Azusa Pacific University is unique in its approach to community engagement. Not only are students encouraged to connect with the community through local and global engagement experiences, but many departments participate in academic service learning programs. In these classes, students actively participate in community engagement directly related to their major and career goals. More than 40 service learning courses are offered each semester. APU has a long-standing community partnership between the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences and Azusa Unified School District (AUSD) through the College Headed and Mighty Proud (CHAMP) program.
APU and AUSD have collaborated through CHAMP since 1991. Paul Flores, PhD, a professor of Liberal Studies, took over the CHAMP service learning program in 2000. Flores firmly believes in the importance of experiential learning as a teaching technique at the college level. Hands-on classroom experience with small groups motivates college students to develop an intercultural competency and mature in their understanding of classroom diversity. Academic service learning also allows students to better connect to the learning objectives of the class. “Before CHAMP, a college professor would teach the students a lesson and then the students would practice the skill by teaching it to each other,” Flores said. “Experiential learning has a great impact because our students can interact with real elementary school children which adds the unpredictability of how students interact with you as a teacher. That can’t be duplicated in a college classroom.”
Each APU student in the class is paired with a group of about 10 fourth graders. Their group meets for an hour once a week at the elementary schools for 10 weeks. Each week focuses on a different aspect of college and vocational life. Week one allows APU students to build rapport with their groups. “Relationship development is essential in building cultural competence in an environment where the children can trust their mentors.” Flores said. Many of the children come from different ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds, a challenge that APU students navigate to best help each of their students. Week two focuses on college life where the children are able to learn the basics of what college is like from their mentors. From there, APU students walk their groups through career and major exploration exercises based on their interests, learning about college costs and financial aid, and how to fill out a college application. The final CHAMP experience is a team building day including games and reflection which provided an opportunity for closure.
One of the weekly visits allows AUSD students to come to the APU Azusa campus for
a day. Students are given a tour of both east and west campuses, learn about the different
academic departments and resources, and get to hear about all of the opportunities
college offers. “The questions and conversations the small groups bring up in their
meetings are prevalent during the campus tour, and you can tell that the mentors really
make a difference in these childrens’ lives,” said Kayo Kim, an Academic Service-Learning
Specialist in the Center for Career and Community Engaged Learning.
While APU students greatly benefit from the realistic classroom experience, AUSD as a community partner has been equally as grateful for the partnership, exemplifying principle four of APU’s five principles of community engagement which focuses on mutual and reciprocal relationships. “Service learning is made to be a collaborative effort that is reciprocally tailored to meet the school district’s needs,” Flores said. “All of the superintendents I’ve worked with have been supportive, and current AUSD superintendent Arturo Ortega has been especially enthusiastic about the program.” Flores has created the curriculum with the help of APU faculty as well as AUSD principles and teachers to make sure that all of the students have a positively enriching experience with their mentors.
The highly anticipated conclusion of the program is CHAMP graduation day. After nine weeks of meeting with their mentors, AUSD students, parents, and staff are invited to a formal graduation ceremony on the APU campus to celebrate the children’s completion of the program. Students receive a diploma and share their chosen majors and future careers with attendees. “My favorite part is when the students and school representatives share how CHAMP changed the trajectory of their lives,” Kim said. “Some of these fourth graders will end up coming to APU. When I have meetings in the community, people know about the program and how deeply it impacts the children’s long term goals.” Flores seconded the significance of the CHAMP program on students’ future academic endeavors. “It’s nice and encouraging to see our APU students work with the fourth graders who eventually go to college, graduate, and successfully move forward in their professional lives.”
Flores, along with an Azusa High School teacher and students, recently started the Future Teachers Club at one of the AUSD high schools which draws on the values of CHAMP. The club’s initial members were invited after graduating from CHAMP years prior. “This is an ongoing project, but we connect the high schoolers to APU so that they can learn about getting into college and the path to teaching,” he said. “After our first meeting, many of the students came up to tell me about their experience with the CHAMP program, and the relationship with their college mentors that the students cherish. The key to cultural competence is through the relationships that APU students build with AUSD students to develop a positive and appreciative culture.”
The Future Teachers Club will foster and encourage a passion for teaching similar to the effect CHAMP had on Mangno Perez, a fourth grade teacher in AUSD. Perez graduated from the program in 1999 and is currently in his third year of supporting his own class of students as they go through the program. “Before CHAMP, college was never on my radar because my parents were immigrants and never talked about it,” he said. “I remember touring APU and seeing how big it was and how excited the students were to study there. It made me realize that I could be a part of that community and that there were so many career opportunities out there for me where I could help others.”
Perez earned his bachelor’s degree before returning to Azusa to teach elementary school. “I want my students to realize that they can make a career out of their interests,” he said. “Just as my mentor helped me, now it’s my turn to plant those seeds and encourage the kids that they can all go to college. I can see the sparks in their eyes when they talk about college and careers with their mentors, and I love watching their faces light up when they walk through the Hall of Champions or into the libraries on visit day.”
CHAMP doesn’t just end after the graduation ceremony though. The students continue to grow and find joy in education. Perez recalled one of his students who was very shy. She told Perez she didn’t think anyone would ever applaud for her because she was so quiet, but at the graduation ceremony, everyone celebrating her accomplishments changed her mindset on learning and encouraged her to try harder in school. “She wrote me a note thanking me, letting me know I gave her a lot of confidence, and telling me that she enjoyed the graduation ceremony because of all the people that clapped for her,” Perez said. “It’s still years away, but the kids get to see what it’s like to graduate and have their hard work be acknowledged and celebrated. I want people to know that CHAMP makes a difference in students going to college. It teaches them why college is so important and that they do have what it takes to get there and succeed.”