Cosumnes River College’s Puente Club supports CRC and Puente Project students in the club. Their initiative is to provide members a sense of belonging and establish a family bond with them.
Student Personnel Assistant and Co-Advisor of the Puente Club Itzel Estrada said the main focus of the club is to invite people in the program with the goals of transferring and collaborating with other organizations on campus.
“Its main mission is to help underrepresented students transfer to the four-year university, also student engagement,” Estrada said. “It’s a fun way to meet people, it’s a big component that it’s Latinx students, but it’s open to everyone.”
Estrada said the Puente Project is a year-long program open to any student and it is made for underrepresented students. Students must qualify for English writing 108 and 300 and Human Career Development 310 and 330.
“It’s for students who have not fulfilled those classes. You have to commit yourself to these two courses and that’s for whoever’s willing to commit to the program, whereas the club, you don’t have to take those classes at all,” Estrada said.
Estrada said the Puente Club discusses many things at club meetings, such as personal development, emotional development and student affairs.
“It’s beneficial to help with emotional development and navigating the transfer process and building a community at the same time,” Estrada said. “The students take on leadership roles and from there, they’re building kind of like their professional skill set and stuff like that.”
President of the Puente Club Emilia Murillo said the club pushes students to build leadership experience and lets them know how to be a leader or even a board member for the club.
“They could put that on their resume so it could look good when they go to a college or whatever college they try to apply,” Murillo said. “We also provide other resources so they can meet other people here on campus, not just the counselors, but try letting them open up making them know about what other resources they could find here on campus.”
Murillo said the Puente Club had been helpful for her.
“Being part of the club made me be able to work on campus and getting to know people on campus, which opened a few doors for me,” Murillo said.
Murillo added that the club also discussed future events on campus and university campus tours.
“Before COVID, we would go to UC San Diego and see all these different colleges,” Murillo said. “We would do these tours for students cause we know in high school, we don’t really have an opportunity to go out to see all these different colleges that potentially we know we might like or we might not like.”
Puente Club Secretary Lexi Lopez, a 24-year-old biology major, said she liked how the Puente Club is community based.
“Not even just Latin communities, we’re open to everyone on campus, but it’s nice to have a focus on education, student advocacy and community engagement and giving people who don’t have a voice a chance to speak and talk about their issues and what’s holding them back,” Lopez said. “So being able to bring awareness to certain things, like mental health, social wellness.”
Estrada said students can join the Puente Club by following the club’s Instagram account, which is @crcpuenteproject and also by showing up to the club meetings in person.
“You could sign up through sign-up sheets when we’re having on-campus events or just following up with us on Instagram and attending the club meetings,” Estrada said.