The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

 


Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu

July 27, 2006

UNM boosts retention among LA's at-risk high school students

For the 10th consecutive year, at-risk students from high schools in Los Angeles County in California traveled to the University of New Mexico in July to take part in a preparatory program designed to channel students into higher education.

The brainchild of LA Works CEO/founder Sal Velasquez and UNM Vice President for Student Affairs Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, the program has been “phenomenally successful in promoting post-secondary education among students who otherwise might not give a thought to going to college,” Velasquez said.

Students arrived at UNM July 17 and will graduate from the program on Friday, July 28. A ceremony will be held in the Student Union building, ballroom A, from 3-5 p.m. Torres, Velasquez , LA Works board members and graduates will speak. The ceremony will feature a video and PowerPoint presentation about the two-week residency, which offers a first hand look at college life, academic courses in English and Math, and work experience in various academic and administrative departments at UNM.

Some 78 percent of all L.A. County area high school students who attended the program since its inception in 1997 went on to attend colleges and universities – including three who currently attend UNM. In addition, Valasquez notes, “an unexpected side-benefit has been that a whopping 99 percent of attendees go on to graduate from high school.”

Velasquez adds perspective to this statistic, pointing out that students in high schools and districts from which LA Works recruits attendees drop out at a rate of 30 percent.

“What we have created in this program, rather unexpectedly, is a high school retention program,” Velasquez said. “In most cases these students have probably not thought about going to college before becoming part of the LA Works program.”

During the course of a year students in the program also receive leadership training, tutoring/mentoring, college course credit, career counseling, community service opportunities, and take part in various cultural excursions.

Each year, 50 students come to the UNM, a program funded largely through the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

“Imagine how many more students could benefit from programs like this one,” said Torres, who met Velasquez at an educational conference in New Mexico in 1996, where together they conceived the idea of the UNM-LA Works residency. “If we had the will and the funding to do more of this kind of thing everywhere, we would have higher rates of graduation from high school, and many more students from low-income, first generation college backgrounds could realize the dream of higher education."

The program at New Mexico is administered under the auspices of the Division of Student Affairs in the Office of Special Programs under director Tim Gutierrez and program manager Mandie Pritchard. Velasquez and Angelica Garcia, coordinator of the College Prep Program in the Los Angeles area, lead the Los Angeles County portion of the program.

For more information about the LA Works program, contact Sal Velasquez, LA Works, at 626-233-1788; or Mandie Pritchard, UNM Special Programs, 505-249-7465.

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The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

www.unm.edu