University initiatives encourage more students to choose ASU

By Gini Sater

Today, a bachelor’s degree has more value than ever before. But for many students, particularly in Arizona, the dream of earning a college degree is also met with the challenging reality of preparing academically and financially for college. Working with students via several new programs, ASU staff members are easing barriers students may face in preparing for their college experience, helping ASU achieve its goal of being a high quality institution that is also uncommonly accessible.

Antonia Franco leaves the Tolleson High School campus after a busy day. Asked by the school counseling staff to participate in their presentations to eighth graders who are going to be starting high school in the fall, Franco speaks to the young audience members about the importance of the freshman year in a student’s preparation for college. During her presentation, she makes a point to actively engage the students. As Franco asks questions and the students begin to respond, she can see that these students, who primarily are from families with little exposure to a college education, are beginning to see that college could be in their future.

The event has brought Franco full circle with her own life experiences. Many years ago, Franco, then herself a student in Tolleson, a community west of Phoenix, attended a similar presentation. That led to her participation in Upward Bound, a federally funded college-preparatory program, then to her becoming the first in her family to earn a college degree, and ultimately to her employment with ASU working in area high schools.

"My parents were not familiar with the process of going to college. But they always encouraged me to pursue my college education,” said Franco, who is completing her master’s in higher and post secondary education at ASU this spring.

For Franco, her work with the schools in the Tolleson Union High School District reflects a deep personal commitment to serving her community. She is dedicated to helping more students with backgrounds similar to hers to attend college.

"I have an understanding of the student population and the community’s culture, and that allows me to work through any challenges we may have,” she says about her hometown community. “My background allows me to be effective.”

Her work is also reflective of a larger university initiative that is changing ASU’s approach to serving Arizona high school students. The goal is an ambitious one: to find ways to make ASU more accessible to high school students, while also facilitating an invigorating flow of research, faculty and institutional resources from ASU into the classrooms of area school districts.

New Approach to Outreach

The initiative comes at a time when Arizona is struggling to prepare its youth for life at a university. According to reports by the Chronicle of Higher Education, less than 60 percent of the state’s high school students graduate, and of those, only 42 percent go on to college.

The new outreach efforts by ASU focus on creating systemic change to increase the college-going opportunity for students from all Arizona families. University administrators developed Access ASU in 2004 with an initial partnership with the Tolleson Union High School District, and today, several interrelated efforts operate under the same banner to prepare potential ASU students for college, both academically and financially.

ASU has established relationships with the Glendale Union, Mesa, Phoenix Elementary, Phoenix Union and Tempe Union school districts, in addition to the Tolleson partnership. Each school district has a formal liaison – an ASU employee, who, like Franco, is known as an “executive coordinator” – who provides a day-to-day ASU presence in the schools by having a permanent office there. Executive coordinators present enhanced college preparation workshops to students and families, coordinate presentations in the schools by ASU faculty and students, and create new opportunities, both formal and informal, for students to connect with ASU earlier.

"Access ASU staff strengthen the ASU-high school connection by identifying resources that will increase the number of students who are prepared for and admissible to ASU,” says Raul Cardenas Jr. ’04 Ph.D., associate dean of undergraduate admissions and executive director of Access ASU.

The relationships cultivated and the programs set in place by the executive coordinators are as unique as each school district. In the Mesa Public Schools, selected seniors who complete their high school classes by noon travel to the Tempe and Polytechnic campuses to take ASU courses for university credit. The Tolleson Union High School District will soon launch an Advanced Placement curriculum that was developed in partnership with ASU faculty. In Phoenix, faculty and current ASU students visit elementary students to talk about attending college, as well as science, writing, and other disciplines.

For Arlene Chin ’87 B.A., Tempe Union’s executive coordinator, the challenge is not so much lack of familiarity with ASU as it is that proximity to the university’s largest campus does not necessarily translate to a deeper understanding of how students and families can take advantage of ASU’s resources. She has found this to also be true in her interactions with high school faculty.

"They know that ASU can provide resources to them, but they are unsure of who to contact. In my role I am filling that need,” Chin said.

In addition to acting as a clearinghouse for information about ways schools can benefit from the university’s resources, Chin uses her background as a graduate of both ASU and Corona del Sol High School to link Tempe students with alumni from the university and local high schools. She has connected alumni with the younger students in a variety of ways, from career development programs to speaking engagements to student clubs.

Cardenas and others note that one of the strengths of the executive coordinator positions is that the staff members are charged with bringing resources to students and schools, rather than simply recruiting students from the school to attend ASU. Having an on-site staff person makes the provision of resources more appropriate to meet the needs of an individual or his or her school.

"What makes these positions different than ASU recruiters is that these staff members are primarily a resource to the administrators — principals and faculty at the schools,” says Cardenas.

Investing in Arizona’s families

Directing university resources into high schools is only one part of the Access ASU strategy. The university introduced a financial aid outreach component in 2005, to increase awareness of financial aid resources and processes earlier so that students and their families understand what is available to them and how to access the aid.

Through the establishment of two financial aid outreach staff positions, ASU has been able to provide increased service to Arizona families. The outreach staff meet one-on-one with students in schools, often paired with an admission recruiter to provide a more seamless transition to the university. The outreach staff also proactively use presentations to high school students, their families, and community organizations about the financial aid process to educate them about their options. The presentations are available in English as well as Spanish.

The outreach extends beyond personal contact to include a new financial aid resource: ASU Advantage, a program in which ASU covers the direct costs of attendance (tuition, fees, room, board, and books) for eight consecutive semesters for Arizona high school seniors from low-income backgrounds. The program works by neatly packaging for students a set of financial aid resources that do not require repayment; it is the only financial aid program of its kind in Arizona.

Gema Ledesma ’01 B.A., one of the first financial aid outreach counselors hired by ASU, understands the issues and challenges that many first-generation students face in their college selection process. Born in Chicago and raised until her teens in Mexico, Ledesma faced a language barrier when her family returned to the United States and settled in the West Valley. She had performed well in school in Mexico, but worked extra hours to re-learn English while maintaining her high school studies at Tolleson High School.

Because of this, Ledesma’s focus was on mastering the language, not college planning. “The thoughts (about college) weren’t there,” Ledesma recalled with a laugh. Not until a college recruiter approached her at school did she seriously consider enrollment. Once she considered college, however, she was on her way and graduated with a degree in Spanish, the first of 67 cousins in her family to finish college.

David Calderon, a 2005 graduate of Tolleson High School and a freshman at ASU, is one of the first students to receive his financial aid through the ASU Advantage program. He credits Ledesma with helping him through the application process.

"I filled out the wrong FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Gema helped me get it all straightened out,” Calderon said.

"They have every answer you would ever want about financial aid,” said Sophia Cordova, about Ledesma and Bibiana Rivera, another financial aid outreach counselor. Cordova, an English major who has an older sister at ASU, qualified for a variety of gift aid, and was planning to start in a work-study position after spring break. The 2005 Tempe High School graduate and her family worked with Rivera and Ledesma throughout the entire aid process for both sisters. “My mom and I would call them whenever we had questions.”

"It was nice because it made you think that the person cared about you, and it meant the school wants you,” says Ashley Coll, a freshman, about her interactions with ASU personnel who were present at Tolleson High School. “That definitely sparked my interest in ASU.”

Rapid results

Although some of the initiatives have been in place for little more than a year, results from the Access ASU programs are already encouraging. Financial aid outreach counselors have served nearly 4,000 Arizona students and their families, and more than 300 Arizona freshmen enrolled at ASU in fall 2005 received their aid through the ASU Advantage program.

In the Tolleson Union High School District, progress has been significant. In fall 2005, freshman applications, admission and enrollment increased from each school in the district, and enrollment from Tolleson High School alone increased by 95 percent in one year.

For the students who have been encouraged by and enabled through Access ASU, it is not about the numbers. It is about the dreams that their families have for them and the dreams they have for themselves.

A member of a military family, Coll is the first to attend college. “Mom always said to me, ‘You better go to college.’ They didn’t want me to struggle in life.”

Calderon, also the first in his family to attend college, says, “My parents had no ideas about the college process, but they instilled in me the aspiration for college, and the aspiration about being a well-rounded person.”

Gini Sater ‘86 B.A., ‘96 M.P.A. is director of strategic marketing and communications for ASU’s Office of University Undergraduate Initiatives.

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Some of the many students and staff that are involved with ASU’s new access initiatives. (this page and opposite page, left to right) Gema Ledesma, Arlene Chin, Natalie Nailor, David Calderon, Antonia Franco. (next two pages, left to right) Raul Cardenas, Jr., Katherine Sisulak, Marisel Herrera, Sophia Cordova, Ashley Coll.