Submitted by ESC

(PHOENIX, Ariz., March 4, 2004) – On March 8, Early Start to College (ESC), a project of the Hispanic Boarder Leadership Institute (HBLI) at Arizona State University (ASU), will send a group of 175 eighth-graders from the Phoenix Elementary School District and the Isaac Elementary School District to Phoenix College.

Students will have the opportunity to tour the campus and various occupational program areas. Additionally, Phoenix College President, Corina Gardea, who has been very supportive of ESC, will speak to the students when they arrive and college student ambassadors will conduct campus tours. All eighth-graders will leave the college with a new T-shirt, which supports the college and ESC logo.

This visit and others that will follow to South Mountain and Estrella Mountain Community Colleges are one of ESC’s ways of motivating students early to go to college and of helping the students understand and appreciate what community colleges have to offer.

The culminating event of the year-long ESC program will be a three-day mini-camp at ASU June 13-15.

For more information about ESC, please contact Dr. Leonard A. Valverde, executive director of HBLI, at (480) 727-6364. For information about the visit to Phoenix College, please contact Amalia Humada (ESC) at (480) 965-9895 or Rebecca Valenzuela (PC) at (602) 285-7618.

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