Getting into  a university can be complicated for some students. However, these students have a resource at DVC to help them. “Puente” is a program that helps them to follow a career and many of the students today show their success leading important projects.

Patrick Leong started the program at DVC in 1997 after several months of training at the University of California at Berkeley. This program helped the Latino students to develop leadership skills and when they graduate they come back to help others. In this way Puente helps to encourage the Latino community to have a higher level of education.
Puente is a “one -year, pre-transfer program” said Leong. It is for all the Latino students that meet the eligibility criteria. For those able to follow all the steps of the three components of the program which are: English 118 and 122, counseling and work with the mentors.

Leong said that success of the program can be counted through “hundreds of students that using ‘Puente’ have transferred to diverse universities.” He pointed particularly to Arturo Castillo, a DVC student who used “Puente” and now is the project director of La Clínica; a health organization in the Bay Area.
María Reyes, a student who through Puente was able to get in to San Diego University, now has come back to the community with an education program for the Monument neighborhood.

“I heard of Puente through a friend… I was struggling with my English class, I felt that I did not have the right level to go forward” said Angel Silva, a DVC business administration student from El Salvador. He wanted to be part of the program and then met with a counselor at the counseling department and she led him until he got in the program.
How does one get in to Puente?

Silva started meeting with a counselor, Silvia Delgado. Second, he filed an application form in the Internet and attended a group workshop to learn the general procedures of the program. Although, Silva only attended the program  general procedures of the program. Although Silva only attended the program one semester he said, he is now ready to go back during the fall of 2012 because Puente is going to help him to gain the leadership skills he needs to be successful.
Silva’s mentor is drama professor Ed Trujillo, whom is also the adviser of the Latino Student Alliance at DVC. “A mentor does not necessarily need to be a professor,” said Silva. “It can also be a business person, counselor or any successful person who can advice the student about his or her specific project.”

Some students have never heard about Puente, like Jorge Acosta, who attended ESL and now English classes. Acosta said he has been in different orientation programs to help his senior daughter to find the right way to get in the university but hadn’t heard about this program.

Acosta said what students need is a one-on-one orientation but “not only general information… what’s needed is help about how to do all the procedures to get admitted and where we can do them.”
Leong said Puente works individually with each student’s needs. “The mentor gives them an academic guidance,” said Leong.

Silva also states, “If I hadn’t attended Puente, I wouldn’t go forward as I am now.”