9 minute read
In This Together
By Lori Gilbert
It took Stanislaus State sociology and ethnic studies major Tony Cuevas some 10 years to return to college in 2019 to pursue a degree, but by fall 2023, financial hardships and family issues convinced him to give up.
Then he got a text from Ashley Mansfield, a retention coordinator in the Warrior Re-Engagement Center in the Division of Student Affairs.
“I was set with not coming back to finish my degree,” said Cuevas, of Turlock, who hopes to become a social worker or work in human resources. “It’s still going to be tough, but Ashley motivated me to come back. She helped me organize and gave me a game plan for how to return. I had financial aid holds. I owe money for past semesters. I couldn’t pay for it. She helped me set up a payment plan. She advised me on the classes I needed. I only need three classes to finish both majors.
“Until Ashley reached out, it didn’t feel like there was community support. I thought I had no future.”
Instead, Cuevas hopes to graduate in May, along with his younger brother, also a sociology major.
Mansfield’s outreach was made possible because of a $3 million Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education to bolster the University’s commitment to increasing student retention and re-enrollment.
It’s one of several partnerships with individual, corporate and government agencies that allows Stan State to support and prepare students for the workforce.
In the case of the Title III grant, the money is being used in part to actively seek students, like Cuevas, who have stopped attending the University. Many of those students left in the wake of COVID.
“Before this grant, I could help students, but I didn’t have the resources to get them back quicker,” said Mansfield, who was previously a transfer-student advisor in the Academic Success Center. “I had never been handed a list of students who stopped out before. If students found me, they came to me because they knew where I was. Now, we’re doing the outreach. I contact them and say, ‘We want you to come back to Stan State.’”
Working together with Tracy Myers, director of the Warrior Re-Engagement Center who helped procure the grant, and Evelyn Calvillo, assistant director of enrollment services, Mansfield is working from a list of approximately 900 students who have stopped out.
In January, when the effort began, she re-enrolled 45 students, including Cuevas.
Supporting students is critical for Stan State to continue to contribute to the well-being of the region and beyond.
An economic impact report released a year ago showed Stan State alumni generated $529.4 million in added income for the regional economy, which is equivalent to supporting 6,979 jobs.
Efforts to support this impact are also taking shape in the academic colleges at Stan State.
The College of Business Administration recently teamed with Google and Coursera to offer an innovative online training program that provides Stan State business students an opportunity to earn Google Professional Certificates in various high-demand fields, free of charge.
The program is taught on the Coursera online learning platform and allows students to pursue certificates in IT support specialist, data analyst, project manager, UX designer, digital marketer and cybersecurity professional.
The courses are certified by the American Council on Education (ACE) and are foundational courses that introduce students to the topics and deliver professional-level training and job-ready skills.
According to Dean Terence Pitre, the certificate courses allow the University to increase its educational offerings quickly to meet the evolving needs of students and employers.
Stan State graduates are entering other professional fields, too.
The University feeds K-12 schools in the region, with about 300 multiple-subject credential students and 125 single-subject candidates completing the program each year.
Addressing Healthcare Workforce Shortage
Grants awarded to support the University’s renowned nursing program address the lack of healthcare workers in the region.
Legacy Health Foundation (LHF), through Livingston Community Health (LCH), is a critical partner in this effort.
A recent $250,000 grant will establish the Joelle and Robert Triebsch Health Scholar program at Stan State, with a primary objective of supporting a doctoral program for family nurse practitioners. Currently in development, the doctoral program is expected to launch in fall 2025.
In 2018, a Legacy Health grant to Livingston Community Health created the Master of Science in Nursing, Family Nursing Practitioner program at Stan State. Since then, more than 65 students have graduated from the nurse practitioner master’s program, including nine in 2023.
In 2023, the School of Nursing also graduated 20 registered nurses in the RN to BSN program, 53 BSN students, 38 enrolled in the accelerated BSN program and 38 behavioral health science students.
Additionally, Legacy Health launched a scholarship for students in accelerated BSN programs who plan to work in the region for two years.
The first three recipients of the award, including up to $50,000 to cover tuition and materials, are State State students Kathryn “Katy” Romeo, Alexa Duarte and Yadira Lopez-Ortiz. All are in their final sessions of the program offered at the Stan State Stockton Campus.
“With the Legacy Health scholarship, I was able to focus on my studies and not have to work full time to cover other expenses,” Romeo said.
A public health major at Santa Clara University, Romeo returned to her Turlock home in March of her junior year for remote learning during the initial COVID lockdown. She became a caregiver when her grandmother returned home after surgery.
“I enjoyed that caretaker role, and my mom said, “That’s nursing,” Romeo said.
The daughter of Turlock physicians — her mother is in family practice and her dad is an orthopedic surgeon — couldn’t switch majors. Santa Clara didn’t have a nursing program.
Two years after graduating from Santa Clara, Romeo enrolled in Stan State’s accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and received the Legacy Health Endowment Scholarship to assist her.
“I cannot thank them enough for the impact they’ve had on my journey,” said Romeo, who’d served an internship writing policy papers for the non-profit one summer while a student at Santa Clara. “I would have had to work so much more, but this way, school is my responsibility.”
She serves as president of the Student Nursing Association at Stan State and is completing her final session of training at Emanuel Hospital in Turlock, shadowing and working with a labor and delivery nurse.
It was the area of nursing she most enjoyed as she trained in various departments at St. Joseph’s Medical Center and San Joaquin General Hospital.
“I love working with people,” Romeo said. “That human connection is so much of nursing. Everyone has a story and has someone who loves them. You want to take care of them as if they were your own sibling or child. I loved that aspect, connecting with people. I felt it mattered, that I made a difference.
“For the first time in my life I felt everything had clicked and this is where I was supposed to be. I grasped things quickly. I wasn’t tired, even if I had to get up at 4 a.m. to drive to Stockton and work 12-hour shifts. Being there, practicing my skills, that was where I was meant to be.”
Romeo will graduate in the spring and has committed to working in the region for two years, a call she’s happy to answer. She understands the vital need for more health care workers in the Central Valley.
Investing in Mental and Behavioral Health Professionals
Grants not only are supporting students preparing to enter the medical field, but also those looking to work in mental and behavioral health.
Two different grants were awarded to Stan State in September to award students working toward degrees for careers in social work, clinical counseling and marriage and family therapy.
HealthForce Partners Northern San Joaquin provided $210,000 for scholarships of up to $5,000 per student, and Representative Josh Harder secured a $1.68 million Congressional Grant to boost the Master of Social Work (MSW) program to address the need for more mental health workers in region.
Over the next three years, the Congressional Grant will provide 35 students with stipends of $10,500 in the first year and $13,500 the next year in exchange for committing to work in the region for two years with Stanislaus, San Joaquin or Merced County Behavior Health Services or contracted partner. Additionally, the Congressional funds will add a new MSW cohort at the Stockton Campus.
Amber Samaro is one of the first five students to receive a stipend.
A 2018 Stan State graduate with a degree in psychology and minor in sociology, Samaro worked in a group home for teenaged boys, then worked at an in-patient psychiatric facility, where she saw severe mental health distress.
“I asked myself, “What can I do to prevent people from experiencing this?’” Samora said.
She works as a case manager at a different agency where she helps clients find resources available to them. Seeing the work of clinicians at the agency as they conduct assessments and provide preventative care, convinced Samora that was the work she wanted to do and encouraged her to pursue her MSW.
She had not considered a master’s program sooner because earning her bachelor’s degree had left her with about $21,000 in debt despite working part-time jobs while going to school.
“The stipend was a game-changer for me, knowing I was going to get that help,” Samaro said. “Of course, it requires giving back, and I want to be in this field when I’m done with my master’s degree.
“It made me more excited and thankful to be in an educational setting. I can enjoy my education. I’ve always wanted to just soak in what I’m learning. It’s great to know I don’t have to worry about a huge financial boulder that is going to crush me at the end of my education.”
Finding resources to help more students pursue their educational dreams is an ongoing effort at Stan State as the University looks to build on its alumni community of more than 60,000 people.
