useful Links
2012 Westop conference in sacramento, ca - link
Become a Westop Member:
upcoming events
fRiday, January 27th, 2012
Cencal Meeting
@ csu monterey bay
contact:
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
Trio day 2012
@ various locations
contact:
Welcome!
The Central California WESTOP Chapter is a network of members interested in furthering access to educational opportunities for economically and educationally disadvantaged persons and persons with disabilities by enhancing members' professional development and equipping members with the right tools necessary in promoting institutional approaches at the local level and furthering policies at both the state and federal level which would advance educational equity.
This chapter is located in the geographical center of California’s most productive agricultural region, Central California (Monterey, Kern, Stanislaus, Tulare, San Joaquin, Madera counties, Kings, San Luis Obispo, Merced and Fresno county) is home to approximately 4 million people.
The target area is one of the fastest growing areas in California, but this growth has been accompanied by escalating poverty rates, chronic unemployment, limited urban exposure and excessively low levels of educational attainment that far surpass levels in other major metropolitan and rural areas. In fact, given its extensive size, Central California is perhaps the neediest region in the West in terms of its economic and educational opportunities.
Amongst the programs we serve are: EDUCATIONAL TALENT SEARCH, UPWARD BOUND, STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES, EOC, AND MCNAIR PROGRAMS. We welcome all TRiO programs to participate in our CENCAL activities.
A disproportionately high percentage of rural residents first migrated to the region seeking seasonal farm employment. Farm workers are among the least educated and poorest members of the American labor force, and their educational and economic disadvantages are historically passed along to the vast majority of their children. By contrast, urban residents in the target area are far more diverse, comparable in many respects to those residing in other major California cities. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of this latter group is also unemployed or underemployed.
Our target counties have high unemployment rate. The Central California WESTOP Chapter serves over 35 TRIO programs. We believe there is an intense need for our Central California WESTOP Chapter.
We thank you for visiting our website and hope you learn and become more interested in how we network amongst each other and continue to serve our educational programs.
last updated Monday, January 23, 2012
Welcome to our Westop Cencal Chapter Homepage
Martina Granados accepts the Steve Holeman award, an award designated to a director in WESTOP TRiO who exemplifies hard work and mentorship towards keeping staff and participants on track and bound towards success. Martina was the 1st CenCal director to receive this prestigious award!
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SUMMER JAM
We held our Annual Summer Jam this past summer at College of the Sequoias on Friday, June 24th, 2011. We had over 300 high school student participants from various TRiO programs attend. They were all from Cencal Upward Bound and Cencal Educational Talent Search Programs, coming from all around the state ranging from Monterey, Modesto, Fresno, San Jose, and Kern & Kings County. It was a great fundraiser for our chapter, as well as a great time full of laughter and fun for our Summer Jam Participants. For more pictures, click on the link on our menu box an top of the screen! Go Summer Jam 2011!!
TRiO DAY/ Student Leadership Conference
Last year many of our Cencal Programs from various SSS, Upward Bounds, and Educational Talent Search programs met at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for our annual TRiO Day/ Student Leadership Conference. Our participants had a jam-packed day full of activities and speakers that motivated them to keep promoting our TRiO programs as well as build leadership skills in themselves. We hope that next year we we can match the huge number of participants and offer them all that we can!! For For more pictures of TRiO Day/ SLC, click on the link on our menu box an top of the screen!
SCHOLARSHIPS
One of the best things that comes from collaborating amongst our TRiO programs is the scholarships that we offer each year to our CenCal Chapter participants. Last years was no exception as we offered 15 participants $400 scholarships to help with their college expenses. That’s about $5000 that we fundraised, and hope to continue to fundraise this year through our events and fundraisers. Contact our Scholarship Chair or Fundraising Chair on our Board page for more info.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
Every Fall our Counselors, Directors, and Staff Members from our various Cencal TRiO Programs get together for our Annual Professional Development Seminar we host each year. This year we met our expectations by having a great number of attendees, as well as collaboration amongst colleagues in the educational setting to assist in making the workshops and presentations worth our trip to Stanford University. If you would like to see more of what occurred at our PDS this year click on the link on top of the page for that information.
