Partnerships Encourage More Valley Students to Attend College

Perhaps the best part about having a research university in the
Central Valley, according to Jorge Aguilar, is the access it provides to locals.

Aguilar, UC Merced’s associate vice chancellor for educational and community partnerships and special assistant to the chancellor, is charged with promoting that access. In his work with the Center for Educational Partnerships, established in 2002 to increase the number of Valley students eligible to attend UC institutions, Aguilar helps students from low-income families with no tradition of college attendance to meet entrance requirements. Aguilar also finds ways for UC Merced to interact with and meet the needs of the
Central Valley, and its residents.

It’s a big job, and one that Aguilar takes personally. He should. After all, he is where he’s at today because of someone else’s passion for the cause. Aguilar set his sights on college as a young student when UC Merced Admissions Director Encarnacion Ruiz visited his school. At the time, Ruiz was a UC research officer who traveled to area schools to promote higher education.

That visit changed Aguilar’s life.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese from UC Berkeley, the Delano native went on to study law at Loyola Law School.

During his years as a law student, Aguilar helped support himself by teaching Spanish at L.A.’s
South GateHigh School and made an important discovery. His heart was in working with students, not practicing law. And that’s what led him to seek a position with the UC system.

“We are not interested in working with students typically on the college track,” he said. “We do everything from personal advising, personal development, academic enrichment, and we hold Saturday academies to prepare students in math and language arts.”

The center partners with 30 high schools and the middle schools that feed into them from
Bakersfield to Patterson. Center staffers select students as young as seventh grade and work with them until they are seniors. They also work with parents to impress upon them the value of a college education. The students in his program are meeting eligibility rates at a much higher level than the norm – about 65 percent compared to 26 percent of students in the target area who are not participating in the program.

Aguilar also encourages UC Merced to help find solutions to
Central Valley problems – a new approach for research institutions. These contributions to the community could include involvement in improving contaminated tap water in some regions or spurring economic development.

“We have an opportunity to do things differently,” Aguilar said. “I have the opportunity to meet with faculty, build strong bonds with them, and engage them in community affairs.

“We want to create a university culture that actively engages with its community, to help the region prepare for changing, and to improve the lives of the residents, something that an established university would not be able to do.”

When Aguilar is not working hard on social justice affairs, he enjoys spending time with his wife, 6-year-old daughter and 5-month-old twin boys.