“This spring — as federal prosecutors announced charges against wealthy Californians, who paid bribes to get their kids into elite universities — a poor kid from a poor California town faced her own dilemma: How could she help others go to college?
Fabiola Moreno Ruelas, an 18-year-old from the Salinas Valley town of Gonzales, was perhaps California’s most unlikely philanthropist. She had suffered much of the worst of California, from the deportation of her father, to an auto accident, to her family’s eviction from their home.Fabiola received $29,000 on her 18th birthday, she knew she didn’t want to spend it on herself.
This is a simple story about a small, new scholarship program. It’s also a timely fable about the real meaning of poverty and community, and the abundance of spirit that can spin bad luck into good. It might even be considered an updating of another Salinas Valley child, John Steinbeck, who advised: “If you’re in trouble or hurt or need—go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help—the only ones.”..”
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“…Among those dreams is to vanquish the steep decline in underrepresented groups — black, Latino and Native American students — since 1996, when voters approved Proposition 209 and stopped statefunded schools from considering ethnicity in admissions.
Before then, black students, for example, made up 7% of freshmen admitted to UC Berkeley from California. By 1998, just 3% of instate admissions went to black students. This year, the figure stood at 4%, or 391 of the 9,634 California high school seniors admitted.
Overall, 26% of California students admitted to the freshman class this year were underrepresented groups: 2,091 Latino, 391 black, and 66 Native American students, about the same as last year.
UC Berkeley is not the most selective campus in the system (UCLA is). Yet no UC campus has a lower ratio of underrepresented groups.
“I know that some members of our community feel we talk a good game about improving diversity, but haven’t backed up our words with appropriate actions,” Christ said in December as she unveiled her Undergraduate Student Diversity Project. She cited Prop. 209, but said: “We cannot and will not use that as an excuse.”
One of the project’s goals is to become a “HispanicServing Institution” within the next decade, a designation that opens the door to federal grants. But overall, the plan calls for better ways to recruit and enroll far more people of color…”
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“…More than 2 million high school graduates begin college every year. Yet only 60 percent of four-year college students finish their degree within six years, and less than 40 percent of community college students graduate or transfer to four-year institutions. UC Berkeley professor David Kirp, who details these issues in his latest book “The College Dropout Scandal,” believes colleges a…”
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“…California’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum “falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned,” said state education leaders as more ethnic organizations called for revisions Tuesday.
Earlier, the draft sparked opposition among many Jewish groups, who have been joined by organizations representing Armenians, Greeks, Hindus and Koreans in calling for changes.
The draft curriculum is being developed as state lawmakers are poised to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement in high schools.
But the draft did not meet the goals to be “accurate…”
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“California, with 39.5 million people, and Texas, with 28.3 million, are two of America’s four majority-minority states, the other two being Hawaii and New Mexico. As such, the education systems’ effectiveness in the two most diverse states that 1-in-5 Americans calls home is of vital interest to the rest of the nation.
Because of the high stakes involved in public education—student achievement as well as billions of dollars ($72.6 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent in California in 2016 and $45.9 billion in Texas) the rhetoric surrounding the issue tends to obscure facts on the ground—by design…”
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“…Assemblyman Jose Medina, who represents the district containing the UC Riverside campus and co-authored the bill, said AB 1314 would increase funding for financial aid and potentially address rising student debt.
Undergraduate students in the United States graduated with an average student debt of $28,650 in 2017, according to The Institute for College Access and Success. This is up from $12,750 in 1996.
Medina added AB 1314 addresses the total cost of attending college by covering tuition fees and nontuition costs, which the current Cal Grant system doesn’t adequately cover.
Eligibility for the Cal Grant, under the new bill, would no longer be based on GPA, age and years out of high school. Medina said this would allow nontraditional students, who don’t go to college right after high school, to have access to financial aid.
“Students today are not the same traditional students that they were 20 years ago,” Medina said. “We see more working adults, working parents, and these would be individuals who may not qualify for Cal Grants today (but) are going to school and would benefit from Cal Grants.”…”
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“…Rodolfo Hernandez is the eighth of nine siblings in his family. And on June 16, he’ll become the first among them to finish college.

That he has reached this point — graduating from UC Santa Barbara — is impressive on its own. But on top of a bachelor of arts degree in sociology, a minor in applied psychology and designs on graduate school with the GPA to get there, Hernandez will walk away with something few other students can claim: zero debt.
Hernandez is part of the first graduating cohort of UC Santa Barbara Promise Scholars — a group of high-achieving, low-income Californians selected for four-year scholarships to UC Santa Barbara in a program created by the campus that is the first of its kind in…”
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“…Ron Jimenez was not on the college track. His high school GPA was 1.5. He dropped out a week before graduation. Higher education wasn’t an option — or even a consideration.
Fast-forward nearly two decades. Jimenez, now 35 and married, is about to earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, the first in his family to graduate from college.
“I never thought in a million years that I would have any sort of degree,” he said. “I was very disenchanted with school..”
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“— The Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) at UC Santa Barbara will hold a series of UC Success Night events April 10 through May 3 to celebrate the academic success of high school seniors from the university’s EAOP partnership schools who have been admitted to the UC system.
UC-admitted seniors and their families from high schools in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Kern counties are invited to attend their respective school’s event.
The program includes a presentation of awards and of State Proclamations from local Senate and Assembly members in recognition of students’ academic achievement, and student keynote speeches will be delivered in both English and Spanish. Attendees also will have the opportunity to meet UC Santa Barbara faculty and staff members, administrators, alumni and undergraduate students, as well as network with other students and families from their hometown who may be attending the same universities in the fall.
“‘Where Preparation Meets Opportunity’ — that’s our slogan,” said Britt Ortiz, EAOP director. “UC Success Night represents every aspect of our students’ preparation for meeting opportunity when it knocks. We celebrate the success of so many first-generation students and their families for being admitted to the UC system, one of the most competitive public institutions in the country. Our EAOP students put in the time, they did the work, they made the sacrifices and we were able to help them make their educational dreams come true.”
The EAOP college site coordinators and academic services team have, according to Ortiz, “poured their hearts and souls” into helping the 2019 senior class. “They started in the summer before their senior year with the College Readiness Academy, then college applications, personal inquiry questions for the UC system, scholarship letters, FAFSA-CADA applications, extending hours for advisement or holding test preparation workshops on the weekend,” he said. “Most of our EAOP staff are first-generation college grads themselves, so helping students in our program is their passion.”
The first of seven UC Success Night events will honor Carpinteria High School students Wednesday, April 10, at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria, 4810 Foothill Rd. The Santa Paula High School event will follow Thursday, April 11 at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria, 404 N. 6th St.
The UC Success Night for Santa Maria Joint Union High School District will take place at 6 p.m. Monday, April 15, in Veterans Memorial Hall, 313 W. Tunnell St. Fillmore High School students will be recognized at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in that school’s cafeteria, 555 Central Ave. Channel Islands and Hueneme high school students and their families are invited to attend an event at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Oxnard Performing Arts…”
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