San Diego State University launches program to help urban youngsters aim for higher education
Voice of San Diego
September 8, 2010
San Diego State University is launching a new program to help local students get into the university, partnering with a Reality Changers, a local nonprofit that works to help inner city youth become the first in their families to go to college.
Starting this year, high schoolers who participate in Reality Changers from sophomore to their senior year and make good grades are guaranteed a spot at San Diego State.
Providing a guaranteed route to college is even more important now, after San Diego State has stopped guaranteeing admission to local students who met minimum, lower-than-usual criteria.
Dropping the local guarantee was decried by San Diego Unified School District and activists from the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union opposed SDSU dropping the guarantee, saying it would strand teens who had long expected they would have a place at the school. As a result of the change, San Diego State cut back the number and percentage of its students admitted from local high schools this year. The Union-Tribune reported that 870 more local students would have been allowed in under the old rules.
