2 Colleges Team Up in Push for Degrees

Woodbury University and Los Angeles Valley College, using a five-year, $3-million federal grant, have partnered to increase the number of students earning bachelor’s degrees.

The collaboration, called Cooperative Collegiate Connections, encourages students from Valley College, a community college in Valley Glen, to transfer to Woodbury, a private, four-year university in Burbank.

Both are considered Hispanic Serving Institutions, a U.S. Department of Education designation given to colleges and universities with Latino student enrollments of 25% or more. One of the goals of the project, funded under Title V of the Higher Education Act, is to increase the number of Latinos graduating with bachelor’s degrees.

“What we really want this to be about is access,” said Don St. Clair, Woodbury University’s vice president for enrollment and management. “We want students to understand that transferring to private institutions is possible for them, affordable for them.”

Administrators from both schools will form a steering committee to determine how to spend the grant money.

Among the items to be discussed are an advertising campaign to encourage transfers, more academic advisors for students wishing to transfer and financial aid information programs.

Raul Castillo, executive director of Valley College’s nonprofit foundation, the Patrons Assn., also worked to get the grant. He said he hopes to fund a mentoring and tutoring program between the schools, online aid for transfer students and remediation courses for new students. “What this program offers is a lot of interactions between the two schools and an opportunity to be successful at both places,” Castillo said.

Several Southern California colleges have received cooperative Title V grants, including Ventura College, Cal State San Bernardino and Glendale Community College.

The Woodbury-Valley College project is to begin in the fall. St. Clair said the best part about the partnership is that “it allows us to reach these students and say, ‘Just because the seats are full at Cal State doesn’t mean they can’t attend a good school.’ ”