Update: 9:35 a.m. April 15, “Pizarro” has been changed from “Pazarro.”

During a board of trustees meeting in November, President Thomas Fallo announced that the Puente Project will be back next fall. But with the efforts of the campus and Dr. Rachel Lewis Ketai, co-coordinator of the program, the program has been back since the beginning of the spring.

“President Fallo received a letter from Dr. Francisco Arce, our Vice President of Academic Affairs,” Ketai said. “They basically recommended that Puente come out of hiatus in the Spring of 2015.”

Ketai said she is relieved and also encouraged by the commitment the campus is showing to institutionalizing this program.

“It has been on campus for 30 years but there has been some instability in terms of our ability to have a full time team in place and for the program to receive all the support it deserves,” Ketai said.

Puente, founded in 1981, provides services to students to help them transfer to four-year colleges and universities. The program is open to all students. The only requirements is they have to be registered for English A in the fall and have a desire to transfer.

Ketai said the program is currently in the process of hiring another full-time counselor.

“The goal is that two teams could rotate in-and-out of the program every three years,” Ketai said. “It’s a model that has been successful on some other campuses that leads to more stability.”

Counselor Griselda Castro said she’ll serve for three years then step down and continue working with the previous cohorts she recruited.

“The other counselor will step in and continue to recruit, and of course I’ll help out,” Castro said. “That’s the way to help out with the burnout issue because there’s quite a bit of planning. We get re-energized, step down, re-group then come back.”

Ketai believes that the future is going to be very bright for the program.

“We support the students until they transfer,” Ketai said. “The goal is that they come back to the community as a leader and a mentor.”

Kevin Pizzaro, 18, Sociology, who was recently voted club president of the program, said he’s really happy he participated in the program. In Puente, everyone motivates each other.

“Being in a community college, it’s really easy to get lost in the crowd,” Pizzaro said. “Being in Puente, I really found a community of students who really want to advance their education and that really motivated me to continue my education.”