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Title V – HSI

What Does It Mean to be an HSI?

Embracing our HSI Identity

Berkeley City College is proud to be formally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and embraces our identity as an HSI serving Latinx and Chicanx students through our Conocimiento Los Caminos project. Our work is centered on equity and racial justice at Berkeley City College and we consider this as part of our commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity and antiracist action. We recognize the persistence of historical and structural systems of inequality and are implementing measurable steps towards equity and justice. We affirm our intent to act upon these values and hold ourselves accountable to the land and its people: our students, our communities and on another. We view the work as an HSI as integral to equity and racial equity and embrace the need to transform our institution beyond being Hispanic-enrolling to Latinx/Chicanx serving as a means to Transform Lives.

Pathway to Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

Berkeley City College is committed to developing an integrated infrastructure to support and meet the needs of all of our college campus community, to reach our racial equity imperative and build student academic success through the pathway of building a sense of belonging for our students. As part of that, Berkeley City College is committed to building and fostering a sense of belonging for our students through student-centered programming that integrates high impact practices and utilizes leadership, practice and data to support evidence-based decision making.  The final aim of our HSI work is to expand services for marginalized and minoritized communities by interrogating and transforming our systems with an equity advancing lens.

Conocimiento Los Caminos

About Conocimiento Los Caminos (CLC)

The term Conocimiento means to knowledge, to know and build familiarity. Conocimiento Los Caminos is building our family with Latina, Latinx, and Latino students to support them intentionally.  We are transforming the spaces at Berkeley City College (BCC) to raise Latinx student achievement, build capacity of faculty and staff to serve Latinx students, and build community across stakeholders.

As part of Berkeley City College’s commitment to its diverse student population, Conocimiento Los Caminos is BCC’s inaugural DHSI (Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions) Title V grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded in 2020, Conocimiento Los Caminos will provide services to BCC’s Latinx- and Chicanx- identifying students and other underrepresented students.

Conocimiento Los Caminos is working to support Latinx and other students of color support in retention and graduation rates by providing enhanced support and advising, transitioning from high school to community college and post-secondary education and increase outreach and retention as well as provide professional development opportunities for BCC’s staff, faculty and community centered on our HSI identity and equity.

“As a Chicana and first-generation college student, I am humbled to serve as President for a college that ensures students from all backgrounds have access to higher education with the resources they need in order to succeed”, BCC President Angélica Garcia has said of Conocimiento Los Caminos.

Project Goals

Conocimiento Los Caminos has four major goals structured around meeting student success, transfer student success, career & job placement and professional development. Specifically, the project aims to:

  • Increase the Latinx/Chicanx freshman retention rate
  • Increase the annual rate of degree or certificate completion
  • Increase BCC’s Latinx student transfer rate
  • Increase the preparation of BCC’s Latinx student employment rate
  • Increase the number of faculty participating in professional development

Project Staff

Lissette Maria Flores
HSI Director
Conocimiento los Caminos
Email: lflores@peralta.edu

Adriana "Dri" Regalado
Counselor and Instructor
Conocimiento los Caminos
The Puente Project
Email: aregalado@peralta.edu

Zaira Sanchez
HSI Program Coordinator
Conocimiento los Caminos
Email: zsanchez@peralta.edu

Embracing our HSI Identity and Servingness

Berkeley City College’s HSI Timeline

Fall 2019 – BCC Reaches Latinx Student Enrollment

Identified as having enrolled 25% or more Latinx and Chicanx students, BCC submits an application to the U.S. Department of Education requesting approval of eligibility

 

January 2020 – BCC Approved as an HSI 

On January 30, 2020, Berkeley City College received official notification of our designation as an eligible institution under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act of 1965

 

February 2020 – Submission of DHSI Grant Application

In February 2020, Berkeley City College submitted its first DHSI grant application proposing Conocimiento Los Caminos

 

October 2020 – Grant Application Approved and Conocimiento Los Caminos Begins

On October 2020, Conocimiento Los Caminos officially began its first grant year, and project ramp-up begins

 

August 2021 – First Puente Cohort begins

The first Puente cohort begins at the start of the 2021-2022 Academic Year, as part of BCC’s Learning Communities.  Outreach at the regional high schools, including Berkeley High School, Oakland Tech, Castlemont, Skyline, and Emery High School also begin and continue throughout the 2021-2022 Academic Year

 

January 2022 – First “Bienvenida de BCC” held

To support students in their transition back to in-person classes after the pandemic, Conocimiento Los Caminos hosts its first Bienvenida a BCC, a resource tour of BCC’s campus the many resources for first-generation college students, or those that are the first in their families to graduate from college

 

January 2022 – Annual HSI Designation Approved

As part of its annual designation, BCC applies for continued eligibility of its HSI designation and is approved for the 2022 year.

 

April 2022 – 1st Annual BCC Career Fair Held

As part of the work of Conocimiento Los Caminos, BCC hosts its first annual Career Education and Career Fair in partnership with BCC’s Career Education, the Career and Transfer Center, and BCC Counseling. Over 200 students, faculty, and staff participate in the day-long event.

HSI Grant Overview

Title V, Part A – Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (DHSI) Grants

Awarded by the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) with the U.S. Department of Education, Title V grants are one of three grant programs managed by the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Division.

The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program (Title V, Part A) provides grants to HSIs to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the attainment of, Latinx/Chicanx students. These grants also enable HSIs to expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability. The purpose is to:

  • Expand educational opportunities for, and improve the academic attainment of Latinx/Chicanx students; and
  • Expand and enhance the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of colleges and universities that educate the majority of Latinx/Chicanx (Hispanic) students

Title V DHSI grants are five-year grants that are awarded on a competitive basis.

HSI Grant-Funded Program

In 2020, Berkeley City College was awarded its first Title V DHSI grant, Conocimiento Los Caminos (CLC). Conocimiento los Caminos supports:

  • Enhanced counseling and advising
  • Student transition from high school to community college and post-secondary education
  • Student transition into careers
  • Increased outreach to Latinx students
  • Expanded professional development opportunities for BCC’s Student Success Team, faculty, administrators, and the community