Santa Ana : College Wins Grant to Help Immigrants

Rancho Santiago College has obtained a $590,000 federal grant to help immigrants with limited ability to speak English advance from adult education to full-fledged college classes.

The award makes Rancho Santiago the only community college in California to win a federal Title 3 grant this year, according to its president, Robert Jensen. “Normally these Title 3 awards go almost totally to the four-year colleges and universities,” he said. “The money is for helping developing institutions and those with poverty students.”

It is the latter category that qualified Rancho Santiago College. The community college has about 10,000 students who are taking only adult-education classes. Most of these students are immigrant Latinos and Asians who are learning English, Jensen said.

Adult-education classes do not confer college credit. Jensen said very few of the Latino and Asian immigrants taking adult-education courses later enroll in the more difficult, regular college classes.

“We want to have a program to help these students continue their learning beyond adult education,” he said.

The grant will be used to create a program that will provide math, language, reading and writing classes and academic and personal counseling designed to develop the skills and confidence needed to transfer from adult-education to regular collegiate classes, Jensen said.