Inglewood High seniors Miner and McClain will attend UCLA this fall.
Photo by Jessica Cervantes
It is ten miles from Inglewood High School to UCLA but for Devon Miner, Ebreon Farris and Marvin McClain, Inglewood High School seniors attending UCLA this fall, the road was much longer than that.
Traditionally Inglewood High School has been known to send very few seniors to UCLA. A few of the reasons are the lack of credentialed teachers and the lack of rigorous course, such as AP and Honors, offered to students. In addition, the freshman class at UCLA last year was composed of 4,800 students, yet less than100 of those students were African American. Miner admitted to being somewhat discouraged after learning the number of African American incoming freshmen last year, but pushed himself to apply anyway.
The alarmingly low numbers sparked efforts of the Alliance for Equal Opportunities in Education (AEOE) to increase the number of students of color admitted to UCLA. The low number of African American students in particular has been an on going issue at UCLA since the implementation of Proposition 209 that ended affirmative action in 1996.
AEOE pushed for UCLA to implement a new holistic application. The new review process takes into account applicants’ educational experience as a whole including, academic, extracurricular activities as well as personal obstacles and school conditions. The holistic approach makes the applicant’s personal statement become a key factor in putting a face to the application.
Inglewood High senior McClain noted, “Grades are just information and data, not what you actually have to go through to get where you are now.” For Miner, UCLA was his number one choice. There was a point during the application process when both Miner and Farris got a scare. They were sent a supplemental information request form from UCLA Admissions, which asked them to elaborate on a specific part of their applications. Miner stated, “I felt as though I was hanging by a string, I was nervous I would not get in.”
The new review process was adopted not only because of efforts of the AEOE but of other community and student based organizations, including the African Student Union (ASU) at UCLA and the Los Angeles Urban League.
The efforts made by ASU with the alliance were also focused in gaining awareness at the UCLA campus about the admissions struggle. They organized rallies, panels and gained significant support from other student organizations. The change to a holistic approach was considered a victory for all the organizations in the alliance and for all students of color, not solely African Americans.
One of the goals for the collaborative in pushing for a holistic review process was to encourage more underrepresented students to apply and enroll to UCLA.
Tom Lifka, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Student Services told Leaning Power News, “We certainly hoped [the holistic review process] would have a positive outcome on diversity, but that was not the main purpose for our reason, it was to be more fair to all students.”
The issue of low admission rates for students of color was one that definitely had an impact on current UCLA students, including D’Artagana Scorza, ASU Access Coordinator. For Scorza, after serving in the military and reflecting on the racial and ethnic inequalities that exist in society he said he “felt like the struggle was bigger than what I had seen growing up in Inglewood.”
When he returned from the military he began getting involved with admissions process and how to change it, “It was an easy fit because my heart is into it.”
Staphanie Zelaya, Assistant Director for the M.E.Ch.A. de UCLA Xinatchli Access Program expressed, “It’s only a stepping stone. We do see the increase [in freshmen enrolment], but it is small. We need to keep working on getting the UCLA campus to represent the Los Angeles community demographics.”
Scorza, agrees with Zelaya, but said he feels the results are having an impact on the community.
“This increase will hopefully lead to a larger number of African American applicants to UCLA which will then result in more admitted.” He also stated the importance of this increase by saying, “When you can put your finger on that specific person that got in, its all worth it.” And Miner, Farris and McClain are all proof of that.
Elated future UCLA freshmen Ebreon Farris becomes a Bruin this fall
Photo by Jessica Cervantes
