Do it for the kids!
About Us.
La Escuelita is a UCSB non-profit, student organization that has been serving the Isla Vista and Goleta community since 1969, making it one of the oldest Latino-based organizations in the university. The organization’s primary objective is to enrich youth education in the UCSB community and ultimately motivate them to pursue a higher education degree.
La Escuelita of El Congreso was originally known as La Escuela de Tiburcio Vásquez in the late 1960s. Its founders were a group of motivated UCSB students who wanted to provide an alternative school for public education. They fought for the educational equity of the Chicano/Latino community in Santa Barbara. La Escuelita mainly provided bilingual education to students in the Isla Vista and Goleta areas. However, after bilingual education was imposed in the Santa Barbara schools, the organization changed its purpose to accommodate the changing needs of the Chicano/Latino students of this community.
Our Mission
The group’s primary objective is to aid our communities by offering tutoring services (many times bilingual) and volunteer fieldwork experience at our local schools. Services are also provided to the students’ parents through our annual Student Parent Conference. They are provided with information consisting of college admissions, student college transitioning, and financial aid. La Escuelita’s goal is to enrich the education of the youth surrounding UCSB and ultimately to motivate them to pursue and attend an institution of higher learning.