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.

PUENTE STUDENTS

Succeed academically Are recognized as leaders and scholars Graduate from four–year colleges and universities Belong to a statewide network of leaders and professionals

THE PUENTE PROGRAM
Many components work together to prepare Puente students to transfer to four–year colleges and universities:

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.

OUTSTANDING RESULTS

Over 5,500 students have enrolled in the Puente community college program. Over 2,000 professionals donate over 18,000 hours annually to Puente students. An estimated 200,000 non–Puente students have benefited from Puente’s staff development programs. Community colleges with Puente programs transfer 44 percent more Latino students to the University of California than colleges without the Puente Program.

For more information, please call:
Griselda Castro, Co–coordinator (310) 660–3638
Email:  gcastro@elcamino.edu

Barbara Jaffe, Co–coordinator (310) 660–3627
Email:  cooblet@aol.com