Cabrillo College’s Digital Bridge Academy (DBA) will receive a $2.6 million academic grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation next year. The much-needed funding, as proposed in November’s Cabrillo College governing board agenda, will go toward a massive expansion of the DBA, more than tripling its size.

Diego James Navarro, who now serves as the program’s director, founded the program on the Watsonville campus in 2003. The DBA focuses on increasing the success rate of students who otherwise might struggle in a college environment. Since its beginning, the DBA has seen great success with not only with students’ performance during the program but also their continued success after they’ve graduated.

The theory behind the DBA is that grouping students together to pass through the learning environment as a unit—with a community of tutors and counselors—will aide student success.

The DBA groups students into “cohorts,” groups of full-time students enrolled in the same classes. Members of the cohorts develop relationships with the other students and support one another during their enrollment. Full-time students perform better than part-timers, DBA organizers say—and students are more successful in completing educational goals when they have active outside support in the form of counselors, tutors and close-knit learning communities.

The original DBA consisted of just one cohort and supporting staff. This fall there are three cohorts, and for the spring semester there will be five cohorts.

The DBA will expand to ten cohorts and additional supportive staff in fall 2010, thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant. The grant also paves the way for other funding opportunities because it gives visibility and credibility to the program.

During this time of budget cuts and financial woes this grant will create a sense of normalcy for at least the people enrolled within the DBA. Although none of the funds may be used for anything other than DBA programs, more students can enroll in the program and access their resources, lifting the burden off the general educational support staff.