Many first generation college students at CSUMB have graduated from high schools where the community faces multiple marginalities. One of these marginalities is the oppressive educational system. For example, at Gonzales High School, only the top ten percent of the students matriculate to a four -year university. The education system that the students experience is more of a means for social control. Whereas, students are forced into vocational service jobs where exploitation exists and there are no avenues for empowerment or liberation. Those students who have successfully graduated from a high school and matriculated to a four -year university feel alienated and a sense of "not belonging" at the university level. Thus, programs like Educational Talent Search are important in exposing students to the college experience. Richard C. Richardson and Elizabeth Fisk Skinner describe the following in their essay, "Helping First -Generation Minority Students Achieve Degrees", "First Generation students frequently described their first exposure to the campus as a shock that took them years to overcome. Many minority students were also unprepared for the racial or ethnic isolation-even alienation-they would experience in predominantly Anglo institutions."

    Outreach is a crucial step in the process for many first generation college students. Once the student arrives at the university campus, support and retention programs become very important. In a similar study, Richardson and Skinner found that students that participated in a summer bridge program helped strengthen their academic backgrounds, clarify educational goals, and introduce the academic environment for the program.

    Milagros Perez, a first generation college student from Gonzales High School, described the Summer Bridge F.O.C.U.S program as a critical step in her process of coming to CSUMB. This one-week program was geared to prepare and expose students to the rigorous academic environment that exists in the university classroom. As importantly, the program helped students develop a network of friends and faculty members that provide support. The summer bridge F.O.C.U.S. program was such a great experience for Perez that she decided to attend CSUMB instead of San Jose State. Perez describes her experience:

At that time I was working at the high school I graduated from. And um, Cesar would always be calling me and bugging me. So I was like, man, I am just going to say yes and I am just going to go, but I am going to have to arrange something with them. Because I am not going to be able to get there the day I had to get there. So they agreed. I guess they were willing to do anything to get me there. To CSUMB. And um, basically I came here. And I remember there, also another reason was because my cousin Juanita was coming. So I kind of felt more comfortable and I knew I was not going to be alone. So we got here and it was a fun program, but I recall everyone who was in the program, was leaving to a different school except here to Monterey Bay. I remember in the mornings we had turns of cooking in the morning. And I always say this, that we were brain washed by the eggs that Cesar was doing, because this was my very first time seeing someone pouring milk into the eggs. And I remember seeing Cesar echando la leche [pouring the milk]. Y le dije, porque le estas poniendo leche? [Why are you pouring milk?] Y me dise, "Oh para que se agan mas esponjados. [He says, so that they can get spongier.] And I remember eating those eggs. By the end of the program, it was a week long, I remember by the end of the program, um, I remember one night Cesar was telling to me, "You know what Millie, you should come here because it is a new campus. It's smaller. If you go to San Jose State you are going to be a number and this and that. And if you come here, you are not. They are going to know who you are." Y que esto y lo otro [ and this and that]. Pos convencido me que viniera aqui [(convening me to come here]. And at the end of the program, most of us in the program ended up being here. So that is why I say that we were brain washed by you guys. By Augie and Cesar. (Laughing). But, you know I do not regret it. I don't regret it.

    Pedro Gonzalez, a first generation university student from King City High School, also stated the importance of outreach and bridge programs as a form of critical support for him. He describes his experience with Educational Talent Search and the F.O.C.U.S. program:

The main group that I want to thank is educational talent search. Besides my parentsto come to a university'. They had a lot do to with it. They werealways there since I was in the fifth grade. I believe they were there from fifth grade to this point. Just finding out how I am doing, how I am doing in classes, just checking up on me. If it wouldn't have been for them I wouldn't be here right now. When I got accepted to this university it was them who made it possible. A person that I have to look up to is Jose Martinez ­ Saldana as the director of ETS and student support services. He is a great role model in this university to people who know him, be it Chicano, Mexicanos, and other Latino, or any other person from different race. He is just a good person that you would want to be around. He just gives you a great amount of support, just like his wife. People from the FOCUS program,Cesar Velasquez and Jose Aguilera were great out helping us apply for this university. Those are other people I am thankful for.

    All of the interviewees from the 1997 summer bridge FOCUS cohort stated that FOCUS continued to be key in terms of support for them. Each participant and staff member continued to as an influence in their success as students.