Before Laura Alfaro and her son, Eduardo Negrete, met with Orestimba High School’s Learning Director Areli Dohner-Chavez for an academic appointment in October 2023, Alfaro wanted to know if Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District (NCLUSD) had a partnership with a university that offered guaranteed admission for students wanting to attend college.
While she resides in Newman, Alfaro travels to San Jose, where she works at Williams C. Overfelt High School. It is one of 11 high schools within the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). In 2016, Alfaro’s alma mater, San Jose State University (SJSU), partnered with ESUHSD to launch the Spartan East Side Promise Program (SESP). SESP centers on offering guaranteed admission to students who graduated from the partnered program, as long as they met the Cal State University (CSU) eligibility requirements and the admission’s application deadline.
The program was expanded three years later, with SJSU’s Student Outreach and Recruitment program offering to help incoming ESUHSD students transition to the university and help build possible connections for them.
When Alfaro found out that this wasn’t the case for NCLUSD and Orestimba, she was shocked.
“I was shocked to hear that there was nothing going on, where there is only one high school (Orestimba) for the district. I figure maybe they have something already in place that you can actually take advantage of and see if you can attend Stanislaus State,” Alfaro recalled.
During the appointment with Dohner-Chavez, Alfaro brought up SJSU’s partnership with the ESUHSD about guaranteed admission for students who meet the A-G requirement and if NCLUSD can do with similar partnership with Stanislaus State. Following her conversation with Alfaro, Dohner-Chavez, who didn’t know about SJSU’s partnership, decided to get in contact with the then-Director of Admissions at Stanislaus State, Miguel Pulido. The two discussed the possibility of forming an initiative, the Warrior Promise.
The initiative focused on having guaranteed admission for Orestimba students who meet their A-G requirements, a partnership with the NCLUSD’s Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program to help college-bound students and a commitment to work with students as early as middle school to build a foundation for their college and career success.
What started as a conversation turned into an idea that could impact students’ and their families’ future. And after nearly two years of negotiations, that idea became a reality. On Friday, NCLUSD and Stanislaus State began that process after both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
For Orestimba, this is the first-ever agreement that they have with a university in offering guaranteed admission to high school students who complete their A-G requirements.
In attendance at Friday’s event was Stanislaus State’s president, Britt Rios-Ellis. Rios-Ellis and NCLUSD Superintendent Justin Pruett signed the agreement, marking a historical day for both parties.
Following the signing, both individuals gave a speech to the attendees at Orestimba’s Library.
“I don’t want your kids to just have a job, I want them to have a career,” Rios-Ellis said. “I want them to be in a space where whoever they’re working with, whether it’s a company, a university [or] a school, they’re invested in them.”
This is the first agreement that the university has ever had with a school district to launch a program that offers guaranteed admission.
With the agreement now official, Stan State joins the likes of several CSUs offering this type of initiative for local high school students, including SJSU, Fresno State and Sacramento State.
In October 2024, the university signed an MOU with Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT), a nonprofit organization based in Sacramento that focuses on helping young men of color attend and graduate from colleges and universities. Under this specific agreement, IYT participants will receive academic and service from both parties within the organization’s College Academy and community college programs. This MOU agreement will continue through July 2027.
Additionally, the university offers guaranteed admission for students transferring from Modesto Junior College, Merced College and San Joaquin Delta College through their Warriors on the Way Program, which is designed to help transfer students journey to Stanislaus State.
With its agreement with NCLUSD, Rios-Ellis said it could “definitely” open up the possibility for the university to offer similar programs to school districts within its proximity, such as Turlock Unified School and Hilmar School District.
With the accomplishment celebrated by those in attendance, one of the foundations to pursue the agreement could be dated back to 2012. Pruett mentioned that around 20% of high school graduates within NCLUSD completed the A-G requirements. This led to a plan focusing on increasing the number of students completing the requirements. He also stated that the plan, along with an increased enrollment, has since led to NCLUSD having nearly 150 students going to college yearly.
“When you add this promise that we now have with CSU Stanislaus, they have a place to go guaranteed. It’s no longer, ‘Well, I hope I get accepted somewhere and if I don’t, I’m not sure what I’ll do,’” Pruett said. “This is going to be something that is going to benefit our community for years and years and years to come.”
Since negotiations about the agreement first started, one of the things that was emphasized was having an early outreach program for middle school students. This started with Yolo Middle School eighth-grade students and their parents being presented with a presentation about the early outreach. Dohner-Chavez later presented a personalized plan for each student in the AVID classes on which classes they should take in high school.
Dohner-Chavez, who is a Stanislaus State alumna, said it was important to begin this initiative because she felt that students needed more motivation following the pandemic. She mentioned there were notices of a decrease in students’ motivation, engagement and academics. When she had her conversation with Mrs.Alfaro, Dohner-Chavez saw the initiative as a way to help the students.
“I saw a sense of almost a loss of hope in them because the pandemic impacted them so tremendously,” Dohner-Chavez said. “[It] took a couple of years to really get the ball rolling, getting them adjusted back.”
When Dohner-Chavez emphasized the importance of completing the A-G requirements with students, she made an interesting analogy for completing those requirements: getting cereal boxes.
“I always tell students, meeting A-G requirements is like going to your local grocery store and having all the cereals available to you. If you don’t meet A-G, you’re limited to a few boxes. Do you want to be limited to Cheerios, Chex and Rice Krispies?” Dohner-Chavez said. “There’s so many cereal boxes when you look at that aisle. When you meet A-G, you expand your doors.”
With the university being around a 30-minute commute from Newman, Dohner-Chavez added that students will be able to stay home and find some stability financially.
One of the things that Alfaro prioritizes with her family is taking their education seriously, especially since her parents, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico, didn’t have the same educational opportunities, with their highest education level being the sixth grade.
“Giving their kids a chance of a better education and having a career, not just a job, was so big for my parents. They grew in the love of learning and being successful,” Alfaro said.
Dohner-Chavez hopes the initiative can be the start of something special for high school students at Orestimba.
“There is no downside to having more education, you’re only empowering yourself,” Dohner-Chavez said. “I talk to my students that someone can steal your car, your jacket, but nobody can ever steal your education. That’s something you’re giving to yourself, it’s an investment for your future.”
Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.
