From the Director's Desk:
Dear Staff, Students, Alumni, and Friends:
Late spring is a great time of year for all of us here at AAP. For us and, more important, for our students, it's a time full of possibilities and promise. In a few weeks, hundreds of our students will be graduating (many of them with Honors), dozens of these students have already been accepted to graduate schools and professional programs across the country, and this time period also encompasses our four Scholars Days as well as the announcement of the AAP Scholarship winners for the 2009 - 2010 academic year (Click Here to see a list of winners, Scholarship Committee members, and sponsoring organizations).
Our Scholar Days were extraordinarily successful thanks to the efforts of Dr. John Hamilton, our recently appointed Director of New Student Programs, as well as his dedicated staff. Additional full-time AAP staff helped out at this event, as did over 40 student volunteers. In all, close to 100 AAP staff and student staff worked together to insure that our Scholar Days were a great success. Over 1,000 invited students attended, as well as almost 1,700 parents and relatives.
Many of these same students will take part in our Freshman and Transfer Summer Programs (F/TSP) which take place during the last half of the summer. Approximately 450 students will participate in F/TSP, and virtually all of them will receive between 10 and 12 units, most of which will carry Honors credit.
While F/TSP occupies the second half of summer, AAP will be full of activity during the first half of summer as well. Two of our outreach programs, VIPS and CCCP, are quite busy during Summer Session A. During the academic year, VIPS works on a weekly basis with talented and promising high school students, and CCCP works with similar students who attend community colleges (see Unit highlight below). Taken together, VIPS, CCCP and F/TSP this summer will bring over a thousand students to the UCLA campus for anywhere from a few days to a few months. To all of these students, AAP extends a warm welcome and an open invitation to join the "community of scholars" that makes AAP the success that it is and a place where hopes and goals become reality.
On a final note, I want to congratulate the 37 students who won AAP Scholarships, and I want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the more than 50 members of the AAP Scholarship Council. Each of the members not only read hundreds of pages of personal statements, letters of recommendation, and essays, but many of the members also made generous contributions to the scholarship fund.
Sincerely,
Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D.
Director - AAP
Unit Highlight: Center for Community College Partnerships -
CCCP is responsible for developing and strengthening academic partnerships between UCLA and California community colleges, particularly those with large underrepresented student populations. The Center works closely with the UCLA Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Community College Transfer Recruitment staff and other campus offices to help coordinate UCLA's overall efforts with community colleges. In addition to its regular session outreach efforts, the Center is responsible for a series of summer programs which seek to inspire and motivate first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented community college students to transfer by introducing them to the rigors of university life and by providing them with the necessary information to transfer:
SITE: Summer Intensive Transfer Experience - SITE is a 5-day residential program that will teach students how to navigate the community college system; complete the appropriate coursework; and maximize their time in order to make a smooth, quick and successful transition to a University of California campus.
STEP: Summer Transfer Enrichment Program - UCLA's Office of Summer Sessions & Special Programs along with the Center for Community College Partnerships invites selected students to take a FREE Course at UCLA through the Summer Transfer Enrichment Program (STEP). The courses are offered through the regular summer sessions course schedule. The program covers the cost of the course, registration fees, books and, if needed, some of the transportation expenses. This is a commuter program, NOT a residential program.
STP: Summer Transfer Program - STP is a 5-day residential program that prepares students who are close to transferring with the skills to complete the appropriate coursework and assists them with the application process. In addition, students receive individual advising and personal assistance to complete the application and personal statement. Students explore their career options, graduate school and financial resources available to them. The program introduces them to research opportunities, the demands of University writing, and the many support programs available. The program focuses on the history of and resources available to African-American students at UCLA.
AAP Staff in the News:
Dr. Charles N. Bertolami - president of the American Dental Education Association - presented Presidential Citations to 10 "leaders," among them our own Director of AAP, Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost for Student Diversity at the University of California, Los Angeles. The awardees:
demonstrated exceptional service to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). As Dean for Student Affairs at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry, Dr. Alexander created and implemented the first and largest post baccalaureate program in dentistry for economically and educationally underserved populations. Under his supervision, more than a hundred previously unsuccessful applicants gained admission to dental schools, and many have gone on to dental specialization.
The AAP staff congratulates him on this award and feels fortunate that he is using his energy and skills on behalf of our students.
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