Wildcat Guarantee Kicks Off with Education Partners Across the North State

On April 18 and 19, over 80 educators gathered in Chico for two days kicking off the Wildcat Guarantee—a new initiative that brings together the California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s Office, the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI), and Chico State to make a college education more attainable for North State students. Among the group in attendance were CCGI trainers, Chancellor’s Office administrators, Chico State senior enrollment leaders, and over 40 representatives from North State high schools and county offices of education representing 17 school districts.

“The Wildcat Guarantee and this partnership send a critical message to North State students: there is a clear path to your career goals, and if that includes a bachelor’s degree, there is a place waiting for you at your local California State University,” said Jeff Logsdon, interim director of Admissions at Chico State. “High school students can opt into the Wildcat Guarantee with Chico State as early as 9^th grade if their school district partners with this initiative.”

If eligible students satisfy standard CSU admission requirements by high school graduation and apply to the University, they are guaranteed a place at their local campus—Chico State. From the time these students join the Wildcat Guarantee, they’ll receive encouraging and supportive messages from the University so that by the time they finish high school they already have a sense of belonging in higher education.

The CCGI, through its CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, is California’s cradle-to-career planning and data-sharing tool for public high school districts and educators. Participants at the Wildcat Guarantee event showed enthusiasm about the platform’s capabilities. Students, educators, and families can track progress on the “a-g” courses required for CSU and UC eligibility throughout high school. Most exciting to the district administrators in the room seemed to be powerful reports that enable them to quickly verify their district’s “a-g” offerings align with the state’s database.

Students can use the platform to complete interactive career and interest assessments to learn not only about the broad range of careers available to them, but also many details about those careers, from skills required and responsibilities of the job to education requirements and salaries. From there, the platform shows students schools and colleges that offer the education required to enter their desired career competitively.

Chico State’s 12-county service area consists of Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, and Yuba counties.

“The Wildcat Guarantee is a campuswide promise to North State students that their local university is here to support their academic goals and lifelong success,” Logsdon said. “We can’t wait to welcome our region’s students as Wildcats for decades into the future.”