West County Freshmen Guaranteed Spot at College If...

Darius, Norrell, Whitney and Dominique are all seniors at , facing questions of what’s ahead after high school.

All four want to go to college, putting their sights on various California State University campuses.

While two have been plotting their path toward college since freshman year, influenced by older siblings, the other two said that as freshmen they were too preoccupied with high school to worry about courses or grades needed for college.

“When you’re a freshman you’re thinking about what is high school like. You‘re not thinking about college,” said Norrell Mack.

While that's understandable — freshmen are only 14 years old, after all — not planning ahead can derail college hopes.

For that reason, Holy Names University in collaboration with the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the Oakland Unified School District launched a new program guaranteeing high school freshmen in in those districts entrance to Holy Names and a partial scholarship if they maintains at least a B- average (a 2.7 grade point average, or GPA), and take college prep courses.

No SATs needed, no application essay needed.

"When you have a college that is in the community, especially in urban centers, I think it is our responsibility to get involved in the college aspirations of the students," said Brian O'Rourke, dean of admissions at Holy Names, which is in the Oakland hills. Almost half of its applicants come from these two districts.

“Our concern is even if kids are interested in college, they haven’t always completed the A-G required courses, or their grades aren’t good enough,” O’Rourke said. "They often come to us in 11^th or 12^th grade. By then it’s sometimes too late. Their GPA is what it is, and they may or may not have taken the classes.”

“If students are thinking about college, then they are finishing the courses they need and getting the grades,” O’Rourke said.

College preparatory courses are referred to as the A-G courses in California high schools, based on requirements of the University of California and California State Universities. Those requirements are three years of math, two years of a laboratory science, four years of English, two years of a foreign language, two years of history and one year of performing or visual arts. Many private colleges also require these same courses before they will consider an applicant.

While about 45 percent of the applicants to Holy Names are from the West Contra Costa and Oakland unified school districts, only 15 percent of enrollees are from these districts, O'Rourke said. 

Part of what’s blocking them is finances. Holy Names tuition is $32,000 a year, although it gives financial aid to 92 percent of its students.

The other main obstacle is academic. “For a lot of them, their GPAs are low or they didn’t complete the AG courses, so they are viewed as not college prepared,” O’Rourke said. 

Holy Names’ offer to West County and Oakland freshmen includes a scholarship of at least $9,000 and mentoring from Holy Names students. Students from Catholic high schools in the two districts are also eligible for the early admittance program. 

According to West Contra Costa Unified School District officials, the district has been trying to strengthen a "college-going culture" within its high schools in recent years. West Contra Costa has been criticized for an achievement gap that persists in the district between socio-economically disadvantaged students and other students. Only 35 percent of its graduating seniors complete the A-G courses, according to data from the 2009 graduating class provided to Pinole Patch. For Pinole Valley High School the percentage is 29 percent for the 2009-10 school year, but it was 37 percent in the 2008-09 class.

Brenda King Randall, WCCUSD’s director of K-12 operations, has for two years been coordinating new college and career readiness programs.

A major one has been the, which has involved  creating “career academies” within high schools to allow kids to focus their academic work around career aspirations. It is funded with $1.5 million from ConnectEd California and the James Irvine Foundation. In the career academies, three academic courses are paired with a vocational course that all focus on a career track such as law or information technology or health and bioscience. Students take their classes with the same group of kids and the class sizes tend to be smaller than others.

"If you get kids connected to school, they will try," Randall said. 

She sees the Holy Names offer as another thing that might pique students' interest not only in college, but in school. If kids see a reason for attending school and studying, they are more likely to succeed.

“It’s great for our kids because some of them have never thought about going to college or never thought that it was possible,” Randall said. This offer, if well publicized and well explained, will help them be aware of their options and what they have to do to be prepared for college, she said.

Randall negotiated the early admittance program with Holy Names after she and a friend brainstormed about what could be done to boost college-going among low-income students and students of color.

Now Randall is starting to spread the word about the early admittance program among counselors and teachers who might then advise their students. She also is planning assemblies for students about college options.

“Just the cost of college can be a deterrent,” Randall said, especially for kids whose parents were not able to go to college. “We have kids who feel, ‘I know I’m not going to college anyway, so why try?’ But if you get kids connected to school, they will try.”

“It’s quite an opportunity,” she said. “They already have been accepted if they maintain a 2.7 GPA and take the UC, CSU-required A-G courses. And they get $9,000-a-year scholarship.”

To the four El Cerrito High seniors randomly interviewed last Wednesday afternoon, the offer from Holy Names sounded pretty good.

“I’d go for that,” said Darius Harris, who has been thinking about community college first and then building up his GPA to attend a four-year college.

“Definitely. A spot at a four-year college? Definitely,” said Whitney Garcia.

Her friends sitting outside school that late afternoon said Garcia will have no trouble getting into a four-year college. But they all agreed the program would help students.

“I think it will make kids try harder, you know, be more determined because they’d know that’s all it would take to get into college,” Garcia said.