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By Cameron Zargar

For The Daily Bruin

Jean Carn, a fourth-year UCLA student, will continue her academic journey – which began in a Georgia community college – when she attends USC law school this fall.

Carn said her success resulted from the guidance and encouragement provided by the Academic Advancement Program at UCLA.

“AAP helped me know what was to be expected of me,” Carn said. “UCLA is a large and overwhelming school. AAP helped ease the pressure by showing us around campus.”

AAP assists low-income households, first generation college students and students facing other significant social and educational barriers.

The services provided include counseling, tutoring, academic guidance and encouragement for students as they make the transition to university life from a community college or high school.

When Carn encountered difficulty transferring from the community college atmosphere, AAP assisted her personally and helped her devise a solution.

“When my credits from Georgia State University would not transfer over here, AAP helped me file petitions to credit my units here,” she said.

Carn added that her counselors and tutors would even provide their home phone number.

“It’s a lot more personal,” she said. “It’s a friendly environment, one in which you are not afraid to ask questions.”

Masai Minters, director of counseling, mentoring and TRIO in AAP, said currently between five and six thousand students use services provided by AAP.

TRIO is a national organization providing educational opportunities for low-income and disabled students.

Although there is a list of other programs providing similar services at UCLA, Minters said he believed AAP has seen the most success.

“AAP is the largest and most successful retention program in the United States,” Minters said. “But that comes in part from working with the other programs at UCLA and from collaboration with similar programs around the nation.”

In addition to tutorial programs, peer counseling, graduate mentor programs and services for transfer students, AAP has created specialized programming for students seeking jobs in social development.

The Teachers for Tomorrow program assists students interested in becoming teachers for kindergarten through high school while the Rosa Parks Center helps students pursuing degrees in social justice, law, medicine, public health and social welfare.

This extra aid provided by AAP, however, is not available for everyone at UCLA, said Donald Wasson, AAP associate director

Wasson said the admissions office determines eligibility for AAP.

“The admissions office looks at what schools the students attended and if they have faced significant barriers,” Wasson said. “Then students not in AAP can apply, and if they have substantial barriers, they can receive tutoring.”

Minters emphasized that AAP is not a form of affirmative action.

Although AAP was intended to serve students of minority ethnicities at first, the program can no longer use race or ethnicity as criteria to accept students with the passage of the UC Regents’ SP-1 and with Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in the University of California and in California, respectively.

“AAP was founded in the early ’70s,” Minters said. “It was initially developed to provide academic, social, and personal support for historically underrepresented students on a traditionally hostile campus.”

These “underrepresented” students included first generation and low income college students, according to Minters.

“There is no proxy for race,” Minters said. “AAP existed before and after the end of affirmative action.”

Even today, a majority of the students in AAP are minorities, Wasson said.

“It is no longer the case that every underrepresented student meets the criteria for AAP, whereas before, that was the case,” Wasson said. “We’re still largely a service that serves minority students and students of underrepresented ethnicities make up the majority of our program.”

AAP is not the only specialized counseling service at UCLA. It works in collaboration with a number of other campus groups to provide students with the necessary tools to succeed in college, Wasson said.

Among such programs at UCLA are the Program Leading to Undergraduate Success, a department of education TRIO program, the Center of Academic Research Excellence, which assists students in science research, and the Center for Excellence in Engineering Diversity, which helps students in the field of engineering.

According to Minters, AAP works with these groups to encourage their students to get involved.

“Being in one program does not mean excluding yourself from others,” Minters said. “We strongly encourage AAP students to participate in all programs that enrich their academic, personal, and leadership experience, as well as their social consciousness while here at UCLA.”

Though only a specific minority of students are granted access to AAP, many of those eligible never take advantage of the services.

Arlene Pesigan, a counselor for the College of Letters and Sciences, said AAP students often come to L&S looking for help never realizing they should go to AAP counseling.

“We emphasize taking advantage of AAP because we’re really booked,” Pesigan said. “L&S counselors refer AAP students to take advantage of AAP, get to know the counselors there.

“Their programs are really geared toward their academic needs,” Pesigan continued. “It’s a more intimate and supportive environment.”

L&S Counselors also refer AAP students to utilize the services provided for them because they do not have AAP student files, Pesigan said.

“We refer our AAP students to AAP because, pragmatically, we don’t even have their files,” Pesigan said. “We want to minimize inconsistency as far as administrative paper work or follow-up.”

Pesigan encouraged students to take advantage of AAP counseling so that L&S counselors can have more time to help students who are not in other academic advising programs.

“The students who are eligible for AAP take up slots that should be available for L&S students who are not eligible for AAP, honors or athletic programs,” Pesigan said. “This takes away from our attention to L&S students.”

Some students who are eligible for AAP still choose L&S counseling because of time constraints.

“In terms of time, L&S has a lot more availability slots,” Pesigan said. “While in L&S they can see counselors the same day, AAP is booked in advance.”

Although many students may feel anonymous due to the institutionality of a major university, Carn said AAP was a comforting atmosphere within UCLA.

“It’s hard to know what the ongoings are at such a large campus,” she said. “AAP helps navigate the rest of the campus – and it’s comforting to know where you’re going.”

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