Simply put, The Circle of Champions Network organizes the existing social capital in first generation students’ lives and converts it into academic capital.

First-generation students come from communities with friends and family who love them, but often lack college experience and know-how. As a result, these students receive less guidance in their academic journeys; this is particularly true for many Hispanic STEM students. Surrounded by people who want to help but don’t know how, they are less likely to receive support when applying for college, choosing courses, securing financial aid, planning for careers, and generally navigating the complexities of college. In addition, the under-funded condition of the public colleges they most often attend means college personnel are not typically able to fill these support gaps leaving an estimated 45% of college students (and more for marginalized students) to never see an academic advisor (Flaherty, 2023). The result is many Hispanic STEM undergraduates navigate complicated academic journeys largely by themselves.

The Circle of Champions Network helps students identify the natural cheerleaders in their lives. Students tend to nominate an average of a little more than four individuals to join their Circle. Typical nominees include parents, other family members, friends, former high school teachers, professors, and similar individuals. With a Circle of Champions around each student, the Network systems and associated personnel track student academic journeys, keep champions up to date on their student’s progress, and help champions learn how to provide informed support. The environment is culturally responsive and built around a scalable model, allowing coaches to manage a cohort of 500-750 students and 2,000-3,000 champions. Our aim is to convert students’ assets and community wealth into traditional forms of academic capital.

Our initial focus is the enduring (and worsening) academic equity gap for Hispanic STEM students. Our goal is to partner with HSIs to close the Hispanic equity gap in STEM.

While we can celebrate the achievement of proportionate college access for students from Hispanic communities (Mora, 2022), success and completion rates remain disproportionately low for students from these communities. Hispanic students have a 5-year graduation rate of 41.5% (Hanson, 2022), and when they start their journey at a community college, their 6-year bachelor’s degree completion rate drops to 13.8% (Community College Research Center, 2020; Reece, 2021). These rates are much lower than upper-middle and upper income White, and Asian students who have completion rates around 70% (National Communication Association, 2019; Reece, 2021). This difference–the Hispanic equity gap–has been historically persistent, and is getting worse (Excelencia in Education, 2023).

A full discussion of our focus on the Hispanic STEM gap, including a brief literature review can be found at www.mycircleofchampions.com/latino-a-stem-gap.

Our intention is to develop a model for closing equity gaps for all student groups from historically underserved communities. To do this however, we believe we need to start with a specific focus. Working on the Hispanic STEM gap gives us this focus.

The Circle of Champions Network has been paid for by JourneyGPS and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Technology development and maintenance are provided by JourneyGPS. FirstGen America is assisting with mentor and champion recruitment. Gavilan College has been developing the initial college implementation prototype. Four HSI CA community colleges helped with early pilot implementation. UCLA and University of Pennsylvania are the primary research partners measuring the impact of the Network.

Core Implementation Team

Luis Chavez and Bryan Reece are the primary initiators of the Network. Mr. Chavez started working on mentoring solutions for Hispanic students in the early 2000s and has spent his entire career working with learning communities to help Hispanic students succeed (e.g., Puente). Dr. Reece has been working on technology enhanced and instructionally-related solutions for marginalized students since the 1990s. Luis and Bryan came together in 2021 to develop the Circle of Champions Network.

The NSF funding mandate for the Circle of Champions Network is to 1) further develop the Circle of Champions Network; 2) design a model for implementation at a single HSI college (Gavilan College); 3) establish a sustainable model to support college partnerships; and 4) partner with other HSI colleges to build out the Network.

Starting in the Fall of 2025, 5 California HSI community colleges will start full implementation as the 2025-26 Network Partners. We are trying to balance between two needs: First, we want to keep the group small to make sure we are as successful as possible with our implementation; Second, we want to press the number of colleges in the group to accommodate the strong interest we have received from colleagues.

The colleges will come together through a series of meetings/workshops to collaborate on the work needed to bring the Network to their students. There is no cost to join the Network, but interest in being part of the 2025-26 group has been very strong. We will be vetting the expressed interests to make sure we identify colleges that are positioned for successful implementation. Each year will follow with additional colleges added to the Network. We plan to finalize the inaugural group by early March, 2025.

To express your interest in joining the Network or find out more, please contact Luis Chavez. You may reach out to him at (510) 407-3970, lchavez@journeyGPS.com, or https://www.mycircleofchampions.com/partners.

College Responsibilities

• College team attends meetings/workshops

• College manager serves as the program sponsor

• Faculty member serves as Coach for the college cohort of students and respective champions

• College submits supplemental instruction (SI) curriculum/certificate for approval

• Coach serves as SI instructor of record

• STEM faculty may chose to offer Circle of Champions Assignment (SI) in sections

• College collaborates with research team (e.g., Institutional Research provides some data)

• College students sign up for Network, nominate Champions, and participate in Network

• College enters Instructional Services Agreement (ISA) to sustain program activities and expenses

Circle of Champions Staff/Personnel Responsibilities

• Organize meetings/workshops and all related training

• Manage/lead implementation and project oversight

• Make Circle of Champions Network available to all STEM students (emphasis on Hispanic students)

• Develop/support all technology

• Provide all technical support for users (students, champions, faculty, coach)

• Develop SI curriculum/certificate content and related materials

• Track and report student engagement to participating faculty for grading/credit purposes

• Provide regular program reporting for college communications

• Train/support coach and faculty

• Manage ongoing research in partnership with UCLA and UPenn

This may vary from college to college, but generally speaking, the following individuals are typically involved with implementing the Circle of Champion Network on their campus.

The Circle of Champions Network will generate net positive income for the college. There are no fees to the college, students, or champions. There are internal expenses for the College, but the College will generate new income from the Network that exceeds internal expenses.