Growing Inland Achievement

Category: Initiatives

  • Let’s get our Inland Empire students #FinancialPaid

    Let’s get our Inland Empire students #FinancialPaid

    October 1 marked the start of the financial aid application period for the 2023-2024 school year. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), California Dream Act Application (CADAA), and Chafee Grant for Foster Youth (CHAFEE) are now open for submissions.

    With FAFSA completion being one of the strongest predictors of postsecondary enrollment, it is one of the most critical things we can collectively support to boost Inland Empire student success and economic mobility.

    Inland Empire leaders have urged Inland Empire high schools to reach 90% annual FAFSA completion rates by 2026. The region has made progress—last year, 52% of our Inland Empire high school seniors applied for aid—yet there is still much work to do to achieve our regional 90% completion goal.

    GIA is excited to announce that we recently became the official California Cash for College Regional Coordinating Organization (RCO) for the Inland Empire. Our staff has been busy scheduling workshops at high schools throughout the region to support Inland students with FAFSA, CADAA, and CHAFEE applications. We will also provide several train-the-trainer sessions where partners can become official C4C host organizations.

         GIA employee, Julissa Loza Mendez, at an event promoting Cash for College resources

    We need help from the entire Inland Empire educational network to increase application numbers and get more money into the hands of our students to pursue their college dreams. Here are three ways that you can help right now:

    1. Consider hosting a workshop at your organization. Please contact Julissa Loza Mendez, Coordinator of Network Engagement, at Julissa@gia.echofactory.dev.

    2. Volunteer to help at a C4C workshop. GIA needs several volunteers to assist with upcoming regional C4C events at our local high schools.

    3. Use this social media toolkit from the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to help promote financial aid opportunities through your student-facing channels.

    Thank you for your support. #GIATogether #FinancialPaid

  • New Equity Continuum tool helps organizations address inequities and eliminate racial, gender, and socioeconomic status biases

    New Equity Continuum tool helps organizations address inequities and eliminate racial, gender, and socioeconomic status biases

    The tool is designed to support educational institutions in examining their current organizational cultures and structures.

    Growing Inland Achievement’s regional Equity Action Network Team (ANT) recently published a new Equity Continuum tool available for educational institutions and organizations to download now. The Equity Continuum is a formative assessment framework that fosters reflection on the experiences of key parties in the education system – students, faculty, staff, administration, and the overall organization. These experiences are considered on several dimensions including, communication efforts, institutional policy, culture, and physical spaces.

    GIA believes widespread adoption and feedback will help improve the Equity Continuum while providing users the ability to assess, strengthen, and implement equity strategies over time. “This tool will continue to improve as we harness the collective intelligence of the communities that put it to use,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President & CEO at GIA. “Imagine after ten iterations—even 100—how many institutional equity dimensions and corresponding equity improvement steps can be discovered, designed, and developed. This is very exciting.”

    Several local organizations have already committed to beta testing the tool. GIA hopes that many more will be early adopters and share insights on what they learn in the process.

    Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is a regional, collective impact organization that works to achieve educational and economic equity in the Inland Empire. GIA accomplishes this by serving as a collective impact (backbone) organization that supports a cross-sector network of education, government, nonprofit, and business institutions in the Inland Empire, all collectively working towards a shared vision of educational and economic success. GIA researches issues and opportunities, resources innovations and solutions, and connects diverse stakeholders across the two-county region of the Inland Empire. Learn more at inlandempiregia.org.

  • Growing Inland Achievement to Host Workshops on Critical Issues Affecting Students

    Growing Inland Achievement to Host Workshops on Critical Issues Affecting Students

    GIA is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant for $25K from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support a new workshop series in partnership with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools and Riverside County Office of Education. The series titled Building Better from Disruption expands on last fall’s Teens, COVID, and Coping discussions among the region’s two County Superintendents and several school districts.   

    The pandemic has changed education dynamics, affecting students, parents, and educators in ways we had never imagined. National events over the past year have further highlighted the fact that racial inequities in education can no longer be ignored. As we move through the pandemic and into the next iteration of education, there are a multitude of issues that must be addressed.

    “The goal of this workshop series is to involve all 56 school districts in the region, bringing in experts on such subjects as Dual Enrollment; Learning Loss and Learning Gains during COVID; Equity Insights; and Student Assessments, among others,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President & CEO at GIA. “Our goal is that these workshops will lead to further discussions and research into selected topics with an actionable plan for systemwide change.” 

    GIA is grateful to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for their generous support of this workshop series and their work throughout the country to improve educational outcomes and foster a more equitable society.  

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  • Growing Inland Achievement Receives 1.3M Grant from College Futures Foundation for Capacity Building and Regional College Transfer Work

    Growing Inland Achievement Receives 1.3M Grant from College Futures Foundation for Capacity Building and Regional College Transfer Work

    Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is pleased to announce receipt of a grant in the amount of $1,318,000 from College Futures Foundation to support GIA core capacity building as well as a Transfer GPS resource to aid student transitions from community colleges to four-year universities.

    “College Futures Foundation is a long-standing supporter of the Inland Empire community, including a grant in October of 2020 to support regional Guided Pathways efforts which provide students a clearer path to graduation,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President & CEO at GIA. “We are extremely grateful for their ongoing commitment to preserve and improve educational opportunities and the quality of life for our residents. This added support from the Foundation allows us to continue our work at GIA while focusing on critical areas of student needs such as transfer from our regional community colleges to four-year institutions.”

    Approximately two-thirds of grant funding will support GIA in capacity building, including staff and operational infrastructure. “Our staff plays a key role in facilitating connections between organizations and across sectors, throughout the vast bi-county region of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. These connections lead to increased collaboration, partnerships, and collective impact efforts to achieve regional goals and a shared vision of success for the Inland Empire,” said Ann Marie Sakrekoff, COO at GIA. “In addition, GIA staff provide critical research and data support, and help to identify and generate funding and in-kind resources to support efforts to increase regional educational attainment in the region.”

    The remainder of the grant funds will be utilized to pilot a data analytics-based project called Transfer GPS, in partnership with the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. The Transfer GPS tool and networked improvement community will help address transfer and equity gap issues by providing broader access to and support for a sophisticated set of analytical tools that help educational institutions quickly acquire and scale their ability to analyze and facilitate student academic progress and completion.

    “Transfer GPS will complement existing regional transfer initiatives and tools, such as Bakersfield College’s Program Pathways Mapper, to inform decisions around college transfer and ultimately help students to plan out the most efficient path to completion or transfer, and reduce unnecessary classes and expenses,” said Ayala. “The Transfer GPS project will deepen our knowledge about how to support and accelerate college transfer in the region, and we are very excited to work with the Gardner Institute alongside our regional colleges to roll out this initiative.”

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