Fresno State employee Samantha Bautista is the principal investigator for the START (Strengthening, Advising, Strengthening Results) program, made possible by an $8 million grant. Fresno State photo

Fresno State announced Thursday that it has been awarded nearly $8 million by the Department of Education to overhaul student advising by launching a new initiative. START (Strengthening, Advising, Strengthening Results) will aim to boost student success rates for minority and low-income students.

Fresno State graduate and the program’s principal investigator Samantha Bautista said her personal experiences led her to support the program.

Bautista works as a AANAPISI (Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander) work-based learning experiences project coordinator in the criminology department at Fresno State. She is a native of Selma.

“As a former first-generation, low-income, and underserved student myself, I recognize the positive impact of personalized and sustained advising,” Bautista said. “I have a passion for leveraging this support to underserved students as they pursue their bachelor’s degrees and reach their fullest potential.”

Bautista added that the program will not just strengthen advising, but also contribute to connections that benefit holistic student success.

The START program is backed by six studies, each meeting the Department of Education’s standards for excellence. The program will have an independent evaluator oversee a randomized control trial of 8,500 students to ensure the findings can be applied to all 23 campuses within the California State University (CSU) system.

“We are excited to be the recipient of a Department of Education Postsecondary Student Success award to strengthen wrap-around advising services to our underserved students,” said Provost Xuanning Fu, the program’s chair. “We expect increased course completion rates, higher levels of persistence and accelerated time to earning degrees.”

The grant will also provide Fresno State the opportunity to increase the number of advisers and enhance their training supported by new technology, including a central data management system and specialized dashboards.

“Underrepresented populations are disproportionately huge in the California State University system, so the research findings can have an immense equity and diversity impact,” said Dr. Gil Harootunian, executive director of university initiatives and one of the key designers of the START program. “Many low-income, first-generation or minority students face compounding challenges, and they do so without the knowledge bank of continuing generation students.”