Culver City Observer -

West Los Angeles College and California State University, Dominguez Hills are establishing a two-year transfer academy on the West campus for students majoring in Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Digital Media Arts, or a technical Associate of Science program.

Tracks will focus on requirements for each major, along with required general education courses. Students in each track will be organized into learning communities allowing them to take classes and study together, and attend special events at CSUDH. Each track will have 60 or fewer students per cohort.

Transfer Bridge activities, an upgraded Transfer Center at CSUDH, and an Online Transfer Center developed by West will address current barriers to transferring. Faculty at both West and CSUDH will work together to align curricula and to infuse high-impact practices and use of technology into instruction. West and CSUDH will also collaborate on extensive outreach to area high schools. They will create materials to inform prospective students, parents, and high school counselors about the guaranteed linkage between the colleges through the academy; and, how to prepare for entry into the academy programs.

“Through this new partnership with CSUDH, West students will collaborate in cohorts, build personal links, develop campus engagement, and have the tools needed so they can successfully, and seamlessly, transfer from West to CSUDH,” said Mary-Jo Apigo, Dean of Teaching and Learning.

While CSUDH enrolls students from across the state and beyond, its primary service area overlaps substantially with West’s in southern and western Los Angeles County. This is a densely populated, highly diverse area with a high degree of poverty and low educational attainment (fewer than 10% of adults have bachelor’s degrees or higher in large parts of the area).

The program is funded by a five-year, $3.875 million Title V Cooperative grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.