The UCLA Career Based Outreach Program (CBOP) fellow component is designed to provide early graduate/professional school outreach to targeted UCLA undergraduates from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. The primary goals are to increase the academic competitiveness of prospective applicants to UCLA graduate and professional schools while they in turn help high school students prepare to be UC competitive for undergraduate admissions. The program is built on a “service-learning” model.

Fellows are selected on the basis of an application process. Students must have at least a “B” average and have a desire to attend a professional school or graduate studies program. Applications are submitted to the CBOP office and then processed and sent to the designated professional schools. Each professional school program selects Fellows on the basis of academic criteria and space availability. A strong preference is granted to applicants whose experiences reflect limited exposure to post-collegiate education, career opportunities, and social support systems. In addition, those who have come from or have demonstrated leadership experience in educationally and/or economically disadvantaged communities are also sought.

UCLA Professional Schools & Graduate Programs
1. Anderson Graduate School of Management (AGSM)
2. Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSEIS)
3. School of Dentistry
4. School of Law
5. School of Medicine
6. School of Public Health
7. School of Public Policy and Social Research

Undergraduate Course Requirement for CBOP Fellows
Designed as a community service-learning experience, Education 185 is the first of two sequential courses. The second course is Ed 192A (the fall quarter seminar) and Ed 170A (the field component). The courses are intended for undergraduates committed to raising their own academic achievement while attempting to raise the academic achievement of high school and middle school students from low socioeconomic communities and low-performing schools. Enrollees study learning and developmental factors as well as cultural, social and environmental factors that affect student academic achievement. They explore, test and apply various learning styles that enable them to become more effective learners, given the demands of academic achievement to access undergraduate, graduate and professional studies. Education 185 focuses on the exploration of theories and research, and their implications for effective learning. The goal is to formulate a set of strategies for raising academic achievement of self and those of high/middle school students.

Education 192A focuses on enrollees’ own experience in academic achievement, and those of high and middle schools students, in testing and implementing the strategies derived from Ed 185.

Students are expected to adjust and refine these strategies, relating back to theories and research learned from Ed 190 and expand on their learning of developmental and learning theories and practices while putting into practice the theories they have learned in 185.

The CBOP Fellows create lesson plans from their participation in the courses which include the Personal Academic Learning System (PALS). PALS is a comprehensive and interrelated network of methods, procedures, tactics, and strategies that are grounded in a set of principles whose sole purpose is to produce optimal learning. Optimal learning is defined as achieving the maximum results that an individual is capable of achieving at a specific point in time. Some of the components covered in PALS consist of helping students develop academic skills in the following areas:

PREPARATION 1. Critical Reading 2. Reading Comprehension 3. Textbook note-taking 4. Formulating Questions 5. Time Management

DIALOGUE 1. Communication 2. Listening 3. Teaching a concept

INSTRUCTION 1. Lecture note-taking 2. Listening 3. Asking Questions