The Center for Hispanic Excellence and Student Success is a grant from the U.S. Department of Education that California Lutheran University received along with Moorpark College. The grant has turned into a program called Project CHESS, which aims to serve historically marginalized, Latinx students who want an opportunity to build leadership skills and connections.

According to the program’s website, its goal is to make students feel academically capable and engaged in their classroom, while also focusing on their careers, and serving as a tool to help them connect to their peers and campus.  

“Part of the grant is for it to become a mentorship,” Ruben Alcala, program counselor of Project CHESS said. “We provide that mentorship guidance on them, and how to speak to the students, provide empathy, support, [and] check with them throughout the semester.” 

According to Silvia Neves, director of Project CHESS, there are two main programs, one that works with faculty training and another that works with male students of color. The Faculty Learning Community helps the professional development of faculty members, and their core mission is to learn and develop the Culturally Inclusive & Responsive Curricula for Learning Equity. 

Neves said there are currently about 17 faculty members participating in this year-long program. In this part of the program, the faculty learns how to incorporate culturally relevant issues into their classes. This is done through a series of activities that they have to complete, one being revising one of the courses that they teach. 

According to Neves, the program now not only focuses on Hispanic students, but also works to serve all students who are underserved, minorities, or first generation.

The other main program that Project CHESS runs is the Male Mentorship program, which Neves said helps connect minority men on campus seeking higher education. Alcala said students who are part of this program have the opportunity to experience a peer mentorship program. 

“Part of the program, you know, is for them to meet with their counselor two to three times per semester,” Alcala said. The students also participate in weekly class sessions, learn about careers, and how to be a better leader.  

Project CHESS had a Male Initiative Summer Retreat, where Alcala said participants had the opportunity to get to know each other and create a mentor-mentee relationship. In addition, Alcala said the summer retreat informed participants about how the program works, and how it creates a sense of belonging and brotherhood on campus. 

Junior Diego Rosas, who has been a member of the Male Mentorship program for a year and a half, said that he wants to help new students from Cal Lutheran, Oxnard College and Moorpark transition to college from high school. 

Rosas had the opportunity to attend this event, and said he had a fun time and learned “to be a better leader of all sorts.”

Project CHESS started the semester with events for each of their programs. On Tuesday, Sept. 19, the EDUCAL 2023 Annual Symposium was held featuring Tara Yosso, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, as guest speaker. 

The Male Mentorship program had their first meeting of the semester on Thursday, Sept. 14. CHESS mentors and mentees from the Oxnard Male Educational Goal Achievement Initiative met virtually to connect with each other before they get an opportunity to meet in person later in the semester.