Parents Visit Campus to Partake in College-Readiness Program
Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
Seventy parents visited Pepperdine University in March in an effort to plan for their children’s educational future. The seminar and Malibu campus tour is the first in a series of workshops called “College Access 101: Building Bridges from Elementary School to College,” designed to help first-generation and low-income students and their families navigate the K-12 educational pipeline toward higher education.
The free events and partnership are coordinated by Anthony Collatos, associate professor of education at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, and Holmes Avenue Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, with the support of Los Angeles city councilwoman Jan Perry and Comerica Bank, which also sponsored GSEP’s successful Children’s Outreach: Advancing Social Transformation and Learning (COASTAL) 5k/10k walk/run in January.
“First-generation students, English-Language Learners (ELL), and immigrants are faced with numerous barriers that make it difficult to understand or reach the college admission process,” says Collatos. “Concerned by the low rates of urban students’ college eligibility and admission, GSEP created this series of workshops to ensure that all students and their families have the knowledge and guidance necessary to successfully gain admission to a four-year university.”
“It is great to see our parents experiencing firsthand how the dream of a university education can become reality,” affirms Holmes principal Antonio Amparan. “It takes a village to raise a child—and with the help of our community partners, we are committed to raising our children.”