Two Barrio Logan Teens First in their Families to Go to College
May 24, 2004
(San Diego, CA) The Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI), a local nonprofit dedicated to preparing 120 Latino, first generation students for college, is proud to announce that its first two seniors are on their way to college.
BLCI is dedicated to promoting the pursuit of higher education in a neighborhood where census data shows that of all adults 25 years of age and older, none have a masters or doctorate degree and only 28 have a B.A. To change the face of this neighborhood BLCI provides after-school programs and support services including individual tutoring, college preparation, counseling, and parent workshops, some of which provide parents with options and opportunities to access the best school for their child. BLCI students attend 29 public schools and a number of private/charter college prep schools, such as Bishops School, the Preuss School @ UCSD, La Jolla Country Day School, and High Tech High.
Jose Vallejo, who was originally recruited by the Preuss School and has attended Bishops since 9th grade, has been involved with BLCI since he was in fourth grade. He states, "BLCI offered me academic support and guidance that was not available at home because of a lack of resources. Not only was that a help in itself, but the fact that BLCI did not open the doors for me but instead told me that I was capable of opening them myself strengthened my character even more and caused me to realize that I was capable of defying the statistics!"
After being accepted at Stanford, Berkeley, and other UC schools, Jose has decided to attend Yale University in the fall.
Jose Cruz, who has attended the Preuss School and BLCI since 9th grade, credits BLCI with providing him the one on one tutoring he needed to better his grades as well as providing him exposure to college campuses such as UCLA and UC Irvine. He will attend USD in the fall.
Both Jose's are committed to giving back to the community and volunteer at BLCI as tutors to the younger students and spokespeople during special events. Both will be honored on July 8th during BLCI's 7th Annual Graduation Celebration.