Lizarraga, Raquel: Hi everybody, thank you for joining us today. We're going to be talking about the Cerritos Complete Promise Program and how you can earn two years free at Cerritos College. My name is Raquel Lizarraga and I'm the coordinator for the Cerritos Complete Promise Program.
Ross, Clara T.: My name is Clara Ross Jones and I'm a Career and Academic Counselor here at the College.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So why attend Cerritos College? Well, Cerritos College has the Cerritos Complete Promise Program, which we'll be talking about today and it's a nationally recognized promise program.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Our college also has a lower cost to attend and flexible class schedules. Many of our students attend the College then transfer to a four year college or university.
Lizarraga, Raquel: We have been ranked in the top 100 for two year colleges with the highest alumni salary and we've also been ranked with the highest Latino/Latina enrollment.
Lizarraga, Raquel: We do also have over 200 degrees and programs. We have 55% of our students that are first generation students in college.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And we have a 92% admissions rate to UCLA through our Scholar's Honors Program. We do also have new fully online degrees and certificates that are available to you as well.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So about our program: It is a California College Promise Program and has been nationally recognized for accelerating student success.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Our program focuses on the student's pledge to complete their degrees or their certificates on time and it is a two year program for students that are meeting all the requirements.
Lizarraga, Raquel: This program is available to graduating high school seniors or adults that are completing their equivalency in our partner school districts.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So our partner school districts are listed on our website and on the screen as well and it's for students that are completing their high school equivalency or high school degree from October 2021 to June 2022.
Ross, Clara T.: Now, with the program, there are many benefits and we're going to highlight a few of those right here for you.
Ross, Clara T.: But I think the biggest draw for our program is not only will we support you academically with wraparound services: speaking with counselors, taking counseling courses,
Ross, Clara T.: helping you with major and career exploration, but of course we will support you financially and offer two years of free in-state tuition as well as early enrollment so that you can have access to the courses that you need to help complete your degree and program in a timely fashion.
Lizarraga, Raquel: To become a part of our program there are six
Lizarraga, Raquel: eligibility steps. All students will need to complete these by the deadline in order to be accepted.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So the first step is that all students need to complete a Cerritos College Summer application. this application opens October 1 and to be accepted into our program, we ask that it's completed by the end of February.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Step two is that all students, regardless of family income, need to submit a FAFSA or a Dream Act Application. This also opens up October 1.
Lizarraga, Raquel: and we have the deadline of March 2 in order to be accepted into our Program.
Lizarraga, Raquel: The third step is that all students need to submit an Interest Form. This is how we know you're interested in participating in our Program.
Lizarraga, Raquel: You will need a Cerritos College Student ID in order to fill it out, but this is an online form, and it should only take five minutes to submit.
Lizarraga, Raquel: We will be opening this form October 5 and it needs to be submitted by March 2. We do not add students to the program after this date, so please make sure to stay on track for your requirements.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Step four is all students need to submit a Math and English or ESL placement.
Lizarraga, Raquel: These are two forms that you could find in your MyCerritos account once you have a student ID number. It should only take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and it will tell you what math
Lizarraga, Raquel: and English or ESL classes you placed into. This you can do as soon as you have the College ID number and for our program, we ask that it's completed by the end of March.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Step five is that students need to complete a Falcon Edge Orientation, as well as a 30 minute counseling appointment.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Signups for this will start in March, and we ask that students complete both of those by the end of April.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And step six is that you need to enroll in your Fall semester classes. This is the responsibility of the student and this can be done in your MyCerritos account.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Students must have already completed steps 1 through 5 in order to enroll and your early enrollment will begin early June. We do also have a deadline on this in July.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And most students do try to get ahead on their first year requirement and so most students enroll in a Counseling class, Counseling 101B, in the Summer. Again, you can see all of these requirements on our website as well.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So your year one requirements: All students need to take and pass the Counseling class. Students can take it the Summer before or they could take it in the Fall semester.
Lizarraga, Raquel: But they need to pass that class and complete the Comprehensive Education Plan assignment.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Students must also enroll and pass their math class, as well as an English or ESL class, and students must continue to take transfer level
Lizarraga, Raquel: English and Math until they complete transfer level classes. All students are required to maintain a 2.0 GPA every semester.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And students are responsible for enrolling in their Spring classes and early enrollment through our program will start in October.
Lizarraga, Raquel: We ask students to submit a FAFSA or Dream Act Application every year, and every year it'll open in October. All students are required to complete that as well.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And students must complete the requirements of Fall in order to stay in our program for Spring and complete the requirements for Spring in order to stay in our program for year two.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And then being difference between year 1 and year 2 is that in year 2, you are required to be a full time student.
Lizarraga, Raquel: This means you need to enroll in at least 12 units, which is typically four classes. In your freshman year, you can be a part time student.
Lizarraga, Raquel: In your sophomore year, it is mandatory that you are full time and are taking 12 units at least.
Lizarraga, Raquel: You must also enroll and pass Math and English or ESL if you haven't completed transfer level. And once again, make sure you're maintaining that 2.0 GPA.
Lizarraga, Raquel: You're also responsible for enrolling in your Spring classes and submitting another FAFSA or Dream Act Application as well, and you must make sure that you are meeting these requirements for Fall to stay eligible for Spring and for Spring to successfully complete the two year Program.
Ross, Clara T.: So we know that you are in the midst of considering all of your options, and so we wanted to just talk to you a little bit about the cost of tuition.
Ross, Clara T.: And so, if you are considering our University of California system, or UCs, roughly that annual cost would be $14,100. For our Cal State systems, you're looking at $5,700, and for our California Community Colleges, it's $1,458. And so as part of the Cerritos Complete Program,
Ross, Clara T.: we are saying that we
Ross, Clara T.: support you and are taking care of that $1,458, which is our tuition & enrollment costs. We will also take care of the health fee that students
Ross, Clara T.: usually have to take care of, as well as the activities fee.
Ross, Clara T.: Now, there will be some minimal costs on your end, and so, if your student continues to meet the requirements each semester,
Ross, Clara T.: out of pocket, for enrollment fees, they would have to pay $2 each semester. I'm just going to pause and let that sit in for a minute. So $2 in the Summer, $2 in the Fall and $2 in Spring, which is a state fee that they have to pay.
Ross, Clara T.: And then, of course, they may have cost for books or lab fees, parking. And then, if the status is non-resident, there might be some additional fees there.
Ross, Clara T.: But, overall, the cost on the left is what we will take care of for the program for two years, and you will handle the cost on the right, I really feel like that $2 each semester, Ms. Raquel is a great, great bargain.
Ross, Clara T.: Right, and so we hope that you are considering us in the Cerritos Complete Program as you are looking at all your options for your post-secondary education.
Ross, Clara T.: Now, as students begin to make the transition out of high school and into their new role of college student, we want to share some helpful
Ross, Clara T.: tips and hints that might be really great for you to remind the students and to encourage the students, as their support system, and so our Remind App is one of our
Ross, Clara T.: great ways in which we communicate with students and Ms. Raquel will share some information about that at the end of the video.
Ross, Clara T.: But we want to make sure that you sign up for that, because with deadlines fastly approaching and different activities are happening
Ross, Clara T.: on the campus, it's great to get those little reminders about "Hey, your deadline is Friday" or "Hey, have you heard about this event happening on campus?" In addition, actively checking the email
Ross, Clara T.: that you put down on your application, as well as the College website will be really beneficial, as there are constantly updates of activities and events going on with the campus.
Ross, Clara T.: as well as the emails because that is our main form of communication here on the campus, and not only will they be receiving information from the program but also from
Ross, Clara T.: their professors, the counseling team, and so you just want to make sure you become - you get into a rhythm of checking that often.
Ross, Clara T.: Now, once they are student here on the campus, we are really encouraging our students to attend their classes as they need to
Ross, Clara T.: engage and actively participate in class discussions and so to do that, they want to make sure that they are studying the class material,
Ross, Clara T.: that they make sure that they are connecting with their peers in the class, that they are reaching out to the faculty members if they have questions about course content,
Ross, Clara T.: and utilizing our free resources on campus. We have a Success Center
Ross, Clara T.: that offers free tutoring for not only the English or ESL and Math as Ms. Raquel mentioned earlier, but for other courses as well.
Ross, Clara T.: And so it's really beneficial to get that additional support to make sure you are passing your courses successfully and meeting that GPA requirement each and every semester.
Ross, Clara T.: In addition, time management is a big thing, and so, if you are working or have other family responsibilities,
Ross, Clara T.: you want to make sure that you're connecting with your counselor in your course or in our appointments or after orientation,
Ross, Clara T.: that you let the counselor know so that we can craft a schedule that first semester that sets you up for success and make sure that we're also meeting the requirements of the program. In addition,
Ross, Clara T.: our bookstore offers different opportunities to either purchase or rent your course materials. A lot of professors are offering online options as well.
Ross, Clara T.: And then thinking about, in addition to building my academic side, what will I be doing outside of the classroom? And so clubs, student government are always
Ross, Clara T.: options for students or any of the support programs that we have as well. So, in addition to being in Cerritos Complete, you can also join some of these wonderful programs that we have at the campus.
Ross, Clara T.: And so we have, you know, a lot of different ways for students to get some additional support.
Ross, Clara T.: I'm just going to throw out a few examples here. Our Puente and Umoja Program are grounded in the Latinx and African American and Black student experience.
Ross, Clara T.: Our Teacher TRAC is great for those who are looking to go into child development or K-12 teaching or even teaching
Ross, Clara T.: secondary education. Our Project HOPE is wonderful for those students who are looking to go into the health professions, so wanting to be a doctor or pharmacist or going to nursing.
Ross, Clara T.: Of course, we have our Transfer Center that's always working to help get our students to the university.
Ross, Clara T.: Our Scholars Honors Program: If you were in honors in high school and you're interested in that here at the College, our Scholars Honors Program is great.
Ross, Clara T.: Our Office of International Students is supporting our international students and providing wraparound services for them. Our EOPS and CARE Program is great for our first-generation students.
Ross, Clara T.: Our Falcon Athletics: If you're interested in playing any of our various sports, you can always reach out to the coaches sooner rather than later
Ross, Clara T.: and touch base with them and be part of one of our athletic teams. So, in addition to being
Ross, Clara T.: with Cerritos Complete, you can also join any of these wonderful programs. So as you are in the family nights or if you're at the orientations
Ross, Clara T.: or any of our info sessions, and you want to know more information about those, please feel free to ask the facilitators of those workshops and they can give you some additional information.
Ross, Clara T.: We wanted to highlight a few of our programs. Our SAS program is our first one, which is our Student Accessibility Services Program.
Ross, Clara T.: So if you have had an IEP or 504 while you were in the K-12 system, and you are interested in having some support services or similar services here at the College,
Ross, Clara T.: you will want to reach out to our SAS office. They are wonderful and their application is
Ross, Clara T.: live and up and you can feel free to start this process early and provide them with the necessary documentation and get an appointment with them and talk about how that could benefit your student experience.
Ross, Clara T.: In addition, we are an Undocu-friendly campus. So if you are an 8540 student or
Ross, Clara T.: students and are looking to come to our campus, we would love to have you here, and we have additional support services and and an alliance of counselors and faculty members and staff members that are supporting our DREAMers, and
Ross, Clara T.: If you fall in that category, feel free to let the counselor know or the facilitator of the presentation know and then we will get you connected with those support services as well.
Ross, Clara T.: And last but not least, we have, of course, our fabulous athletic programs that I mentioned earlier.
Ross, Clara T.: And many of our coaches will start their recruiting late Fall and early Spring and if you haven't reached out to our coaching staff yet,
Ross, Clara T.: please make sure to do so. And once you are connected with the team, again, there is a team of counselors
Ross, Clara T.: who will be working with you so that you have the courses that you need to meet your eligibility to play the particular sport as well as working with you to craft something that works around your athletic schedule as well.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Alright, so I know we shared a lot of information, so we just want to circle back and let you know that you can get started with 4 of the 6 Eligibility Steps.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And as a reminder, the first step is you need to apply to the College, making sure it is for the Summer semester, and that opens on October 1.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Step 2 is file your FAFSA or Dream Act Application. This also opens October 1, and you need to make sure that you're adding the Cerritos College School Code on that online application.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Step 3 is submit the Interest Form for our program. This will be available on our website and we will be closing this March 2.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And Step 4: Make sure you complete your Math and English or ESL placement in your MyCerritos account, and you can view this as soon as you have a student ID number, and you will need to make sure that you're filling out both forms.
Lizarraga, Raquel: We also can remind you about these requirements, and we have a texting service called Remind.
Lizarraga, Raquel: Our code is CCOMPLETE8 because you would be the eighth year of the program, and we also have the link on the screen as well. Feel free to join so we could send you reminders about the steps, as well as deadlines or opportunities at the College.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And we also have employees, known as Site Bridging Liaisons, that are at your high schools and have designated time each week to help serve you, as well as help get you through those 6 steps.
Lizarraga, Raquel: So please feel free to take a screenshot of the screen for their contact information.
Lizarraga, Raquel: And we also have other ways you could reach us if you're interested in the program. Feel free to email us, to call us. A lot of our information is on our website which you can check out,
Lizarraga, Raquel: and we are also hosting Zooms every week. Feel free to join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 5pm by joining the Zoom and if you have any questions, please reach out. Thank you so much for coming to our virtual presentation and we look forward to seeing you at Cerritos College.