The Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment (S.P.A.C.E) Outreach Program developed by the UCLA student initiated access center are scouting EC students interested in aid with academics and holistic, Regina Capistrano, coordinator said.

“For academics we check up on the student to see how they are doing academically and how their classes are going,” Capistrano said.

The S.P.A.C.E program also follows a holistic wheel that help students get involved with community conditions, school resources, health and wellness, sexuality and gender.

“We pretty much cover everything under the sun,” Capistrano said. “What makes our program really unique is we’re not just here to just peer tutor students or focus on academics, we like to talk about what’s going on in the community, you can call it relevant education.”

The Pilipino based program has been open for three years to all students who desire higher education regardless of ones ethnicity.

“When students see Pilipino they think we’re only concentrated on Pilipino students but were not discriminating, yes we focus on Pilipino trends but we do provide our service for everyone,” Capistrano said.

Although the program stems out of UCLA college they do not only aid students who want to transfer there. Their program helps students who desire to transfer to other 4-year universities like, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Northridge.

“Any form of higher education may it be vocational, cal states,UC or another community college we never discriminate in our program,” Capistrano said.

There are typically 30-40 students who sign up weekly at EC to the S.P.A.C.E Outreach Program but there is room for more.

Most students usually assume that the S.P.A.C.E booth outside the Schauerman Library is for aerospace and astronomy recruitments  so some students are hesitant to sign up, Capistrano said.

Opposed to the Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement program (M.E.S.A), S.P.A.C.E  does not have control over choosing student courses but unlike M.E.S.A there isn’t a list of requirements to join.

“We cannot set our students up with their classes but we can advise them toward the course they should take,” Capistrano said. “We don’t have any requirements for our students because we believe that everybody needs to have that equal access to higher education.”

Students like Sergio Medina, 22, undecided major, who heard about the program consider it to be another great source to have  on campus.

“It sounds like a cool program that can help me decide on a good campus to transfer too,” Medina said.

Another student, Tiana Fields, 20, kinesiology major, also seems to think S.P.A.C.E sounds like a good program to join.

“I never heard of this club until now but it’s good to know there is program out there that doesn’t discriminate and wants to help everyone,” she said.

Interested Students can sign up with the S.P.A.C.E program that is usually located in front of the Schauerman Library every Wednesday and Thursday from 12-4 p.m.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, it doesn’t matter what major you want to pursue ,our service is just out there for students to take advantage of,” Capistrano said.