HISTORY

PUENTE STATEWIDE

Puente was founded in 1981 by Felix Galaviz and Patricia McGrath at Chabot College in Hayward, CA. The program was launched as a grassroots initiative to address the low rate of academic achievement among Mexican-American and Latinx students. In an effort to understand the possible causes of this high dropout rate, Galaviz and McGrath reviewed over 2,000 student transcripts.

They discovered three key patterns among Latinx students:

  1. Students were avoiding academic counseling

  2. Students were not enrolling in college-level writing courses

  3. Students were the first in their families to attend college


The Puente model that McGrath and Galaviz designed to address these three problems comprised three components: rigorous language arts instruction, sustained academic counseling, and mentoring by members of the community. After an initial pilot of the program proved highly successful, the program was replicated in three additional community colleges. To date, the community college program has expanded to be nationwide, serving students all over California, Washington and Texas.


OUTSTANDING RESULTS:

  • Over 6,000 students have enrolled in the Puente community college program.

  • The number of transfers to four-year college or university continues to increase: 573 PUENTE Community College participants transferred in 2009 compared to 397 in 2001, approximately a 44% increase

  • In 2009–10, the transfer rate of PUENTE participants was 56%, compared to 44% for all CCC students and 34% of educationally disadvantaged students.