Victor Rodriguez has gone from a subpar high school grade average to acceptance at one of America’s premiere graduate schools, thanks in large part to a program initiated by the University of Central Florida that is helping minority, first-generation and other underrepresented transfer students earn a bachelor’s degree.
“It almost felt effortless, in a good way,” said Rodriguez, whose grades and focus suffered through high school as his single-parent family frequently relocated.
Not long after enrolling in Valencia College, he became aware of DirectConnect to UCF, an initiative that guarantees admission to UCF from students at Valencia or five other community colleges who have earned as associate of arts or an articulated associate of science degree.
The staff, coaches and other advisers who supported Rodriguez as he worked toward an associate’s in pre-articulated engineering “didn’t make me feel like an oddball,” he said. “They made me feel confident about myself.”
That’s been a goal of DirectConnect since UCF established it 13 years ago to promote greater success among the 6,000-plus students who annually transfer to the university from six central Florida state colleges, the equivalent of community colleges.
The university partners with the schools – Valencia, Daytona, Seminole, Eastern Florida, Lake Sumter and the College of Central Florida – to help students smoothly and successfully transfer to UCF to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
UCF is nationally recognized as a leader in transfer student success, and DirectConnect has played a role in that with impressive cumulative results since 2006:
