College Headed and Mighty Proud (C.H.A.M.P.)

The C.H.A.M.P. program is a service-learning experience for APU students enrolled in EDLS 405 Diversity in the Classroom, integrating practical site experience of diversity in elementary school settings into the college classroom. This education course is designed to engage prospective teachers with issues such as race, culture, gender, ability, and wider social forces that affect traditional success and failure in the education setting.

Each semester, APU partners with all elementary schools from the Azusa Unified School District (AUSD), assigning APU students to classrooms at the designated school sites to serve as college mentors to groups of 5-7 fourth-grade students. The APU students facilitate activities that correspond to the C.H.A.M.P. curriculum, covering such topics as college admission, financial aid, and career exploration.

The C.H.A.M.P. program has been a partnership between APU and the AUSD since 1991. Academic Service-Learning works to ensure that the program is mutually beneficial, reliably structured, and of the highest quality, with the overarching goal of providing faculty and students with meaningful service opportunities in the community that directly relate to the academic material and learning objectives of each course.

Full Menu