The SF International High School ACE Learning Center Supports CCSF Students

By Kyle Halle-Erby, Span Program Director, San Francisco International High School

City College of San Francisco is the largest community college in California. The campus has dozens of academic programs that lead to Associate’s degrees and transfer to a UC, CSU or private university. In addition, the campus is rich with career development pathways focused on gaining certificates in many different fields, including child development, biotechnology and construction. Although CCSF offers many excellent support services, fewer than 1 in 5 students completes achieves his or her academic goals within four years.

It is easy to cast blame on CCSF. However, City College primarily serves students with great educational needs. They are students who are leaving high school with limited math and English skills, or who are returning to school after a long absence. They are students who are working full-time while they are studying, raising children or new to the country. Overwhelmingly, they are students who have struggled in the past in school and who need many supports – both academic and non-academic – in order to succeed.

This is where the ACE Learning Center at SF International comes in. This year, our learning center is partnering with CCSF to teach a course on campus to recent SFIHS graduates who are beginning at CCSF. The course is called “College Success Basics” and it focuses on supporting new students at CCSF. The course is designed to provide administrative, social, academic and language support for our students. So far, the course has felt very successful, but don’t just take it from me. Here are some excerpts from students’ mid-term course evaluations:

In this class Leti and Kyle are very helpful and they try to support you in everything. I feel that someone really cares about my education and supports me.

I like that this class is a place to talk about our problems and think of solutions.

In the future we should have this class more days each week.

Next year, you should include students from different schools as well so they can have this experience and we can meet new people.

Thanks to ACE and our partners at CCSF, we have been able to drastically improve our recent graduates on campus at CCSF.