We are the flagship program.
We were the first in the nation to begin developing a compre-hensive
program that addresses this need. We have the longest history,
and we also have made the most mistakes [laughs]. Therefore,
my role in working with groups like the Council of Colleges
– a group of nine programs in Orange County like ours
– is to help them learn; show them different partner-ships
that need to be developed; the different types of interac-tions
you need to provide for your students; how to educate your
university or community college environment. To share our
history and what we’ve learned.
We’ve received a great deal of national attention.
The Washing- ton Education Foundation visited last year and
saw that we have great retention and graduation rates and
wondered how they can make that hap-pen in the state of Washington.
Representatives from several colleges in Washington came down,
including Washington State, to check us out.
Casey Family Services in Balti-more and the Annie E. Casey
Foundation in Washington came to look at our model. The Lumina
Foundation in Indianapolis – born out of Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac – is starting a program, as is Ball
State. Nationally, I’ve shared this model at the It’s
My Life Conference in Austin, Texas.
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