There are 5,851 full-time students enrolled at Queensborough. In 2007, 228 of them were recruited to participate in the ASAP program. Of these, 31 percent are graduating this year.
QCC had an 11.8 percent graduation rate for the 2005 entering class of full-time freshmen, according to QCC spokeswoman Alice Doyle. Bobbi Brauer, the director of ASAP at Queensborough and one of its creators, said the graduation rate nationwide for community colleges within six years is only 17 percent.
Bernard Polnariev, the director of ASAP at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, said 36 percent of their original group of ASAP students would graduate this August, compared to 12.5 percent of incoming full-time freshmen.
“The goal is to graduate 50 percent of the original students within three years,” Brauer said. By graduating 69 students this year and projecting that 70 ASAP students will graduate in January, the program will have met and exceeded its goal by next year. Brauer hopes to enroll about 60 new students in the ASAP program this year.
Students enrolled in ASAP receive financial benefits such as cost-free tuition, free monthly MetroCards and free use of textbooks.
They also take blocks of classes with other ASAP students, go on trips to museums and Broadway shows and are advised more closely than other Queensborough students.
“We have student managers — who are like advisers, but so much more — and they see the students at least once every two weeks,” Brauer said. The student managers advise ASAP students academically, but also serve as counselors, aiding students with any personal problems.
Fatima Ali, 20, graduated from the ASAP program in June with a degree in Liberal Arts. Ali indicated she had a close relationship with her student manager, a relationship she plans to continue. “She [my student manager] became a friend, for the past two years,” Ali said, “and I think not just to me.”
At LaGuardia, they are called academic advisors instead of student managers, but have the same role, and the same importance. “They are essential,” Polnariev said. “They are the most important part of this program, not the MetroCards, not the tuition waivers.”
Brauer also called the student managers “the key part of the program,” and said they were vital for increasing student retention.
Because of the success, Queensborough has created a new position, freshman coordinator, modeled after ASAP’s student managers, to help provide the same support and mentoring to other incoming freshmen.
ASAP is funded by the citywide Center for Economic Opportunity, a part of Bloomberg’s anti-poverty strategy.
This year, eligibility requirements have changed for ASAP hopefuls, imposing an income threshold and requiring students to prove deficient on one of the proficiency exams incoming CUNY students take in reading, writing and math. The goal behind these eligibility standards, Brauer explained, is to accept students who need help, but will also take advantage of the opportunity. “We want to take students who, with our help, will have a chance to succeed,” she said.
Ali, from Fresh Meadows, now works at a public library and has already began working toward a Ph.D. in English at Queens College. “I see the ASAP program as a stepping stone,” she said. “I did get a lot of support from them so now I can fly solo.”
Those interested in ASAP should call (718) 631-6680.
|
|
