About 1,200 parents, students and faculty members gathered in
Ackerman Grand Ballroom on Saturday for the Academic Advancement
Program’s Annual Freshman Scholars Day to discuss the
benefits of joining the UCLA academic community.
The event provided the incoming freshmen a forum to discuss
concerns and expectations about the college experience with staff
members and students.
“The program serves to communicate to the students that
the university cares about them,” said Associate Vice Provost
and Director of AAP Adolfo Bermeo. “We emphasize that once
they decide to come to UCLA they will be part of an academic
community that will encourage them to excel.”
Bermeo described the success of the program in recruiting
potential students by stating that traditionally about 80 percent
of the students who attend Scholars Day will enroll at UCLA.
“There is a perception that a big research university is
impersonal but we’re trying to break this image down,”
said Bermeo.
As one of the keynote speakers, Bermeo related his experiences
of coming to the United States at age 14 from Mexico and being the
first person in his family to attend college.
He said that when he started college in 1962 there were less
than 100 African and Latino Americans at UCLA. He related how he
easily could have felt out of place.
But Bermeo encouraged students to join the UCLA family and
reassured them that they earned their right to be accepted.
“UCLA does not do any favors or let people in because of
the color of their skin or because of what their last name
is,” he said. “You have been accepted here because you
were in the top six to seven percent of students.”
AAP was founded in 1970 to encourage disadvantaged students, who
are most often from low-income families and are first-generation
college students, to achieve academic excellence, said Bermeo.
“AAP is part of the historic struggle to rectify social
injustices and economic inequities and to guarantee educational
access and opportunity to all people,” Bermeo said.
The program has been nationally recognized as the most
innovative and successful retention program, with the highest
graduation rate in the country.
Mirza Lopez, an incoming freshman from St. Mathias High School
in South Gate, Calif., explained that the size of the school was
not as foreboding a concern as are worries about simply fitting in
at UCLA.
“I don’t mind a big or small school ““
it’s just a matter of whether or not I’ll fit
in,” Lopez said. “I feel like maybe these other
students got to do other things in high school which we were not
able to do.”
Lopez, who has also been accepted to UC Berkeley and Columbia
University, excelled in academics and was heavily involved with
sports and the student government at her small private school of
500 students.
Yet despite her academic and extracurricular achievements, Lopez
still expressed concerns about social and academic integration at a
large school where she may feel like a minority.
“The fact that there is a program like AAP makes me feel
that there is actually a need to address the issue of fitting in at
UCLA as a minority student,” Lopez said.
“It makes it seem like this is an issue that needs special
attention and that minority students need to be pushed further in
order to excel,” she added.
Incoming freshman Ben Idemundia, from South Gate High School,
was recruited to play football for UCLA. He emphasized his concern
about balancing academics and athletics but affirmed his probable
attendance at UCLA.
“I’m still weighing the benefits of deciding between
Loyola Marymount and UCLA, but this program has helped me get a
better idea of what UCLA has to provide,” Idemundia said.