About Puente
The Puente Project is an interdisciplinary program with writing, counseling, and mentoring components that is co-sponsored by the University of California and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. The program is headquartered at UC Berkeley, where Puente leadership staff work closely with site team partners (English instructors and counselors) to implement the program at middle schools, high schools, and community colleges across California and Texas.
The Puente Project is a national award-winning program that, for over 40 years, has improved the college-going rate of tens of thousands of California’s educationally disadvantaged students. Its mission is to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees, and return to their communities as mentors and leaders for future generations.
Puente is open to all students. Started in 1981 at Chabot College, the program has since expanded to 40 high schools, 11 middle schools, and 81 community colleges statewide.
Puente was founded in 1981 by Felix Galaviz and Patricia McGrath at Chabot College in Hayward. The program was launched as a grassroots initiative to address the low rate of academic achievement among Mexican American and Latino students. In an effort to understand the possible causes of their high dropout rate, Galaviz and McGrath reviewed over 2,000 student transcripts.
They discovered three key patterns among Latino students: students were avoiding academic counseling, students were not enrolling in college-level writing courses, and students were the first in their families to attend college.
The Puente model that emerged in response to these patterns comprises three components: rigorous language arts instruction, sustained academic counseling, and community leadership development and mentoring.
Puente's 35th End of the Year Celebration
Puente Statewide Mentor Summit, March 3, 2022
Puente Class, of 2022 graduates from Gavilan College on May 27, 2022