CSUSM to Host Summit for National Alliance on Education

Cal State San Marcos is preparing to host a two-day summit as part of its founding of a national organization that's working to change education by centering the voices of students.

CSUSM will hold its inaugural regional summit this week for REP4, an alliance composed of nine colleges and universities from around the country. The event will take place July 11-12 on campus as a collaboration between the divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.

REP stands for "Rapid Education Prototyping," which aims to gather fresh ideas from young students to improve equity and remove some of the barriers to college.

The summit will bring together 40 high school students from migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds as well as current CSUSM students. Participants will tackle the following prompt: "What would make college (and/or CSUSM) more attractive to high school students?"

The college students in attendance will facilitate group discussions and support idea development, while CSUSM faculty members will create and facilitate programming to guide participants through the design-thinking process.

"The summit aims to inspire and prepare high school students for college while generating ideas to address enrollment challenges facing higher education institutions," said Dr. Erik Ramirez, director of divisional initiatives and partnerships for Student Affairs, who is organizing the summit.

REP4 was founded in 2021 in response to a growing number of issues confronting higher education, including low completion rates, lack of access and racial gaps. By employing an innovative approach of allowing students to design solutions, REP4 is focused on improving outcomes and reducing barriers to success.

Grand Valley State University in Michigan is the organizer and convener of the REP4 alliance. Besides CSUSM, the seven other founding partners are Amarillo College (a community college in Texas), Austin Community College District (a system of 11 institutions), Boise State University, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (a system of 17 public institutions), Fort Valley State University (a historically Black school in Georgia), Illinois Institute of Technology and Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.