Optimizing Learning, Achievement, and Success (OLAS)

Project OLAS provides assistance to Ventura County high school students and their families in navigating the path to a 4-year degree. Through peer mentoring, OLAS supports students’ transitions to CSUCI. In addition, OLAS promotes student engagement in interdisciplinary undergraduate research, supports first-year living learning communities, and bolsters the sophomore-year experience through career/major exploration.

OLAS has eight overarching objectives that substantively and systematically address student success:

1. Increase equitable participation in High Impact Practices (HIP)
2. Increase graduation milestones, specifically the completion of General Education requirements
3. Increase timely graduation among students participation in HIP innovations
4. Reduce academic probation rates among OLAS students
5. Increase the two-year retention rate among OLAS students
6. Reduce the risk of academic failure
7. Increase University readiness among regional secondary students
8. Deepen the university culture at CSUCI.

The regional outreach component involves deploying CSUCI students as ambassadors to high schools to facilitate bilingual and culturally relevant college knowledge presentations. The Project’s FYE/SYE and Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research encompasses service learning experiences that get students into the community; the writing studio, a hybrid of classroom and individual tutoring; the student research initiative: and the learning/living communities.