Through a recent allocation of federal grants from the Developing Hispanic-serving Institutions Program, Santa Barbara City College received $511,338 and Allan Hancock College received $469,872.
The grants are designed to expand and enhance the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of colleges and universities that have an undergraduate full-time equivalent enrollment of at least 25 percent Hispanic students.
Hancock will be using the grant to help create a virtual science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program for remote advising and online tutoring, faculty training opportunities, and increased access to academic support through technology. At SBCC, the funds will be used to develop paths that lead to an associate degree and/or student transfer to a four-year institution within two years for full-time students and three years for part-time students.
The award comes at a perfect time for Hancock, its students, and the region, Superintendent/President Kevin Walthers said in the release.
“It will allow us to devote significant resources to streamlining the pathway from basic skills to transfer-level courses,” Walthers said. “It will also allow us to integrate the college’s resource development components to ensure support for underserved students and change the odds of them meeting their educational goals.”
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2014.