Outreach essential for high-schoolers

Last April, 30 Santa Monica high school students eagerly awaited
the arrival of their UCLA peer advisers and tutors. This was no
ordinary morning because on this day they would visit UCLA to
shadow their college role models. For most of these students it was
their first and perhaps only visit to a college campus. Sadly, many
of these students lacked adequate support to graduate from high
school and be prepared for college.

This field trip was only one of the many programs that the
Xinachtli high school outreach program offers to over 300 high
school students in Santa Monica and Venice who do not have the
grades, classes or resources needed to be admitted into college
upon graduation. Xinachtli is one of seven student-initiated,
partially student-funded and student-operated programs in the
Student Initiated Outreach Center at UCLA.

With over 860 students who benefit from the SIOC’s
projects, many were not even able to consider college as an option
when Xinachtli began working with them.

Most of these students do not consider going to college because
their high schools place them in rigid vocational or remedial
tracks that deny them the opportunities they need to be prepared
for college upon graduation.

Through these outreach programs, Xinachtli attempts to open the
eyes of our students to new possibilities while encouraging higher
education. SIOC programs offer students a variety of services their
high schools do not provide them, including mentors, homework
assistance, leadership development, academic workshops and
educational field trips. The uniqueness of these programs lies in
the fact that they go above and beyond traditional academic support
and rely on students to help other students.

Although outreach cannot compensate for the lack of resources
that California’s K-12 system gives to its pupils, without
outreach, a whole generation of students may never think they can
attend college and crystallize their potential.

Unfortunately, the governor’s current budget proposal will
eliminate funding for outreach programs that offer students the
positive role models, academic planning and personal attention
needed to become prepared for college. Additionally, the
governor’s proposed budget will eliminate more resources in
the K-12 system, thus placing even more students outside the
“college track.”

For many of the students who had the opportunity to visit UCLA
that April morning, college did not seem like a realistic option.
Outreach is meant to restore hope and guide these students toward a
future they never envisioned.

Do not sit idly while the future of California’s
underserved students goes to waste. Support outreach and the
message it brings to California’s students. If outreach goes,
you may be denying students positive role models who will steer
them toward success.

Eric Barba is a second-year political science and history
student.