Greetings UC Davis Community,

With the commemoration of the SRRC's 10th year anniversary, we began the exciting transition into our second decade of providing services to underrepresented and under-served students within the community. We also like to announce the much anticipated move to our new home in the Student Community Center. The new center allows us to provide an even higher quality of services to the campus  community. With the current state of higher education, we recognize that the standard of our student-run work is held to a higher degree of quality. We realize that the reality of higher education is at an all time low. Current students and those to come are being faced with unprecedented challenges. We at the Student Recruitment and Retention Center will continue to strive ourselves to facilitate and alleviated the burdens of students recruited and those that need to be retained. We continue to fulfill our mission of educational equity by  hosting holistic events such as weekly transfer hour, bimonthly study lounges, and weekly outreach efforts to the tri-county area, in addition to the vital work, supplied by SRRC programs.

In solidarity with the student movements across the world,

Louis Infante, Recruitment and Retention Organizing Committee - External Chair
Yadira De La Cruz, Recruitment and Retention Organizing Committee - Internal Chair

NEWS

Student Community Center

This winter the SRRC moved to its new location at the new Student Community Center. The building houses the Cross Cultural Center (CCC), the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC), the Student Recruitment and Retention Center (SRRC), the Undergraduate Research Center (URC) and Information and Educational Technology (IET) media lab and computer classrooms. It also includes the WRRC's Community Office and Ethnic Studies student support satellite office.

New Program Consultant

The SRRC has hired a new program consultant, Julie Agosto. Most recently, Julie worked as the Coordinator for the Corps and Civic Engagement for the City University of New York (CUNY).  Her experience and commitment to working with underrepresented and underserved students makes her an excellent addition to the SRRC team!  If you get a chance, stop by the new SRRC and welcome Julie to UC Davis.

PROGRAM UPDATES

African Diaspora Cultivating Education Top

Black Leadership Retreat, 2011 (Group Photo)

Greetings from ACE staff, this past quarter we held our annual Black Leadership Retreat in October. During this three-day event we provided 85 freshmen, transfer and returning students an opportunity to bond, as well as become acquainted with the staff/faculty on the UC Davis Campus. Students participated in workshops addressing time management, financial aid, African-Diaspora stereotypes, study skills, and the Black Queer Community on campus.

Highlights of this event include a keynote address from the new dean of the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, Dr. James E.K. Hildreth. Other speakers included Romana Norton, CAN Counselor, Bedford Palmer, CAPS Counselor, and ACE alumni, Melissa Muganzo. The weekend was filled with fun excitement and a lot of self/group reflection that has strengthened the ties in our
community.

Last quarter, we kicked off our African Sisters and Brothers Mentor/Mentee program (ASB). In this program, we paired returning upperclassmen with new incoming freshmen, second years and transfers students to help in assisting them in becoming familiar and accommodated to the UC Davis campus. We hosted our first bonding event in mid-November, Karaoke Night and Pizza, which was a big hit. We look forward to seeing the everlasting relationships that will blossom from these pairings. In addition, we continued to provide outreach services to the greater Sacramento area. We hosted workshops with the students on college readiness, financial aid and cultural awareness.

This quarter begins we look forward to the host of ACE events this upcoming quarter. We have another ASB Mentor/Mentee bonding event, Souls Speaks (a spoken word event with a soul food catered dinner), ABC 2012 @ UC Berkeley (a UC wide event) and few surprises. So be ready and looking out for what we’re bringing to the campus this quarter.

American Indian Recruitment & Retention Top

AIRR had a really exciting Fall Quarter! We outreached to incoming students with welcome baskets inviting them to our Native American Studies Fall Welcome, meetings and AIRR events. This helped build up our Buddy Program which currently has 12 buddies. We held our Native Youth and Transfer Conference on October 22nd at the ARC providing academic and cultural workshops and a campus tour to high school and transfer students (the first time ever).

Native Youth & Transfer Conference Activity

AIRR participated with the Campus Community Book Project and hosted the Absolutely True-Life of a College Indian Panel during Native American Culture Days. We had a great campus turnout and can be found on this site http://webcast.ucdavis.edu/flashv2/?file=Book_Project/11-12/Book_Project_Panel_11-17-11.flv. Finally, we established consistent outreach with Yocha Dehe Wintun Academy.

Bridge - Pilipino Outreach & Retention Top

For the first time in many years, UC Davis celebrated October’s Pilipin@ Heritage Month with a whole week of activities. The theme was “Hoy Gising!” meaning “Wake up!” as a call for social justice and cultural awareness for Pilipin@ Americans. This event's purpose was to allow our fellow Filipin@-Americans the opportunity to learn about our culture in different ways, and to ultimately “wake” them up to realize not only our struggles as a minority, but our successes, as well.

Our week began with a guest lecture from a new addition to the Asian American Studies department, Robyn Rodriguez. Other events during the week included a screening of “Amigo”, a film depicting the Philippine-American war; cultural events presented by other organizations from UC Davis’s Filipin@-American community; a performance night showcasing natural talent of Pilipin@ American students on our campus; and a community barbecue. These events were widely appreciated by the Fil-Am community, and BRIDGE is proud to have presented these amazing and successful week of events.

GENDER & SEXUALITY
This past quarter, BRIDGE's Gender and Sexuality, along with other programs at the SRRC, featured a gender and sexuality film series where we showcased the documentary Paper Dolls, which follows Filipino immigrants who are drag queens in Israel. BRIDGE was also fortunate enough to go to Queer Pin@y Conference (QPC) in UC Santa Barbara--an amazing experience where 13 students learned more about social justice and gender & sexuality issues within Pilipino culture.

On December 1, 2011, BRIDGE held a Fil-Am Study Hall in collaboration with other UC Davis Fil-Am organizations (i.e., MK, FILAH, FAHC, and PASE) at Wellman Hall. Many students came to take advantage of the quiet workspace that we had to offer, especially right before finalsweek. We provided peer tutors in math and engineering as well as free test materials such as blue books and scantrons.

GAAAP Top

Graduate Academic Achievement and Application Program (GAAAP) had a productive fall quarter. We have had the pleasure of hosting graduate school informational sessions and weekly graduate application workshops that engaged over 100 undergraduates on important advice to applying to grad school. This past quarter we also kicked off the undergraduate/ graduate-mentoring program. This academic year has brought in over 70+ undergraduates and 60+ graduate students as part of the program. Activities throughout the rest of the year will include an “Introduction to Research course”, speakers and college workshop events. The focus for the upcoming winter quarter includes the preparation of a medical and law symposium. GAAAP is partnerting with the University Writing Program to develop a “Writing Retreat” series for graduate students in order to have a space to write and also receive writing assistance and free resources. GAAAP is also developing future leaders in our volunteers and interns who will be working on important projects throughout the year, which will hopefully be, established as annual UCD events occur.

Southeast Asians Furthering Education Top

The Southeast Asians Furthering Education component of the SRRC focuses on recruiting high school and middle school students with the resources and guide they need to get into higher education through weekly outreach visits to schools in the Sacramento region--Grant Union High, Valley High School, Samuel Jackman Middle School, and Martin Luther King Jr. Technology Academy. This safe space is created for students to come, learn, and share through workshops and activities including history, cultures, identity and leadership. These meetings aim to build a strong bond within the SEA community, and assist the students to grow and encourage them to pursue higher education. Alongside weekly mentoring, the Fall welcome introduces SAFE to the middle and high school students and explains how we aim to serve and support the Southeast Asian Youth. This Winter quarter we will host our annual Southeast Asian Youth conference, which for the first time will be a 3-day event instead of the usual 1-day. Middle and high school students will get a change to spend a weekend in Davis with students of similar background where they will build new friendships and stronger communities.

Another aspect that SAFE focuses on is retaining SEA students in higher education. SAFE launched their peer mentorship program, CARE, which aims to foster holistic support for new undergraduates and transfers. SAFE has hosted their 2nd annual Southeast Asian Retreat where students bond, learn and are empowered by their SEA identity. This helped shape a closer SEA community while also empowering students to be more involved in the community.

These events of empowering the youth, ourselves, and our peers have been successful with the help of our 18 interns and volunteers. In addition to the events mentioned above, we were able to plan Hmong Night, Fall Welcome and Crafts De-stress Night.

Yik’al Kuyum Top

As Yik’al Kuyum enters its 11th year, we were proud to host the 12th annual Chicana/o Latina/o Leadership Retreat at Camp Lodestar in Calaveras County. This fall we took a total of 60 participants and facilitators out to a camp site and spent the day learning about Power& Privilege, The history the Chicana/o Community at UC Davis, and the many wonderful aspects of our community. Our retreat’s mission is to welcome new students to our campus community and instill in them a feeling of belonging, while also gearing them up for upcoming obstacles they may face during their time at Davis. Our holistic retention efforts don’t stop with this weekend, lookout for other retention programs put on the rest of this year by our retention coordinator, Laura Guapo.

Transfer Support Program Top

The Transfer Retention project hosts weekly Transfer Hour every Thursday 12-1PM. Transfer Hour offers resources such as free food, new friends, and helpful information, for new and old transfer students. On October 27, 2011, the Transfer Retention committee hosted a successful Transfer Mixer at the local Woodstock’s, located in downtown Davis. Over 100 transfer students attended and great friends were made. On the other hand, the Transfer Outreach team has been hosting outreach workshops at local community colleges such as Sacramento City College, American River College, Folsom Lake College, Cosumnes College, and more. These workshops consist of helping students with their applications, essays, and recommendations. The Outreach committee of the Transfer Center hosted Apply Yourself, which was a very successful informational event catered to incoming high school and community college students. This full-day event allowed students from all over California to join and lean more about the UC application process and personal statements.

The Lounge

The Lounge is a bi-weekly even that provides students with a quiet study hall, snacks, testing materials, tutoring sources, past exams and more. It is a wonderful setting to meet new friends and to get your studying done. The Student and Recruitment Center invites you and your friends to join us at our new building at the Student Community Center, located near the Silo and in front of the Chemistry building. Come check out our new location!

 The Numbers (Fall 2011 Quarter) Top

Check-out our website for upcoming events