PUENTE PROJECT

Creating Leaders for California's Future

PUENTE PROJECT HISTORY
The Co–directors, Felix Galaviz and Patricia McGrath at Chabot College in Hayward, founded Puente in 1981. The program mission was to increase the number of Mexican American/Latino students transferring to four–year colleges and universities. Since then, Puente has expanded to over 50 community colleges throughout the State. As an outgrowth of its success as a community college program, Puente high school programs were added throughout the State in 1993.

Puente is open to all students.

THE PUENTE PROGRAM
Puente provides three areas of service to students to help them transfer to a four year institution:

• ENGLISH INSTRUCTION
  Puente students take two consecutive writing classes, English A and English IA. These classes provide a supportive and stimulating environment for Puente students to build confidence in their writing skills through an exploration of the Mexican American/Latino experience.
• COUNSELING
  Puente students work closely with their Puente counselor until they graduate, exploring career options, developing an academic educational plan and identifying lifetime goals. Students visit University of California and California State University campuses and attend Puente student transfer conferences
• MENTORS
  Each Puente student is matched with a mentor from the business or professional community. Mentors share with students their personal, academic and career experiences, and provide a window into "real life" work environments. The network of trained Puente mentors provides many resources for the Puente students, their families, colleges and the community.

Maribel Hernandez, Co-coordinator (310) 660-3593 x3638
Email: mhernandez@elcamino.edu

Loretta Ramirez, Co-coordinator (310) 660- 3593 x3638
Email: ProfLRamirez@aol.com