Pasadena City College, UCLA Mark 10 Years of Transfer Partnership at Campus Celebration

Pasadena City College and UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships marked what the college calls the 10th anniversary of their transfer partnership at a Sept. 9 celebration on the Pasadena campus.

The collaboration has helped more than a thousand community college students transfer and earn a university degree, the college said in a news release issued Oct. 1. UCLA received 1,366 transfer applications from Pasadena City College for fall 2025, second only to Santa Monica College among California community colleges, and admitted 30%, according to the university’s admission office.

“So today isn’t just a celebration of 10 years; it’s a celebration of every student who walked this journey and got the support they needed to reach their academic and professional goals,” college President José A. Gómez said. He spoke to about 150 students, faculty and staff in Westerbeck Recital Hall, the college said.

Jonli Tunstall, UCLA’s associate vice provost for student diversity and director of its Academic Advancement Program, said the university cannot simply wait for community college students to find their way there.

“We have to build pathways. We have to share information, demystify the transfer process, remove barriers, hold the university accountable to become a place that has a transfer receptive culture,” Tunstall said.

Rep. Judy Chu, Assemblymember John Harabedian and Pasadena Councilmember Jason Lyon attended and congratulated the two institutions, the college said.

“This work is vital because we all know that higher education is the pathway to success,” said Chu, a UCLA alumna who was a community college professor for 20 years.

“PCC is not only number one in transfers in the state, but it has been for years on end,” Lyon said.

Two speakers, Yazmin Gonzalez and Tristin Fowler, began at Pasadena City College, took part in the center’s program and graduated from UCLA, the college said. Gonzalez is now director of programs for student success in the division of engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology. Fowler is a counselor and instructor at Pasadena City College.

“UCLA began to shift in my imagination from a place that belonged to others, to a place where I could belong,” Gonzalez said.

“I once needed someone to show me the way forward,” Fowler said. “Now I get to do that for others.”

UCLA founded the center in 2001. Claudia Salcedo, UCLA’s assistant vice provost for academic partnerships, directs it, and Associate Dean Tameka Alexander heads the Transfer Center at Pasadena City College. The center’s relationship with the Pasadena college is its longest, the college said.

Students in the center’s yearlong Scholars program were admitted to UCLA at a 54% rate for fall 2025, compared with 23% for all transfer applicants, according to UCLA.

Alexander and Salcedo described the program to the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees that evening, the college said.

“What distinguishes PCC is the scale, intentionality, and coordination of our work,” Alexander said.