san antonio college

One of the Alamo Community Colleges
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Funded Projects

Institutional Grants

Reports

Renewal of Funding for Student Support Services Project
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U.S. Department of Education

Project Director : Wynette Keller, Director, Student Support Services Project, 733-2760
Award Amount : $2,131,280 over five years ending in September 2010

Through this grant, the SAC SSS Project will: 1) identify, select, and enroll 400 SSS program-eligible students having significant academic need to participate in the SSSP; 2) provide 100% of participants with assessment and development of a Personal Success Plan; 3) provide 100% percent of eligible participants with financial aid packages.

SAC provides the following services to SSSP participants: Assessment, Tutoring, Monitoring, Mentoring, Financial Aid Assistance/Counseling, Intensive Personal and Academic Counseling, Cultural Enrichment Activities, Technology and Computer Literacy Training, Career Advising and Exploration, Comprehensive Transfer Assistance, Academic and Leadership Enrichment, Supplemental Out-of Class Instruction, SSSP Early Alert System, and Specialized Services for students with disabilities, including Assistive Technology.

The SSSP aims to accomplish the following by the end of the grant period: (1) 70% of each cohort of SSSP enrollees not graduating or transferring will be retained to their 2nd semester; 60% to the 3rd, 55% to the 4th; 50% to the 5th; and 45% to the 6th semester, and (2) the percentage of participants who attain a degree/certificate and/or transfer to a 4-year school annually will exceed SAC’s average.

Mi CASA: Career Advancement and Self-sufficiency Assistance Center SAC

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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Hispanic-serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC)

Project Director : Helen Vera, Chair of Programs and Services to Women and Non-Traditional Students, 733-2299
Award Amount : $597,530 over three years ending in September 2010

The San Antonio College (SAC) Women and Non-Traditional Student Services Department, the City of San Antonio Department of Community Initiatives, UU Housing Corp, Alamo WorkSource/SER Jobs for Progress, the Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and the San Antonio Food Bank have formed a partnership to create a Career Development Center for low-and moderate-income residents of the neighborhoods immediately surrounding San Antonio College. HSIAC funds will be used to build an 1,800 square foot building on West Evergreen Street on the southern edge of SAC’s campus, on property owned by San Antonio College. The creation of the Mi CASA (Career Advancement and Self-sufficiency Assistance) Center will provide the community with comprehensive career advancement services and wraparound social services designed to lead to further training and/or college enrollment and eventual self-sufficiency. Mi CASA will offer job search using the Texas Workforce Commission’s Website, resume-building and mock interviews, career development, Tax Assistance and Fair Housing/foreclosure assistance, classes in homebuyer education, financial literacy, computer literacy and citizenship, and social services referral, including eligibility screening for food stamps, WIC, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance, TANF, long-term care for seniors and the Women’s Health Program. Mi CASA clients will also be linked to training and education opportunities at SAC and area agencies.

The facility will include a training room, a computer lab, and two offices. One office will house the Center Coordinator, who will be a Career Counselor from SAC, and the other, on a rotating basis, staff from Alamo WorkSource, the City of San Antonio, and the Food Bank. The presence of City, WorkSource and Food Bank representatives in the Center will provide a one-stop center for low- and moderate-income area residents, including TANF recipients, who must find jobs and need counseling and career advancement assistance.

Location: West Evergreen Street near Howard Street, on the Southern border of SAC’s Campus in Tobin Hills, on property owned by San Antonio College.

Target Population: Low- and moderate-income residents of theneighborhoods immediately surrounding San Antonio College: Tobin Hills, Alta Vista, Beacon Hill and Five Points.

Impact Project is expected to have on Community and Institution:

By providing career advancement/development activities and short-term employment assistance to low-income adults, and by linking community members to training and higher education opportunities who would otherwise have no access to higher education, San Antonio College will better fulfill its mission to “provide for and support the educational and lifelong learning needs of a multicultural community” and, through the Service Learning projects that SAC faculty and students will implement at Mi CASA assisting community residents, to “help students reach their full potential by developing…civic responsibility.”

By providing 150 community members each year with individual career counseling and/or career development workshops, and, over three years, helping 100 community members develop a career portfolio, by the end of Year Three: 1) at least 150 members of the targeted groups will be enrolled in job training programs at San Antonio College, other ACCD colleges, the City of San Antonio, SER Jobs for Progress or other job training providers, 2) at least 150 Mi Casa clients will have found employment or better employment, and 3) at least 60 Mi CASA clients will be enrolled in college coursework at San Antonio College.

By the end of Year Three, by providing 150 members of the targeted neighborhoods with homebuyer workshops and counseling and/or financial literacy services, and by referring at least 60 low-to-moderate income families from the targeted neighborhoods to homebuyer programs for homeowner’s assistance: 1) at least 20 low-to-moderate income families from the targeted neighborhoods will have been pre-qualified for home mortgages and 2) at least 5 low-to-moderate income families from the targeted neighborhoods will have purchased a home.

Seguir Adelante

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City of San Antonio: Department of Community Initiatives

Project Director : Helen Vera, Chair of Programs and Services to Women and Non-Traditional Students, 733-2299
Award Amount : Over $200,000 a year from 2004-2008

Target Population: Low income families from targeted areas with a high incidence of illiteracy/high school drop-outs and low college participation rates. Focus will be on at-risk high school graduates & GED program participants; families from neighborhoods surrounding San Antonio College and other traditionally underserved populations (teen and/or single parents, displaced homemakers, dislocated populations) who evidence a desire to improve their family’s economic security/stability by wanting to further their education.

Goals: To offer comprehensive family strengthening, youth and workforce development services for 300 participants living in low and marginalized communities with the goal of improving the family’s economic stability/self-sufficiency.

Description: The following services will be offered through the new Seguir Adelante Community Center for Adult Education and Training on the SAC campus: 1) Family Economic Success Component will address Financial Literacy activities (VITA site, homeownership and IDA Workshops), College Transition activities in preparation for College Enrollment in one or two year certificate/degree programs and Workforce Development activities 2) Family Well-Being Component will include activities that engage the family in learning activities, parenting support, life/coping skills activities (parenting groups, self-esteem building) counseling and community referrals. Unique to this implementation strategy is the comprehensive, seamless delivery system and the engagement of the entire family in learning.

Key Elements:

-Recruitment activities, Financial Literacy, Community Engagement activities, establishing community partnerships will be the primary responsibility of a program Continuing Education Specialist.

-Intake/Eligibility and clerical support will be provided by a Program Assistant.

-College Enrollment services will be provided by the Program Counselor who will also provide case management and counseling services.

-Workforce Development activities and College Transition services to include literacy development activities will be provided by a Program Continuing Education Specialist.

-Supportive Services, to be determined via an Individual Development Plan (IDP), will include scholarships textbook, and transportation assistance, childcare and dress for success referrals, and clothing vouchers.

Previous Program Success- In 2006, the SAC Women’s Center celebrates 25 years of empowering women and other at-risk participants to reach self-sufficiency. Our service counts have grown from 3,000 in 1981 to 29,557 in 2005-2006; a 90% growth in services provided. We continue to serve our community by providing successful outreach and recruitment activities such as the Young Women’s/Men’s Conference, Women Empowered Conference, the award-winning CONNECTIONS Training & Employment Program and the Seguir Adelante Community Center for Adult Re-entry and Education.

CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents In School)
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U.S. Department of Education

Project Director : Steve Jensen, Chair, Early Childhood Studies, 733-2409
Award Amount : $196,208 each year for 4 years; 2005-2009

CCAMPIS Goal : To increase access to quality on-campus childcare for low-income San Antonio College student parents.

San Antonio College (SAC) requests $196,208 annually to provide affordable, high quality on-campus childcare, including infant care, to 24 low-income full-time students and 12 part-time students, and to provide 9 students with subsidized, accredited off-campus child care.

SAC, located in urban San Antonio, is the largest provider of post-secondary education in Bexar County, Texas. SAC enrolled 22,141 students during Fall 2004, 48.4% Hispanic, 42.7% Anglo, 4.6% African American, and 4.3% “Other”. SAC’s Child Development Center, co-located with its Child Development Program and a laboratory for the Department’s curriculum, has 80 slots for low-income students, and has been continuously accredited since 1985. SAC’s existing CCAMPIS-subsidized childcare program served 125 student parents from 2001 to 2004, with 11.2% receiving Associate’s degrees and/or certificates.

The sliding scale fee at SAC’s Child Development Center covers between 20% and 60% of the full fee of $98/week (between 9% and 27% of the actual cost of $220/week), Subsidies will serve approximately 80% of students in the highest subsidy category and about 10% in the other two subsidy categories.

CCAMPIS participant parents will be offered volunteer activities and parent support groups mandated by NAEYC, and will be required to attend 8 sessions a year of the “Precious Minds - Early Years” parenting curriculum developed with SAC faculty assistance for the Kronkosky Foundation. Sessions will be provided free of charge to parents by the Foundation.

An expected outcome for this project is that by September 30, 2006, the percentage of students whose children have received child care under this grant who are retained to the next semester or have graduated/transferred will exceed the college averages for retention, graduation, or transfer (Baseline: Spring 2004).

Learn & Serve / SEVA: Service and Education through Volunteer Action

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Corporation for National and Community Service

Project Director: Audrey Gram, Coordinator, Service Learning, 785-6044
Award Amount: $85,310 – 3 years ending in September 2009

Through this grant, San Antonio College (SAC) intends to expand its Service Learning Program to include 29 departments and 85 faculty members. At least 2,000 students will engage in service-learning projects in the first full year of the proposed Learn and Serve Grant, for a total count, over three years, of approximately 6,300 students. SAC’s long term Service Goal is to have half of its 450 full-time faculty include Service Learning in their courses.

In addition to overall objectives of developing community/faculty partnerships and providing service-learning training and technical assistance to faculty, SAC’s experienced Project Coordinator, with the aid of a new Project Secretary, plan to: enable Business Department faculty to establish service-learning with a tax preparation assistance program; expand projects conducted by Education, Sociology, and Psychology students to serve more disadvantaged K-8 students; develop a new partnership between American Sign Language students and Communication Students for the Deaf to have a Community Fair which introduces agencies providing nutrition, housing, and education services to the deaf community. These projects as well as many others will serve to combine Service Learning and SAC.

Technology-based Inquiry and Curriculum Alignment: Improving Science Education in secondary and post-secondary schools (TICA)

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National Science Foundation (NSF), Advanced Technological Education (ATE)

Project Director: Robin McGilloway, Biology instructor, 733-2197
Award Amount: $299,868, 3 years

This grant will enable San Antonio College (SAC) to 1) increase the number of science teachers and qualified minority applicants for science teaching positions, 2) improve science literacy for up to 12,000 predominantly minority students each year, and 3) increase the number of South Texans earning associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in science.

SAC will initially partner with the San Antonio Independent School District and the Project BRIDGE education/industry partnership for week-long Summer Professional Development Institutes that will provide training for science teachers from grade 6 through the sophomore year in college. Secondary teachers, alternative certification candidates, and SAC science faculty will be trained in technology-supported, inquiry-based learning, using discipline-specific content aligned with state and national science standards. Secondary and college-level science courses will be revised based on what teachers learn at the Institutes.

Nursing Workforce Diversity Program

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Health Resources and Services Administration

Project Title: Project Cuidar
Project Co-Directors: Louise Burton, MSN, Nursing Program Coordinator mburton@accd.edu ; Judy Staley, PhD, MSN, Nursing Chair jstaley@accd.edu
Project Coordinator: Sheryd Jackson, RN, MSN sjackson@accd.edu
Project Amount: Over $871,000 starting July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2009

This grant seeks to enable San Antonio College (SAC) to increase the number of highly qualified registered nurses prepared to serve the Alamo Region, especially nurses whose backgrounds reflect the diversity and socioeconomic background of the population they serve. This project will attempt to increase minority and/or disadvantaged students’ participation in nursing education, and improve student success measures in admission, retention, graduation, and passing the NCLEX examination to become a registered nurse.

Project Cuidar will address three identified focus areas of Pre-Entry Preparation, Student Scholarships and Stipends and Retention Activities.

Edge Recruitment and Retention Program for Minority Science and Engineering Students - Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program

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U.S. Department of Education

Project Director: Dr. Dan G. Dimitriu, Engineering Coordinator, 733-2836
Project Amount: $263,581

Through this grant, San Antonio College will increase the number of Bexar County students who complete associate degrees and/or transfer to baccalaureate degree programs in science and engineering fields.

This project has the long-term potential to attract and prepare up to 50 predominantly minority students each year to enter two or four-year science and engineering programs. This will in turn increase the pool of qualified minority applicants for science and engineering positions, and raise the total number of individuals prepared for employment in science and engineering-related industries.

This project will integrate educational “best practices” and innovative outreach models as persistence and retention strategies for minority students in our science and engineering education programs, and advance discovery and understanding about these issues among educators of Hispanics, while at the same time promoting teaching, training, and learning through professional development in research-based learning strategies. The dissemination of the results of this project will add to our national understanding of the provision of science and engineering education to minorities.


San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78212-4299 Phone: 210/733-2000, Technology Hotline: 785-6031
One of the Alamo Community Colleges. The Alamo Community College District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
For special accommodations or an alternate format, contact the San Antonio College disABILITY Support Services at 733-2347