Washington, DC, Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Two APC members from San Francisco State University, Paul Mendez (SFSU Graduate College of Education) and Nancy Jodaitis (SFSU Financial Aid), were recognized and honored for their leadership roles in the Transfer Articulation Bridge (TAB) Program, a collaboration program between San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco. TAB was recognized as an Example of Excelencia at the Baccalaureate level. Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement. Also photographed is co-recipient Raymond Fong, from EOPS at City College of San Francisco.

The mission of the Transfer Articulation Bridge (TAB) is to help first generation low-income students successfully transfer to a four-year university, obtain their bachelors degree, and continue on to graduate school. Paul, Nancy, and Ray were honored at the Capitol Visitor Center in the Congressional Auditorium. TAB will also be included in the 2011 edition of What Works for Latino Students in Higher Education: Examples of Excelencia Compendium.

TAB provides students with comprehensive academic advising and prepares them for the academic and financial challenges in obtaining a degree. In the past decade, 398 students have taken the "Introduction to the University" TAB class. The majority of these students are first-generation community college students and more than 60% are Latino and African-American students. Latino students, at 36.2%, comprise the highest percentage of students participating in the TAB program. More than half of the TAB students who took the class, successfully transferred to SFSU or another four-year university during that time, which is more than double our statewide transfer rates (235) in California.