91短视频

• March 9, 2015

91短视频’s award-winning GANAS (Gaining Access ‘N Academic Success) program is a finalist in the inaugural California Awards for Innovation in Higher Education Showcase to be held in Sacramento on March 9.

The showcase recognizes California Community Colleges, California State University campuses, and University of California campuses that have created and developed innovative programs that help students and improve efficiencies in three areas: supporting students, transforming colleges, and collaborating across sectors.

GANAS is among 57 applications submitted from 53 different campuses, each vying for a portion of $50 million that was approved in the state Budget Act of 2014.

The higher education showcase is intended to:

1. foster a better understanding of the innovations at California's institutions of higher education from the leaders who are implementing them
2. facilitate discussion about how these innovations are improving student outcomes, and
3. identify opportunities to accelerate learning and action throughout the state.

At the March 9 showcase, Melissa Cervantes, GANAS program coordinator, and Diana Balgas, CSUEB executive director of Student Outreach and Retention Services, will give a brief presentation about GANAS. They are giving one of 33 presentations about the campus programs.

GANAS is an innovative, cohort-based program designed to create a successful transition to university life for Latino/a transfer students from California’s community colleges.

"Since its launch at CSU East Bay in fall 2013, GANAS has demonstrated that intensive mentoring, advising and strategic scheduling can have tremendous impact on the academic achievement of underrepresented students, their persistence and their progress toward attaining a bachelor’s degree," Balgas said.

More than two-thirds of the GANAS students who entered CSUEB in September 2013 have indicated that they will graduate in June 2015. “We believe the GANAS model is scalable and replicable and holds the potential to increase the number of bachelor degrees awarded to Latino/a transfer students and to other underrepresented student populations on university campuses throughout California,” Balgas said.

Last fall, the GANAS program earned national recognition from Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, for its efforts to increase Latino student achievement.

For more information about GANAS, visit , or contact Cervantes at melissa.cervantes@csueastbay.edu or 510-885-2615.

For information about the California Awards for Innovation in Higher Education Showcase, go to .