Blankenship hugs Lester
Baron, SITE Math and Science transfer program mentor,
goodbye. “Helping people leaves a mark in my life,”
Baron said.

On July 19 Lafayette Blankenship thanked her teachers, mentors,
family and friends for empowering her to accomplish her dreams and
for being excellent role models.

Blankenship, a senior at Jordan High School in South Gate, will
be the first person in her family to graduate from high school and
the first to go to college.

But she was not giving a graduation speech.

Blankenship completed the Summer Intensive Transfer Experience
Math and Science program, a six-day intensive program at UCLA,
which guides high school students interested in physical and
biological sciences on how to transfer to a University of
California campus through workshops, mentoring and research
projects.

This summer over 200 high school and community college students
from all over Southern California will partake in SITE, SITE Math
and Science, and the Summer Immersion Program hosted by
UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships.

“The purpose of the programs is to provide the students
the opportunities and resources to ensure that they have access to
a university like UCLA,” said CCCP Director Alfred
Herrera.

Since 1999, the SITE program has encouraged over 1,000 high
school and city college students to pursue higher education.

“Only by being educated and getting into key positions can
you make a change and can society have a different view of
“˜under-represented people’,” said Lestor Baron, a
participant in the first SITE program in 1999, who this year was a
SITE Math and Science mentor.

Lestor transferred to UCLA from West Los Angeles City College.
Most of the mentors, like Baron, are transfer UCLA students who
want to give back to their communities.

  ED LIN/DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF

Director of the Center for Community College Partnerships
Alfred Herrera tells students, “We need you
to succeed and believe in yourselves.”

“It really put me on track. I knew what I wanted to do
generally but SITE helped me see the route I had to take. It was
really impacted, really intense, but it was good. It takes you step
by step,” Lestor said.

Over the course of the programs, the students live with their
mentors while researching universities and areas of study in which
they are interested.

“It’s a wonderful experience to live in the dorms.
It gives us the opportunity to meet a lot of new people,”
said Roosevelt High School senior Mayra Caldera who was a part of
SITE Math and Science 2002.

“As mentors we build a network and friendships that are
going to last for life. We have a passion for what we do,”
said Susana Campo-Contreras, a mentor for the SIP program, a
16-day, three-unit course collaboration with East Los Angeles
College, West Los Angeles College and the Youth Opportunity
Movement.

Campo-Contreras immigrated from Guatemala when she was eleven,
and later transferred from Santa Monica City College and graduated
from UCLA this June. Campo-Contreras feels that the barriers she
has overcome have made her a strong and determined person, which is
what she teaches the students she mentors.

“The lack of information and the lack of good, competent
counselors is the biggest challenge a community college student has
to go through to go to a four year college,” Campo-Contreras
said.

Many of the students who participated in the transfer programs
said they were told by school administrators they could never make
it to a UC.

Before entering the SITE 2000 program, Jonathan Joseph
Muñoz said he was planning to take his counselor’s
suggestion and take some time off of school.

“That’s when everybody, especially my mentor
(María Lucero Ortiz), encouraged me not to give up. They made
me believe in myself when I was at a point where I didn’t
believe in myself. It was eye opening to see there are so many
opportunities out here,” said Muñoz, who now volunteers
with CCCP.

“What we try to get across is that you need to be your own
advocate and that education is what you make of it,” said
Ortiz, SITE mentor.

Blankenship’s wish to see her father in the audience of
proud parents as she received her high school diploma was shattered
when her father died a few years ago. Blankenship wanted to drop
out of school but her mother encouraged her to follow her dream to
the end.

“It’s too much pressure. But I try my best to go to
school. My goal is to walk across the high school stage just to say
I did it,” Blankenship said.

Students who did not attend UCLA after high school have found
encouragement in being part of the outreach programs.

“Anyone can do it, anyone who has the ganas can do
it,” said Omar Oliva, SITE Math and Science 2002
participant.

Even though the SITE and SIP programs will end this summer,
mentorship and the support system continue during the year.
Programs such as MEChA Calmécac, the Pilipino Transfer Student
Program and the Student Transfer Outreach Mentorship Program enable
UCLA students to help each other, said Lestor Baron.

“Outreach never stops,” he said.

For more information about transfer programs at UCLA visit
http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr.htm