Humboldt County Office of Education: North Coast Cal-SOAP

North Coast Cal-SOAP’s programs range from financial aid application workshops and in-school college access support for high schoolers, to college tours and college and career fairs.

Specifically, the goals of the North Coast Cal-SOAP Consortium are:

• To increase the number of students with historically low college eligibility and attendance rates who persist to postsecondary institutions;
• To increase the amount of knowledge among designated students and their parents concerning postsecondary opportunities, preparation and admissions criteria and procedures, as well as financial aid sources and application procedures;
• To help students explore, develop, and clarify career interests, requirements and opportunities; and better understand the relationship between postsecondary education and future career aspirations.

Overall, North Coast Cal-SOAP works strategically to provide the appropriate services to students enrolled in the Cal-SOAP program, thereby increasing their academic preparedness upon entering postsecondary education. As a result of these efforts, the North Coast Cal-SOAP Consortium is proud to report an 83% college going rate among students receiving these intensive services.

We believe that with the right knowledge and skills, college is more than just a dream; it’s a reality. 

The North Coast Cal-SOAP Consortium is one of 16 Cal-SOAP consortiums in California, each serving students in a specific geographical area of the state. North coast’s Cal-SOAP consortium consists of the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE), high schools where Cal-SOAP Success Coaches are placed, Cal Poly Humboldt, College of the Redwoods, and community organizations/initiatives whose mission includes college access information and resources. Specific members of the consortium make up its governing board which makes decisions about the types of activities and services provided by the program. As the legal applicant, HCOE provides programmatic infrastructure and employs approximately 15 College Success Coaches annually to serve 9^th-12^th grade students in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

Base funding for Cal-SOAP comes from the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) and is matched with contributions from local consortium partners.

The California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal-SOAP) was established by the state legislature in 1978. Today, Cal-SOAP is instrumental in improving the flow of information about postsecondary education and financial aid to low-income secondary school students or students in geographic regions with documented low-eligibility or college preparation rates who are first in their families to attend college.

Today, Cal-SOAP projects operate in sixteen locations throughout the state by consortia made up of secondary and postsecondary schools and community agencies. Cal-SOAP works in cooperation with other intersegmental outreach programs to avoid service duplication.

Current Cal-SOAP projects include: Central Coast (Santa Maria), Central Valley (San Joaquin), East Bay (Oakland and Richmond) and Solano, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Merced, North Coast, Sacramento, San Diego/Imperial, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, South County Gilroy, South San Joaquin, Riverside, and San Bernardino.

Because each project specializes in serving students within its community, the types of programs and services may differ. However, the projects share the common goal of improving the flow of information about postsecondary education and financial aid to targeted students. Some common services provided by the consortia includes advising, parent outreach, and college awareness workshops.

The Cal-SOAP program is administered by the California Student Aid Commission, with individual projects applying each year for continued federal funding. By law, each state allocation must be matched by and equal or higher level of local resources.

Cal-SOAP has extensive intersegmental participation, including:

• Ninety-seven public school districts, from the largest in the state to small, rural districts plus individual high schools;
• Nine of the ten general campuses of the University of California system;
• Eighteen of the twenty-three campuses of the California State University system;
• Thirty-nine of the state’s one hundred and eight community colleges – including all those in each area in which a project is located;
• Seventeen of the seventy-one Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities members; and;
• Forty-seven other community-based organizations.