Initiated at Cabrillo College's Watsonville campus, the Digital Bridge Academy serves under-prepared and at-risk students, those who would not ordinarily attend community college or would face barriers in  completing their education. Based on the concept of "lighting the fire within", it helps them reevaluate their past educational experiences and regain their motivation to learn. Beginning with a two-week foundation course and continuing through an accelerated intensive semester of basic skills, behavioral development, social justice and corporate management techniques, the DBA curriculum has shown remarkable effectiveness with rural Latino students in Watsonville as well as in initial replications with urban black and other student populations at colleges in Alameda County. The DBA was designed to be replicated on a large scale in order to have a major impact on the way community colleges serve under-prepared students. In preparation for statewide scaling beginning in 2010, DBA is currently expanding the DBA program to serve more students at Cabrillo as well as continuing to pilot replication at other California community colleges.



Web site:  http://www.cabrillo.edu/academics/wdba/

Passing the Torch: An Evaluation of the Digital Bridge Academy Replication, by Rebecca A. London, Miranda Smith and Breana George, University of California at Santa Cruz, October 2006.