Current Students

Cañada Students Participate in Student Panel at Basic Skills Education Summer Institute

Three Cañada students participated in the 2009 Basic Skills Initiative Summer Institute held at San Francisco State University held June 14-20. Representatives from 30 California community colleges were there to learn how to better prepare students who need help with basic skills education.

Cañada students Yanira Piedra, Ben Smith, and Maricela Prado explained how Cañada programs such as Crossing Borders and TRIO helped them achieve their educational goals. Yanira, a 2008 Hillsdale High School graduate, received a 4.0 GPA in her first semester in college. She made Cañada's Dean List and explained to educators from around the state how Cañada's programs aimed at helping students master basic skills in English, math, and reading provided her with the confidence to achieve a perfect grade point average in her first semester.

Ben described how he was not a successful high school student and had a fear of mathematics. It wasn't until he enrolled in a learning community at Cañada that featured intensive mathematics training that he succeeded in the subject. This fall he will be leaving Cañada and enrolling at San Jose State University.

Maricela arrived in the U.S. from Mexico in 2002 and immediately started working on her English. Because of Cañada's successful approach to providing students with basic skills education, Maricela quickly learned English and this spring applied to transfer to U.C. Berkeley and has been accepted in the prestigious Biology Scholars Program at Cal where she will study Molecular Cell Biology with an emphasis in cell development biology. She is currently working as a research technician at Biostride Inc., with Dr. Henry Tom and a team of six scientists.

For more information about enrolling in one of Cañada's successful basic skills programs go to Crossing Borders or First Year Exprience.