-See familiar faces in your classes and make friends
-Make connections across subjects
-Increase your chances of success
Project Success is...
Grossmont College English Department’s learning community program. A learning community is made up of courses that are linked—they have different instructors teaching different subjects, but they are made up of the same cohort of students. The beauty of this is that students are part of a community of peers who are going through the same experience and learning the same content. Students get to connect with these classmates, collaborate on assignments, and even study together. The instructors all work together to create engaging curriculum often centered around a common theme, problem or public issue. The assignments inspire deep thinking, powerful interdisciplinary connections, and real-world application. As an added bonus, a recent 2021 study of the program proved that students in Project Success learning communities succeed at higher rates and earn higher GPAs!
Recent links combine English 120, English 120/020, or English 124 with popular GE courses in departments such as Ethnic Studies, Sociology, Music, History, and Counseling. Some include face-to-face courses and others fully online courses. Many of these links are also part of other programs on campus that offer students rich resources and special perks, such as direct access to a counselor and priority registration. These programs consist of Umoja, Puente, and the First-Year Experience (FYE) program.
Project Success faculty members are committed to creating a positive experience for students, from collaborating with each other often to ensuring their curriculum is exciting and relevant. Join one today! Please review the content and fliers below for current information on learning community links. If you would like more information, or have questions about Project Success, you can also contact Project Success Coordinator and English Instructor, Enrique Cervantes, at enrique.cervantes@gcccd.edu.
Spring 2023 Learning Communities
FYE Learning Community Link:
Ethnic Studies 114: Intro to Race & Ethnicity with Quezada
T/Th 9:30-10:45 am #1604
+
English 124: Advanced Composition with Cervantes
T/Th 11-12:15 pm #4557
Umoja Learning Community:
Counseling 110: Career Decision Making with Marsh
T 10-10:50 am #1506
Puente Learning Community Options:
English 124: Advanced Composition with Cervantes
T/Th 9:30-10:45 am #4816
OR
English 124: Advanced Composition with Cardenas
T/Th 12:30-1:45 pm #6606
NEW Athletics Learning Communities:
Cohort 1:
Biology 105: Life in the Sea with Webb
M/W 9 am-12 pm #6367
+
Biology 105: Lab with Webb
T/Th 11 am-12 pm #6367
+
Math 160: Statistics with Waller
T/Th 9-10:50 am #1330
Cohort 2:
Biology 105: Life in the Sea with Webb
M/W 9 am-12 pm #6368
+
Biology 105: Lab with Webb
T/Th 11 am-12 pm #6368
+
Math 160: Statistics with Rawlings
T/Th 9-10:50 am #1329
Student Testimonials
Spring 2021:
"I felt I had a lot of support with my classes from other students, teachers, and faculty that I would not have gotten if I wasn't enrolled in a learning community."
"I was scared of college but Learning Community helped a lot this semester. I liked
the joined class session we had about the Zoot Suit."
"The learning community was just that--a community. I appreciated the support more
than anything, however I quite enjoyed the integration between the classes."
Steps to Register
History of the Project Success Program
Project Success, the learning communities program in English, was started over 30 years ago in 1985. It began with just a few links between basic skills reading and writing courses within English. Early studies conducted at Grossmont College showed it was increasing student success, retention, persistence and transfer rates. Participating students also had a higher mean semester GPA.
As learning communities grew as a best practice across the country, Project Success grew along with it. At one point, there were over 50 links between a wide array of disciplines, such as humanities, sociology, philosophy, communication, biology, psychology, anthropology, and history, just to name a few. Some included two courses in the link and others as many as four. City College's successful learning community program was actually modeled after Grossmont College's because it had gained a positive reputation.
The structure, size and leadership of the program has fluctuated over the years. Since AB 705 and the elimination of most basic skills courses, links are primarily between transfer-level English and other disciplines, although the goal is to create more outside English. Some of the links each semester are also part of other programs on campus, such as Umoja, Puente, and, most recently, the first-year-experience (FYE) program.
Moving forward as we enter into 2022, the vision is for Project Success to align with equity initiatives on campus and the Guided Pathways degree maps for each major.
Spring 2023 Learning Community Fliers
[click titles to download a PDF]
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