OUR HISTORY
CASA grew out of a now twenty year old grass-roots project called La Clase Mágica (LCM). LCM began under the supervision of Dr. Olga A. Vásquez, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego.
In the fall of 1989, after earning her Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University, Dr. Vásquez joined the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC) at UCSD as post-doctoral fellow and began to transform the 5th Dimension model to appropriately serve local historically underrepresented children.
Later she received a tenure track position that has allowed her to embark upon the determined process of adapting the program at St. Leo’s Mission in Solana Beach, CA. And with the help and hard work of community members LCM was launched. La Clase Mágica, translated to “The Magical Class,” is a multilingual/multicultural technology based after school program now located within five communities throughout San Diego County in various neighborhood epicenters such as low-income housing complexes and American Indian Reservations.
In 2000, after eleven years of community involvement, and the subsequent growth of LCM and the inception of its age-appropriate activities: Mi Clase Mágica for pre-school children, Wizard Assistant Club for teenagers, and La Gran Dimensión for adult learners, the project began an effort to gain sustainability. This effort gave birth to the Center for Academic & Social Advancement / Centro de Avance Social y Acádemico (CASA). This not-for-profit organization supports the perpetuation of La Clase Mágica and its other critical community programs in three important ways: it recruits funding from diverse sources; it helped launch the development of a University of California consortium of similar site projects, called UC Links; and it is in the process of researching endowments for the institutionalization of CASA.
And thus far CASA has been thankful for our collaborations and energized by our results. In fact, our most recent research shows that 90% of past participants interviewed who are now college-age have entered college, and some have already graduated! And we are extremely grateful to have been supported by more than 20 community and higher education entities across San Diego County, to work with approximately 7-10 committed community coordinators and 80 – 130 undergraduates from two institutions, in order to serve hundreds of children and families a year.
