Long Beach City College recently started up two programs, thanks to a $4 million grant from the federal government.
The grant was specifically given to LBCC due to its federal designation as a college that predominantly serves minorities, which allows the college access to specific government grants in order to better assist its students.
Called a Postsecondary Student Success Grant, the college received the grant in order to build a program for students who did not attend college directly after high school or who left the education system and are now returning to college.
These students, called “indirectly matriculated” students may face more difficulty navigating college registration and resources, as the process may have changed or students may not have been taught how to register and find resources in high school.
The result of this grant is the Success and Completion Achievement Network (SCAN) program that works with designated counselors and peer navigators to help qualifying students.
Peer navigators are LBCC students hired to help SCAN students connect to campus resources and navigate things like class registration or scheduling appointments for any student services they may need.
The program emphasizes the need of having a community with shared experiences in order to find success, meaning peer navigators also have experience as indirectly matriculated students.
Alongside SCAN, LBCC has also implemented the Postsecondary Achievement and Success Opportunity (PASO) program.
PASO is specifically focused on assisting Hispanic students, due to the college receiving funding as a Hispanic serving institution.
On the other hand, SCAN more broadly focuses on students of color, and students over the age of 25 who indirectly matriculated to LBCC.
According to Interim Director of Academic Success and Support Services Alice Martinez, the school received the grant in January of 2024 and began work on getting peer navigators and counselors trained to start assisting students.
Currently peer navigators are reaching out to students who qualify through email or phone call to get them enrolled in the program.
“At the moment, because the grant called for specific criteria of who would be a student identified for SCAN, we worked closely with our team to ensure that we were selecting students and giving them the option to opt in,” Martinez said.
Oscar Diaz, a peer navigator for PASO, explained that alongside making phone calls to his students, he makes phone calls for students to help them access financial aid services or help them apply for grants and programs like EOPS.
“Because we are students, and have been (in the same place these students are) we can help them,” Diaz said.
Peer navigators and counselors work both in person and remotely to best serve students’ needs.
The program currently has offices in the LAC A building, room 1144, as well as sharing space with the First Year Experience Center in the basement of the E building.