All Sacramento State undergraduate students are eligible for tutoring, coaching, mentoring and advising services offered by the Dedicated to Educating, Graduating, and Retaining Educational Equity Students Project, also known as DEGREES.

Implemented in fall 2013 with the support of a CSU Chancellor’s Office grant, DEGREES aims to close the achievement gap for underrepresented minority students and increase graduation rates. The project stems from a CSU systemwide initiative that seeks to increase graduation rates by 8 percent at each CSU campus by the  2015-2016 academic year.

“What this project was designed to do is figure out a comprehensive way to serve underrepresented students, while also providing a larger menu of services for all undergraduate students,” said Marcellene Watson-Derbigny, associate vice president for Student Retention and Academic Success.

The multi-faceted project includes 24-hour tutoring services called Smart Thinking for students via Blackboard online, as well as focused advising within three pilot colleges including Arts and Letters, Health and Human Services and Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies.

The project is valuable because it not only provides services to students who are transferring or are in their first year of college, it also tracks graduating seniors, said DEGREES Project co-Director Viridiana Diaz.

“It is really important because not all students are eligible for equity-based programs,” Diaz said. “The reason DEGREES is unique and very important is because it also focuses on upper level students like seniors and juniors.”

Students are more likely to stay in school and complete their degrees if they are engaged in the university community, said DEGREES faculty adviser Kristen Tudor.

“I think that has been the missing link all along,” Tudor said. “We really pay a lot of attention to freshman when they come in, and as they move through their time here at Sac State, they may end up losing that connection to the campus community.”

Senior microbiology major Eliseo Andrade said he had no idea how many programs are available that help students stay focused and on track. He was contacted directly from one of the coaches in the project.

“Once he started telling me about all the resources that are offered at Sac State, I was immediately interested,” Andrade said. “If he had not contacted me, I would have never known and I would have never taken advantage of any of them.”

Andrade said the programs offered will help him stay focused on a quicker path to graduation and added that they also provided information about part-time job opportunities for qualified students within his field of study.

A long-term goal for DEGREES is the implementation of a campus-wide mentorship program.

Sacramento State “U” Mentor Program in its infancy is actively recruiting faculty and staff mentors, conducting initial training and is uploading profiles to the web that will later be used to match students with a staff or faculty mentor, Watson-Derbigny said.

DEGREES employs 12 student coaches, who reach out to students to assess their academic needs and either refer them for additional services, provide information or schedule meetings.

Lead coach Jessica Arauza said the coaches attend weekly informational meetings where speakers present resources available on campus.

She said students are aware of the career center, but might not be aware about specific services they offer like etiquette dinners, resume help and workshops.  

“We are really well-informed about what resources are available for students,” Arauza said. “We as coaches can then deliver all that information to the students that can benefit from it.”

As a communication studies senior, Arauza said she recommends the program because it helps students maximize their education and college experience, as well as help make sure they are on the right path toward graduation.

“I think that it is important that we are fully taking advantage of  everything that the university offers,” Arauza said. “That we are essentially maximizing those resources that are meant for us.”