The MiraCosta College Office of School Relations/Diversity Outreach serves as the college's primary liaison to local school districts and communities.
School Relations/Diversity Outreach
This program is responsible for implementing student outreach services, which are designed to help the college enhance the ethnic and cultural diversity of the student body, and make MiraCosta the college of choice for students in the local school districts and communities.
One of the most effective services implemented by the Outreach department has been the MiraCosta Student Ambassadors. Initiated as a pilot project during the Spring 1990 semester, the Ambassadors have become a permanent and integral part of the college's outreach team.
The Student Ambassador team consists of twenty to thirty culturally diverse student leaders who serve the MiraCosta College community and local school districts. Student Ambassadors are interviewed, hired, and trained during the summer months in preparation for their work that begins each fall semester.
As part of this plan, the Ambassadors have undertaken a comprehensive set of duties which have enabled the college to secure its presence in the high schools, bring the college message to students in middle and elementary schools, and effectively recruit students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Each Ambassador work with School Counselor's and hold weekly on-site peer counseling sessions at an assigned school. These sessions cover the first stages of the admissions process and ensure that interested students receive ongoing pre-enrollment advising.
The Ambassadors have also been instrumental in the expansion of the early outreach program by delivering regular on- and off-campus college workshops for middle and elementary school students. These workshops are designed to reach students at an early age in order to encourage them to stay in school and someday pursue a college education.
These include serving as mentors for students; providing workshops for Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), GearUP, Migrant Education, English Language Development, and other support programs for under-represented and educationally disadvantaged students; and holding weekly bilingual peer counseling appointments at each of our district high schools.
