Los Medanos College has set couple of goals for itself for the coming years, one of which is to increase the number of students who transfer to four-year schools.

With that goal in mind, and with the help of the Title 5 EXITO grant beginning on Oct. 1 2010, LMC created the Transfer Academy, which is now accepting applications for it’s third run beginning in Fall 2013.

“There are about 160 students in the program now,” said Dave Belman, director of the program. “We hope to increase that number by 90 to 100 students.”

The Transfer Academy is a cohort program, which generally pairs two classes that are attended by the same group, or cohort, of students.

There are a few requirements for entry in to the program.

Students must be eligible for Math 34 or higher, and must be planning to enroll in English 100 or 221.

Students must also commit to going to school full-time and to take Transfer Academy classes.

Students must also sign the 2012-2013 Student Agreement/Contract and have at least a 2.0 GPA to apply.

The Transfer Academy is the ninth special program that has been created in recent years, joining the Puente, MESA, Umoja, Honors, ACE, Stat Path, Math Path and AVID programs.

Andre Cubit, a graduate of the LMC’s ACE cohort program, expressed interest in signing up for the Transfer Academy.

“When I first came here I had that get in and get out mentality. ACE helped me see things in myself that I didn’t see in myself,” Cubit said.

Cubit said he would like to transfer and study business, to complement his automotive technology education.

According to the December 10, 2010 General Education meeting minutes, too few Hispanic and low-income students are transferring, and students don’t make enough use of academic, transfer, and support services.

With funds from the EXITO grant, the planned strategies to address those challenges included the creation of the Transfer Academy, the scaling up of learning communities and a new Dean of Institutional Effectiveness that will be partially funded through the grant.