Welcome to Puente at City!
Steps to Joining Puente
We're interested in making you a part of our Puente Familia. If you're interested in participating in the Puente program, please complete the interest form below. Once you have filled out the Interest Form, we will be sending you an e-mail/text with more information about the next steps to becoming a Puentista at LACC:
Eligibility for the Puente Program
What We Do In Puente
Puente at City is all about helping you build the skills necessary for success in both academic and career goals, while enrolling in specific Puente English and Counseling courses at City. Some unique aspects of the program is that we pair students with a faculty mentor who closely aligns with their educational goals. We are proud to say that we helped many students from our first two years in the program transfer to many universities that you might be interested in. Here's a list of some of the schools that our students got into: Cal State L.A., Cal State Long Beach, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, LAPU and others. We're proud to help students along the way by offering transfer workshops for Puente students and helping apply for scholarships that can help you when you decide to transfer.
Our program at City is like a family where we really get to know each other. Some of our students have gone on to do great things at City like Francis who is our current Board of Trustees representative. Other students have started amazing clubs like Max and Alana who were presidents of the Puente Club and Ana who started a Tennis Club on our campus. Our program achieves this close connected family using the cohort model, which means students complete 1 year of English and Counseling together with the same classmates and professors. This is a unique opportunity only through Puente that really offers a different way of seeing college. You're not just taking classes in Puente; you're becoming an active member at City and will see our program as your new home!
Networking and building connections with other students and faculty has proven to help students succeed, which is why Puente is such an amazing program. We strongly believe in building a community of learners, which is about famlia (family) in the classroom and on the campus. When we work together, we can accomplish great things together! We also work with other programs like EOPS, Financial Aid, Office of Special Services, the Ralph Bunche Honors Program, First Year Experience, TRIO, Dream Resource Center, Pride Center, Writing Center and many others.
Our English and Counseling courses focus on group work opportunities, personal experience reflections, underrepresented communities and people of color. We love to work with students who think they're not good writers, students who may not have passed their courses before, students coming from non-credit or those who are taking their first courses at City. We welcome all different people and welcome you all to join in the Puente familia.
In our English courses, you will learn how to become a good writer that can express their opinion without apology. We write personal narratives, the power of language, gender identity and what your Personal Legend is. The readings are from diverse backgrounds with an emphasis on Latinx culture and communities of color like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that are meant to help you grow as a writer and as a person.
Our Counseling courses are also very student-centered with students participating in interactive activities that get students to think about their educational goals and aspirations. Students learn how to be successful at college with resources that can help you be successful as well as learning about how to transfer. Students work together to create a great class environment that really brings us all together.
Some other unique aspects of Puente is that we host special events on campus like Noche de Familia and End of the Year celebrations where we celebrate all the work you have done throughout the entire year; in addition, we have special events like Theater Night, where we go to the Latino Theater in downtown LA to watch a play together! We also attend statewide Puente events like the Transfer Motivational Conference where you can meet other Puentistas from other colleges just like you. We went to Cal State San Bernardino, UCSD, and will be going to UCLA in 2025. We also take an annual trip up north to Cal State San Francisco and UC Berkeley with LA Mission College and West LA College. All of this is free and covered by our program, so you can focus on what matters most: what you want to accomplish! We'd love to have you join as a Puentista.
If you're looking for a program that is designed to help you connect with others, be successful at City and become a future leader in your own community, then Puente is for you! We look forward to working with you and making your dreams a reality.
History of the Puente Program and Components
The Puente Project is a national award-winning program that has improved the college-going rate of tens of thousands of California's educationally underrepresented students since 1981.
Puente's mission is to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees and return to the community as mentors and leaders to future generations. The program is interdisciplinary in approach, with writing, counseling, and mentoring components.
Started in 1981 at Chabot Community College in Hayward, California, the program has since expanded to 4 middle schools, 38 high schools and 65 community colleges throughout the state. Puente staff train middle school, high school, and community college instructors and counselors to implement a program of rigorous instruction, focused academic counseling and mentoring by members of the community. Puente's staff training programs have benefited approximately 300,000 students across the state. Puente is open to all students regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, status or ability.
The Puente program provides 3 components:
Puente students begin the Fall semester with English C1000 with a specific focus on personal experience, group writing and activities that bring us closer together. In the Spring semester, we will start English C1001, which will develop our ideas further. Both of these courses satisfy the transfer requirement to a University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU). Want to know more about our English course offerings? Click the button below to learn more about our English course offerings.
Puente students also complete Counseling courses. In the Fall semester, students enroll in Counseling 40, College Success Seminar, which is meant to introduce to the resources you need to be successful at City and beyond. Students then take Counseling 22 in the Spring, which is about the transfer process where students develop their educational goals to lead to transfer and beyond. Both of these courses are transferrable to the UC and CSU institutions. Students will have a dedicated Puente counselor until they graduate and a Financial Aid representative who focuses on Puente students. Want to learn more about Counseling courses? Click the below to learn more!
The English and Counseling coordinators will pair each Puente student with a mentor. The mentor can help students in their own field of expertise, help them prepare to their transfer school, or provide students with professional events that help students meet their career goals. The goal of the mentor is to guide students and use their knowledge and expertise to help you reach your goals.
Meet Your Puente Success Team
Adjunct Associate Professor
A.A. Santa Monica College
B.A. University of California, Los Angeles
M.A. California State University, Dominguez Hills
Hello everyone, my name is Joseph Ferrerosa and I’m a former community college student like many of you. My career as a teacher began when I was a tutor at West Los Angeles before I became a teacher at Pierce, Mission and City. I’ve been teaching in the LACCD for a decade now and I’m proud of that fact I get to work with the best students!
I’m the English Coordinator here at LACC working with Puente’s awesome counselor Veronica Garcia who is my co-coordinator. We teach paired classes together where we blend our best ideas together with an emphasis on Latin literature and helping students succeed in meeting their educational goals.
I really like to teach students how to be successful, not only in school, but also how to win in life. Outside of teaching, I like to hang out with my family, go to the movies, play music and video games. I’m an avid fan of gothic literature, traveling and enjoy hanging out with dogs. If you would like to join the Puente program, please contact me at ferrerj@lacitycollege.edu. Let’s make our dreams a reality. I'm a Puentista for life!
Puente Contact Information
Joseph Ferrerosa
English Puente Coordinator
Email: @email
Location: Jefferson Hall 307
Veronica Garcia
Puente Counselor Coordinator
Email: garciava@lacitycollege.edu
Phone: (323) 953-4000 ext. 2348
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