Post-Secondary Resources

El Monte students outside of Rio Hondo College

We want to provide all of our students with the post-secondary resources they need to succeed after they’ve graduated from YouthBuild Charter School of California. Our students have the opportunity to go on tours of local colleges, explore potential careers and college majors, receive assistance filling out their FAFSA and college applications, enroll and study for the SAT, and take college courses while enrolled at our school.

Push-out to College and Career Pipeline

While we have seen a remarkable number of graduates across our school’s network, there have not been acceptable numbers of young people successfully navigating what is, regrettably, a maze-like college system. This system makes four-year college admission very unlikely for many of our students, who had trouble succeeding in traditional school settings. Our young people have been denied access to the same professional development opportunities that have been afforded their higher income counterparts. Their shoulders are less likely to be tapped for job shadowing opportunities, summer internships, or fellowship opportunities. Thus, in 2014, we launched our Push-out to College and Careers Pipeline (PCCP) Initiative in an effort to to take an active stance against the opportunity gap and assist our young people in knocking down doors that have historically been closed to them. The PCCP builds on YouthBuild USA’s mission of “unleashing intelligence and positive energy of low-income youth to rebuild their communities and their lives” by taking a community and participant-needs based approach to college and career exploration and development. This approach is grounded by social investigation, self-exploration, and consciousness-raising.

Many of our graduates seek post-secondary education in the form of community college with aspirations of transferring to a four-year institution to obtain their Bachelor’s degree or other certifications that will create a stable future. However, the reality is that many of these young people slip through the cracks of higher education. The students that we serve are first-generation, students of color, and/or come from underserved communities that have not been provide the exposure to a variety of outside experiences and post-secondary support that will stimulate confidence in their ability to achieve. Many of them believe they are not meant to be in higher education because of the mistakes they made or challenges they face.

We see the need for change– a change that will create a pathway for our students to overcome the leaks in the traditional pathways to college completion and a more stable career. For those students who dream of attending college, we want to create direct pathways from our school into accredited colleges or trade schools. Our dream is that this path would not require that all of our students attend a community college before entering four year-institutions and be fully funded in their pursuit of higher education. We also want to provide an extensive support system of mentors and college counselors at our school sites and at the universities our graduates attend that can help our young people acclimate to higher education and the culture of working professionalism.

Post-Secondary Resources for Students

Below are some additional post-secondary resources that are available for free online:

Financial Aid

– Before applying for financial aid, you must first fill out a free FAFSA form online: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov

– If you plan on going to school in California, you can get free cash for college or career school with CalGrants. Apply here: www.calgrants.org

– For scholarship opportunities, click here.

Preparing for College

– To help you plan for college (finding the right college that fits your needs, tips for getting into college, learning about careers that are right for you, studying for the SAT, etc.) check out CollegeBoard.org

-To find a college that’s right for you based on cost, location, and areas of study try out College Navigator: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator

– To find out how you can prepare for college during your time in high school, check out Know How 2 Go here: http://www.knowhow2go.org

- To find tips on managing college coursework and studying, check out these resources from www.intelligent.com:

Transferring from Community College

-To help plan for a transfer from a junior or community college into a 4-year university, University of California has put together a handy Transfer Admission Planner (TAP)

-Here is a list of 10 Tips for Transferring from a Community College to a University

Take Classes for Free Online

– Although you won’t receive any college credit for auditing these courses, Coursera provides users the opportunity to take online classes for free from such prestigious universities as Duke, Stanford, and Princeton. They offer all sorts of awesome courses, from Pre-Calculus to Introduction to Music Production. This is a great opportunity for anyone to test out college classes before officially enrolling in college: https://www.coursera.org

-Another great tool is Khan Academy. Feel like you could use a little extra help with your studies? Khan Academy has a library of over 3000 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice: http://www.khanacademy.org