Beginning summer 2011, Cal State Long Beach’s Highly Valued Degree Initiative group will be facilitating a parent orientation program in Spanish.
The program will run during July and August and will consist of various presentations geared toward emphasizing the value of higher education for Latino students. Topics will include understanding the curriculum and components of a degree, paying for college and preparing for a career.
“We’re trying to kind of mesh it with SOAR,” said Gloria Inzunza-Franco, Director of Special Recruitment and Retention Initiatives for Students. “We want to coordinate dates. We can kind of incorporate ours into their calendar. It also fits very nicely with the Highly Valued Degree Initiative.”
Franco said that every aspect of the program agenda is ready to be implemented, with a few minor exceptions.
“We’re waiting for the venue and the dates,” said Franco. “Without knowing the dates it’s really difficult to talk to people [who want to know more]. We just want them to know that it is happening. We are working on it.”
The current draft proposal of the agenda includes registration, lectures, lunch, Q&A sessions and a virtual campus tour consisting of a video and slideshow.
“We’re feeling pretty confident that [the draft proposal] is going to be the agenda,” said Franco. “A lot of logistical things need to be worked out, but in terms of content we are confident that this is how it will be.”
Franco and her colleagues still need to figure out which speakers are available and willing to lend their services, as well as a venue large enough to accommodate the event’s expected capacity.
Including Franco, there is a total of four people working on the planning team under HVDI. The others include Henry Fung, Associate Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Carol Roberts-Corb, Director of Housing and Residential Life, and Gen Ramirez, Director of the Learning Assistance Center.
The idea of a foreign language parent orientation program is not new. CSULB previously employed such a program, and it is used in other campuses as well.
“We used to do it years and years ago and it looks like it’s coming back this summer,” Jesse Ramirez, Assistant Director of STAR/SOAR said.
Spanish was not the only language program offered by CSULB. The school also reached out to its Asian demographic with other multi-lingual orientations, in languages such as Cambodian and Vietnamese.
Despite the change in language, the goal of CSULB’s Spanish Parent Orientation Program remains the same as the original.
“We want to make sure that [the parents’] son or daughter is in an environment that is conducive to a good solid education,” said Franco.
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