The overall goal of the Title III, Part F-HSI STEM and Articulation Program Project Servingness: Aspiration, Identity, and Learning (S:AIL) in STEM, is to increase the number of Latine and low-income students who graduate with STEM degrees. All project strategies are proactively designed to remove barriers to success and assure access and participation of historically marginalized students. Project S:AIL in STEM instruction and services will be success centered, beginning with redefining the role of students, faculty, and staff as institutional equity agents in a culturally-inclusive, Latine-serving institution.

Through Project S:AIL in STEM, Ventura College (VC) will embrace its identity as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by fostering an institution-wide commitment to providing a high quality, equity-minded campus community through the following strategies:

  • Strategy #1 – Serving: Aspiration. Inspire Hispanic and low-income students to aspire toward degree attainment and transfer in STEM. VC will become a prominent STEM transfer hub for Hispanic and low-income students in the south-central coast. VC will leverage partnerships with transfer institutions to ensure concrete relevancy of coursework to transfer requirements as packaged and communicated via sequenced first- time and transfer student program maps that provide program information, requirements, and expected outcomes aligned with workforce from entry to completion.

  • Strategy #2 – Serving: Identity. VC will improve its servingness to Hispanic and low-income students in STEM pathways through improved counseling and academic/ non-academic supports which honor cultural wealth and foster a sense of belonging in and out of the classroom. VC will utilize proven effective cohort management strategies specifically designed around the strengths and needs of Hispanic students to actively case- manage students to utilize academic supports, improving persistence and timely completion.

  • Strategy #3 – Serving: Learning. VC will increase Hispanic and low-income student access and enrollment in high-wage STEM pathways to completion and transfer. VC will invest in state-of-the-art technology solutions to expand capacity to reach students in surrounding communities, both in their high schools and through VC’s East Campus, while improving the effectiveness of existing distance and hybrid course offerings in hard-to- convert courses. VC will foster an institution-wide commitment to providing a high quality, equity-minded learning environment. 

Project S:AIL in STEM is under the oversight of the Division of Academic Affairs & Student Learning

Organizational chart of the Division of Academic Affairs & Student Learning