Growing the Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success

 

Jose Lozano (he/him, they/them) is a senior psychology major at Cal Poly pursuing minors in Women’s and Gender studies and in Gender, Race, Culture, Science and Technology.

Lozano is an intern for the Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success (CCC-USS). CCC-USS was founded by staff and faculty from Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College and Cal Poly. Today, the coalition includes K-12 representatives and other community partners in San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara counties. The coalition is dedicated to creating and sustaining a system to support undocumented students in our region so they can achieve their personal and professional goals. The mission of CCC-USS is to create social change to ensure educational equity for all students and build capacity to support undocumented students in our region.

Lozano’s goal during his internship is to expand CCC-USS partnerships with K-12 educators and staff to strengthen support for undocumented students and their families during primary and secondary education and as they transition between educational sites. To do this, Lozano is leading efforts to conduct an environmental scan and needs assessment. Via the environmental scan, CCC-USS seeks to learn more about programs and initiatives that currently exist to support undocumented students and students in mixed status families at school sites. Via the needs assessment, CCC-USS seeks to identify unmet current and future needs and identify opportunities for collaboration and increased support.

As part of his internship, Lozano is working with CSU STEM VISTA AmeriCorps volunteer Casey McCullough (she/her), coordinator of CCC-USS. McCullough earned a B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies and B.S. in Sociology at Northland College before moving to the California Central Coast for her AmeriCorps service. For McCullough, “Studying privilege, opportunity, and oppression in higher education as part of my time in college heavily influenced my decision to support undocumented students at Cal Poly as a CSU STEM VISTA.” She added, “I am very excited to work with Women’s and Gender Studies at Cal Poly in efforts to make Cal Poly more undocufriendly.”