For the last 18 summers, rising high school seniors from the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) have visited CMC, spending the night in the dorms, eating at Collins Dining Hall, interacting with staff and faculty, and fueling their dreams of becoming college students.
The visiting seniors are participants in Partnership for Success (PFS), a collaborative program between PUSD and four independent schools in Pasadena—Chandler, Mayfield Junior, Polytechnic, and Westridge—that provides underserved public-school students a fully-funded, nine-summer experience centered on academic and personal growth, college readiness, career exploration, and community engagement.
Fourth-grade students are nominated for the program by PUSD teachers based on academic potential, leadership qualities, good citizenship, and financial need—with a PFS goal of 100% of students who complete the program gaining acceptance to college.
An outcome of such resounding success is a major motivation for creating an ongoing connection with CMC, said Trustee and former Board Chair David Mgrublian ’82 P’11, who, along with his wife, Margaret, has supported PFS for nearly 20 years.
“My hope is that, coming out the program, students will continue their education, whether that means initially a community college, a big university, or a small liberal arts college (like ours). It doesn’t matter which path they take, we just hope they’re inspired to be lifelong learners,” said Mgrublian, who attended Pasadena-area public schools, earned a BA in Economics and Political Science at CMC and an MBA at Harvard, and is now CEO of IDS Real Estate Group.
Through Mgrublian, the overnight trip to CMC was initiated and resourced. Almost every summer since, he has shared his personal story with the PFS scholars—one that turns first impressions upside-down and lets students see, and imagine for themselves, what is possible.
“I came from a family where nobody had the opportunity to go to college. I went to public school. I needed financial aid to go to CMC,” Mgrublian tells PFS students.
“David’s story resonates with the students and helps them understand that there are so many people rooting for them, many who have backgrounds similar to theirs and overcame challenges to get to where they are today,” added PFS Executive Director Jessica Pérez del Toro, noting that around 80% of PFS scholars will be the first in their family to attend college.
“I think this inspires them to keep working hard and chase their dreams.”
Highlights of this year’s Claremont trip included campus tours of all 5Cs; a “Case Studies” exercise with CMC Admission staff where PFS scholars roleplayed alongside college admission officers and reviewed applications to better understand the assessment and selection process; and an interactive presentation by Nia Walker, CMC Assistant Professor of Integrated Sciences: Biology.
“I grew up with mentors who helped shape where I ended up, so getting to be that person for even one afternoon was really special,” Walker said. “Programs like Partnership for Success matter so much, and seeing a college campus for the first time can open up a whole world of possibilities.”
For Mgrublian, watching “kids from my hometown” get enthusiastic about college through the built environment is personally rewarding.
“I’m very proud of showing off CMC and The Claremont Colleges,” he said, noting how special it was to give tours of the Robert Day Sciences Center to this year’s group.
“Almost to a person, they talk about how important the overnight at CMC was to them. The experience stays with them, I think for the rest of their life.”
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That was certainly true for Mu Hwa Nagata, who participated in the CMC overnight first as a PFS scholar, then as a PFS intern, and now in her role as an admission officer at CMC, a career inspired by the program. Nagata cited the Case Studies exercise as particularly influential. Now, full circle, she helps guide current generations of PFS scholars through the activity.
“PFS made college a possibility for me and opened doors to opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. That impact drove me to pursue a career working in college access,” Nagata said.
For Kevin Alvarado ’11, the PFS program (then called the “Skills Enrichment Program”) set him up for success by giving him more confidence and preparing him for life once he eventually enrolled at CMC.
“There was a lot of adapting I had to do when I got to CMC. There was so much learning and growing, but everything I did [in PFS] opened me up to different ways of challenging myself and helped me prepare for all those scenarios,” said Alvarado, who earned a BS in engineering at USC through CMC’s 3+2 Dual Degree Program and, after 12 years at EY, is now a property tax director at DMA.
Deeply grateful for and tangibly impacted by the program, both Alvarado and Nagata repeatedly returned as interns, a common trajectory for PFS alumni, a group now more than 800 strong.
“For this program to get stronger and stronger every year is a testament to the founders’ vision, and I’m so happy that Margaret and I can be a small part of it by continuing to host students at CMC,” Mgrublian said.