The Example of Excelencia at the Graduate Level is the Cal-Bridge Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dra. Michelle Espino Lira talks with Dr. Alex Rudolph, Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of Cal-Bridge, in addition to two Cal-Bridge Scholars, Katy Rodriguez Wimberly (doctoral student at UC-Irvine) and Rob Tejada Arevajo (doctoral student at Princeton University).

The Cal-Bridge Program was established in 2014 as a partnership across 9 University of California institutions and 16 California State University campuses to address the national shortage of underrepresented minority PhDs in the fields of physics and astronomy.

The Cal-Bridge program has four pillars:

1. Providing enough financial aid so that students can focus on their studies.
2. Mentorship, which consists of a two-year commitment from a mentor at their Cal State campus and one at a UC school.
3. Professional Development, which focuses on graduate school admissions processes, GRE test-taking, and vetting their list of potential graduate programs.
4. A summer research opportunity.

To learn more about the Cal-Bridge Program, go to https://www.cpp.edu/calbridge/

To learn more about the programs that accelerate Latino student success, please go to www.edexcelencia.org!