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El Camino College Compton Center Premieres ‘First Year Experience’ Program
From staff reports
Whether
you are transitioning from high school or attending college for the
first time, meeting the challenges of this new experience is exciting
but can also be overwhelming.
El Camino College Compton Center is now offering the First Year Experience/
Learning Communities (FYE) program to assist students in succeeding in
college. FYE provides educational and career services in a supportive,
caring environment.
By participating in the FYE program, students will learn to develop
key study skills and discover options for studying in groups. They will
also have access to vital campus and college resources, and be able to
explore a chosen major, create a career plan, interact in a multicultural
environment; and learn how to access and manage electronic information
such as e-mail, the Internet and library databases.
The FYE program provides students with an in-depth orientation, access
to counselors and faculty, the opportunity to participate in learning community
courses, strategies for success, student mentors, field trips and an El
Camino College e-mail account.
To be eligible for the First Year Learning Experience/Learning Communities
program, a student must qualify through the English Placement Exam.
The pioneering program, which was launched last year on El Camino’s
Torrance campus, recently won accolades for its success in both enrolling
and graduating Hispanic students.
The results were recently released in the report, “Modeling HSIs:
Campus Practices That Work for Latino Students,” released by Excelencia
in Education, a nonprofit policy group.
The report focuses on 12 Hispanic-serving institutions in California,
New York, and Texas, and is the third in a series on Hispanic-serving institutions,
a federal designation granted if at least 25 percent of an institution’s
undergraduates are Hispanic. The successful colleges and universities demonstrated
the use many strategies, such as increasing community outreach and bolstering
academic support to help students.
At El Camino, the highly successful First Year Experience was highlighted
as a program that regularly boasts top graduation and retention rates.
Students in the First Year Experience participate in learning communities
(programs in which groups of students take multiple classes together) and
also receive help from peer and faculty mentors.
“The basic ingredients we use for student success are personalized
services, counseling, and access to faculty,” said Cynthia Mosqueda,
FYE counselor, faculty member and acting coordinator at El Camino.
“I know several graduates have come back to tell me, ‘Whenever
I have a question I know I can always get help here at FYE.’ They
might be looking for career advice, or they might need guidance in their
university
work. We are happy to offer such a great resource for so many people.”
Designed to help students be successful in their first year of college
life, the program provides a supportive environment of educational and
career services. Participating students have access to: early registration,
orientation, FYE bilingual counselor, learning community courses, strategies
for success in college, FYE faculty, field trips, and peer mentors.
One of the First Year Experience’s strategies for increased classroom
participation outlined in the report covers training faculty members in
how to correctly pronounce non-English names to make students feel welcome.
The program uses both strong leadership and savvy use of resources,
two keys to success detailed in the report.
For more information, contact Toni Wasserberger, faculty coordinator,
at (310) 900-1600, ext. 2233, or via e-mail at twasserberger@elcamino.edu.
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