For Ismael Reveles, college was at times almost impossible. Despite the fact that he entered San Diego State University with a high school GPA above 3.5 and a strong desire to succeed, economic forces caused him to consider dropping out.
“I became the sole provider in my house at one point,” Reveles recalls. “What topped it off, I am the eldest of six siblings.” And the 23-year-old says his situation was not unique. “Unfortunately, some of us [students] have to work to support our families and our own needs. I was working almost full-time and taking 18 units.”
But before he became another dismal statistic—first-generation college student dropping out, student of color not graduating—Reveles reached out to the mentors and counselors provided by the university.
Reveles found out that support was available, including grants and tutoring, that enabled him to stop working, focus on his studies and graduate. He received his bachelor’s degree in May and begins graduate school in August at Arizona State University, where he will begin a Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on biomechanical robotics.
Reveles is an example of SDSU’s intensive efforts to improve its graduation and retention rates and to close the achievement gap. In 2007, as a freshman, he says he was part of a pilot project that preceded the current Early Start program by focusing on basic math and writing skills during the summer before freshman year.
Despite his relatively strong high school GPA, Reveles says he was selected for the program “because standardized tests are not my forte, so I had good grades but my test scores were not high.”
San Diego State has been lauded nationally for its success on this front. An article titled “Walking the Walk on Student Retention” by the Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit that seeks to address achievement and opportunity disparities among students, stated: “The university not only collects and analyzes data, it uses it to identify at-risk populations, to develop and test the outcome of interventions and to measure progress in retention and graduation rates over time and for particular groups.”
