Felix Cazares is only in the ninth grade, but he¡¯s already been accepted to a four-year college. He has the university?ID, student email address and admission letter to prove?it.

The offer came from California State University, Fresno, which launched an early guaranteed admission programme this autumn called . The institution is partnering with regional school districts to guarantee admission to students as soon as they enter high school, which will hopefully set them on a clear-cut path towards post-secondary education.

Acceptance is conditional: Mr Cazares must maintain at least a C?average at his high school, Duncan Polytechnic in Fresno, and remain in good standing. And he is under no?obligation to attend Fresno State once he graduates. But the programme is immersive; participants receive access to the campus libraries and college counselling resources. Come summer, they will also be able to take non-credit courses in disciplines that interest them. By 11th?grade, eligible students receive formal early admission and an estimate of their financial aid package.

For Mr Cazares and other students in California¡¯s largely rural, Central Valley region, Bulldog Bound offers major encouragement to stay on track academically and a promise that there is a place for them after graduation.

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¡°This programme has definitely changed my view on college,¡± Mr Cazares said. ¡°To?know that if I?work hard, at the end of four years, they will take me¡­it¡¯s already getting me excited.¡±

So far the Bulldog Bound programme has partnered with 29 school districts?¨C including the state¡¯s third largest, Fresno Unified?¨C and 4,031 individual students have signed up, according to a university spokesperson.

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Direct and guaranteed admission initiatives have around the country in recent years. They saw a spike in interest after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last summer, thanks to their successful record of for under-represented groups. But most programmes do?not contact students until their junior or senior year of high school.

Mary Churchill, director of the higher education administration programme at Boston University (and an ), said starting earlier is both smart and increasingly necessary.

¡°Everyone is digging down deeper in their pipelines,¡± she said. ¡°Research shows that a student¡¯s college-going identity?¨C whether they see themselves going or not, what kind of institution they see themselves at?¨C?begins forming in seventh and eighth grade. For students who might not otherwise plan on going to college, or where it¡¯s not a family expectation, starting early is a fantastic idea.¡±

Bulldog Bound also offers resources for parents, including financial aid information sessions. Claudia Cazares, Felix¡¯s mother, said that aspect has set Fresno State apart. She has two older children, neither of whom?is enrolled in college; she wishes they?had had Bulldog Bound to open their eyes to their own potential, she said.

¡°Our district has a lot of kids like Felix who aren¡¯t straight-A students, who struggle to get?Bs and?Cs, so the stress this puts on staying on track is a big deal,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ve lived right down the road from Fresno State for 23?years, but kids here hardly ever think about it as an option¡­This programme, I?believe, will change that.¡±

Bulldog Bound is still in its first year, so there?is no?data on how it will translate to enrolments. But early signs are promising: Fresno State president Sa¨²l Jim¨¦nez-Sandoval cited a ¡°dramatic increase¡± in prospective students from participating high schools this cycle?¨C mostly seniors who were informed of the programme in the autumn?¨C resulting in 1,759 Bulldog Bound applicants.

The biggest influx has come from rural school districts that do?not normally send many graduates to four-year colleges, Dr Jim¨¦nez-Sandoval said. Applications to Fresno State increased by 60?per cent from Kings Canyon Unified, in the mountainous Orange Cove region, and 43?per cent from Dinuba Unified, where over 30?per cent of the population live in poverty.

Dr Jim¨¦nez-Sandoval said his ¡°modest¡± goal is for 80?per cent of Bulldog Bound students to matriculate to Fresno State. He has good reason to aim high: last summer, the CSU system announced for colleges that see year-on-year enrolment declines, and Fresno State¡¯s full-time head count has for the past two years in a row. But Dr Jim¨¦nez-Sandoval said the programme was equally driven by a sense of community service.

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¡°Starting this path of knowledge leads to a sense of self-worth, which we hope leads to a sense of belonging here at Fresno State,¡± he said. ¡°Knowing early on what it takes to get here, and having faces and names connected to professors and counsellors, makes the idea of college, which can often feel indifferent and strange, less distant. It puts it in reach.¡±

Uplifting California¡¯s other valley

The San Joaquin Valley, Fresno State¡¯s home turf, is one of the most rural areas in California. It?is also incredibly diverse: 54?per cent of its residents are Latino or Hispanic, and it boasts the largest Hmong immigrant population in the US, mostly refugees from Laos¡¯ so-called who immigrated in the 1970s and 1980s. Excluding Sacramentans, one in five of the valley¡¯s residents lives in poverty; the statewide average is 13?per cent, according to the .

Those factors combine to make college a distant concern for many families, especially first-generation immigrants. Only about of high school graduates in the San Joaquin Valley go on to seek a post-secondary degree, compared?with more than 70?per cent in Southern California and the Bay Area, according to the Public Policy Institute.

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Bob Nelson, superintendent of the Fresno Unified School District, the Bulldog Bound programme¡¯s first official partner, said plentiful jobs in agriculture and a growing shipping industry led by a? ¨C neither of which requires a college education for employment ¨C make it difficult to convince local families of the value of a four-year degree.

¡°Fresno is very different from other areas of California,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re a community that deals with bone-crushing intergenerational poverty and a?lot of distrust in public institutions¡­College isn¡¯t usually a priority here.¡±

Dr Jim¨¦nez-Sandoval wants to change that. Beyond meeting Fresno State¡¯s enrolment goals, he hopes the Bulldog Bound programme can be a first step in building a ¡°culture of college-going¡± in the valley.

¡°Fifty?per cent of A-G eligible students here don¡¯t attend college,¡± he said, referring to the statewide 2.5?GPA requirement for admission to University of California or CSU campuses. ¡°That¡¯s the population we want to target.¡±

A spirit of collaboration

Dr Churchill said Fresno State¡¯s programme combines some of the cutting-edge outreach practices many enrolment management offices are deploying right now. The difference is that while other direct or guaranteed admission programmes treat the offer itself as its own attraction, Bulldog Bound is built on the theory that getting students to campus takes frequent engagement.

¡°A lot of these strategies are basically recruitment marketing tools, a lot like the PSAT, where the goal is essentially to get a lot of data that colleges can use, but instead of sending a brochure you send an acceptance letter. There¡¯s not much engagement or individualisation there,¡± she said. ¡°I?have seen programmes where they¡¯re bringing students to campus, that kind of thing, but not in ninth grade. This really puts together a lot of pieces I?think work well in other programmes in a nice new package.¡±

That could make Bulldog Bound an asset for student success as well, she said, helping Fresno State officials understand and prepare for the issues current high schoolers may face when they arrive?¨C a?task that has become more challenging since the pandemic and exacerbated an array of .

Dr Churchill has a few concerns about starting so early?¨C namely that students might feel ¡°locked?in¡± to the college, despite the non-binding agreement, and not bother to look at other institutions that could be a better fit or more affordable. She also noted that ninth graders were vastly different developmentally from 11th and 12th graders, and she emphasised the importance of not treating them ¡°like young college students¡±.

Mr Nelson, of Fresno Unified, believes Fresno State has done a lot to assuage those concerns, including getting himself and other K-12 school administrators directly involved.

¡°We¡¯re talking all the time, so there¡¯s less of this disconnect that can often be there between the 20,000-foot, largely theoretical view of higher?ed and the ground-level realities we deal with,¡± he said. ¡°You need someone working closely on an initiative like this who speaks K-12 natively.¡±

For Dr Churchill, that collaborative spirit is the most exciting part of Bulldog Bound. Whatever this spring¡¯s matriculation rates show, she hopes that more colleges and statewide systems will follow Fresno State¡¯s playbook and work closely with regional school districts.

¡°These kinds of programmes really demystify higher education and blend the two worlds,¡± Dr Churchill said. ¡°That¡¯s the kind of education ecosystem our country needs right now.¡±

This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on .

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