Last Updated on Monday, 10 January 2011 02:34

About South Seattle Community College

Located on an 87-acre hilltop overlooking Elliott Bay in Seattle, South Seattle Community College offers a panoramic view of the city skyline and surrounding mountains. This unique setting serves as a portal of opportunity for students with diverse needs to prepare to meet their educational and career goals. South is one of the most diverse higher education institutions in Washington State, and serves a population of 20% Asian American and Pacific Islander students on its main campus.

South's Approach

The AANAPISI program at South has focused on developing programs, activities, curriculum and other resources to promote student success. While the program focuses on developing strategies that are culturally relevant to Asian American and Pacific Islander students, these resources are available to all students and will promote the success and retention of South students overall.

The South project features these four categories of strategies:

1. Improved AAPI Freshman Experiences

2. Increased AAPI Transitions to College Coursework

3. Improved AAPI Retention, Intervention Strategies, and Outreach

4. Increased AAPI Graduation and Transfer to Four-Year Institutions

About South's AANAPISI program

South's program expanded to a third year of administration to allow for proper implementation and institutionalization of its efforts. A broad menu of services and programs have been developed in each of the four strategies.

1. Improved AAPI Freshman Experiences

• Implemented Clustered Learning Communities (CLC) that paired a developmental English or math course with a college skills course
• Peer Navigators were assigned to a caseload of students in each CLC to aid in college navigation in a students' first quarter

2. Increased AAPI Transitions to College Coursework

• A Transition Portfolio was expanded and tested, and has now been adopted in South's Basic and Transitional Studies division.
• Transition workshops were developed and are offered quarterly to guide ESL and basic skills students in various topics on college program preparedness.

3. Improved AAPI Retention, Intervention Strategies, and Outreach

• Family Actions for College Success, a family orientation workshop, was developed to help address the college literacy gap for many first generation college student families.
• A series of college success videos, Making Achievement Possible, have been developed to address various topics of student success and retention.
• This Asian American and Pacific Islander Higher Education Resource Center was developed to share promising practices among the higher education community in how to serve AAPI students well.

4. Increased AAPI Graduation and Transfer to Four-Year Institutions

• An Associate of Arts degree emphasis in Asian and Pacific Islander studies has been developed
• An Associate of Elementary Education degree has been implemented to encourage more AAPI students to become teachers and role models in our community.