Program Menu

• Program Participants
• Program Goals
• Mentoring
• Events & Activities
• Long Term Impact
• Recognition Dinner

All current and former members of the Richmond High School soccer program as well as a select group of other students are eligible to participate in the program.

All current and former members of the Richmond High School soccer program as well as a select group of other students are eligible to participate in the program as long as they meet certain attendance standards, maintain the qualifying grade point average, sign a parent-student pledge, attend CIR activities, and abide by all soccer team and school rules. To be in the program, students must have at least a 2.75 G.P.A. to be accepted and a 3.00 within two semesters thereafter. The program will focus on those students who demonstrate “college potential” and commitment to their academic progress and the CIR program. There are typically 45 - 60 students from four grades in the program. All of the students are Latino and almost all will be the first in their families to attend college.

It is important to the long-term success of the program that particular attention is paid to freshmen and sophomore students’ attendance and academic performance to get them on the right track and keep them there. There is a trend for many students’ academic performance and commitment to diminish toward the end of their sophomore and into their junior years due to peer pressure to not achieve, economic pressures to work, boy-girl relationships and an attitudinal shift toward apathy. This is a common evolution with teenagers at many high schools, but is particularly pronounced at Richmond High School.

The focus on college opportunities, materials and exposure will intensify once the CIR students start their junior years. If the students can maintain close to 100% attendance, achieve solid academic performance through their junior years, and get proper guidance and access to college preparation resources, the odds of them attending college increase exponentially.

Once the college-eligible students become juniors and seniors, which in any one year may be 10-20 students, individual attention from mentors and access to outside resources will increase and in some cases may become one to one mentoring with special “senior sessions” held during the fall. Qualified counselors, special guidance and resources will be provided for college testing preparation, awareness of the appropriate college opportunities, the college application process, and college tours.