Funds to support recruitment at Inland Empire community colleges
By Kenna Jenkins, February 25, 2026
The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation awarded Cal Poly Pomona a $600K grant to strengthen relationships with community colleges in the Inland Empire.
Presidential Associate for Community Partnerships, Engagements and Outreach at CPP Brandon Tuck said the grant is region-specific instead of demographic-specific like other grants. Tuck said students in the Inland Empire are often overlooked, and CPP is one of the closest California State Universities to the region.
“It’s a growing region,” Tuck said. “It’s a booming economy in the Inland Empire, and it’s like our way of giving back and through this grant giving back to the Inland Empire.”.
Associate Vice President of Student Success Cecilia Santiago-González said the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is invested in the region, and CPP wants to elevate that work, as this grant is an investment in the Inland Empire’s workforce and community.
While CPP has visited community colleges in the Inland Empire, Tuck said it hasn’t had a consistent presence on their campuses in comparison to schools like Mt. San Antonio College that are geographically closer to CPP’s campus.
Dora Lee, CPP’s assistant vice president of academic engagement and success, said CPP has used past grants to strengthen relationships with Mt. Sac, Citrus College and Chaffey College.
“Our goal is to increase the number of Inland Valley students that utilize our service,” Lee said. “That’s one of the goals that we’ve hoped to achieve with this new grant, to expand our services throughout the Inland Valley.”
Lee said in an email the three main objectives of the grant are to expand transfer outreach and advising, strengthen pre-transfer support programs and increase the number of Inland Empire students served.
The grant also opens two staff positions, one for an advising specialist at Poly Transfer Advantage under academic engagement and success and another for a transfer outreach counselor who will focus recruitment efforts on the Inland Empire, according to Lee.
According to Tuck, part of the reason this grant is so exciting is it will bring in another counselor who can provide extra support to Elizabeth Salgado, the sole transfer outreach counselor up until this point.
“(Community colleges in the Inland Empire) had been reaching out to us long before this grant, so we knew some of the things that they wanted to do,” Tuck said. “Without the support of the grant, it’s difficult. We’re stretched thin.”
Tuck said with the grant, CPP can maintain the strong relationships it has with schools like Citrus and Mt. SAC while also strengthening its relationship with schools and communities in the Inland Empire.
CPP currently offers events like the PolyTransfer Advantage Summer Academy, which is a free three-day program that aims to inform students about the resources available at CPP and overall make their transfer smoother.
“This is an opportunity to start to build those relationships similar to what we have at Citrus, at Mt. SAC, at Chaffey,” Tuck said.
Feature image courtesy of PolyTransfer
