MISSION VIEJO : Program to Benefit Junior High Students

Saddleback College recently won a $132,000, three-year grant from the Philip Morris Co. to create a special program for local junior high school students who face a higher risk of dropping out of school.

Officials will use the grant, the second-largest ever awarded the college, to create the “Early Start Program” for primarily low-income, Latino students at Marco F. Forster Middle School in San Juan Capistrano, said Juanita Baltierra, coordinator of the college’s Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS).

The program, which is expected to start this spring, will involve the students and their parents in bilingual workshops that stress the importance of higher education and the importance of parental involvement in the educational process, Baltierra said.

“In our past EOPS outreach activities, we were always disappointed and concerned to find that the number of Latino students graduating from high school was not where it needed to be,” Baltierra said. “We realized that the middle school was a crucial turning point for many students and especially for disadvantaged Latino students.”

Baltierra said she also plans on getting Latino college students involved in peer tutoring with the middle school students.

Although the college has worked with the middle school in the past, this will be the first formal college-bound program targeting middle school students, Baltierra added.

Marco Forster Principal Patricia Boettcher said about 25% of the 1,200 seventh- and eighth-grade students at the school speak limited English and might qualify to participate in the voluntary program.

“I think we’re realizing that kids need to start making some decisions earlier,” Boettcher said. “Many of the kids, especially in this high-risk group, don’t even think college is in their future. I think they need to know it is.”

Saddleback College was one of 10 community colleges and universities in the country to receive a grant from Philip Morris as part of its “Strengthening the Bridge” program. A total of 232 colleges from 30 states were in competition for the grants. Saddleback College is the only community college in the state to receive a grant.