Rio Hondo College President Teresa Dreyfuss attended the El Monte Promise Foundation Elected Official Briefing Breakfast, as Rio’s representative on Feb. 1, to discuss its plans and new marketing suggestions.

Trustee Garcia, president of the El Monte Promise Foundation, presented the Foundation’s vision, mission, marketing and strategic plans during the event; emphasizing that the foundation is a project strongly based of community partners with local cities like El Monte, South El Monte, and Rosemead.

Rio Hondo’s very own Dr. Mike Munoz was also in attendance at the breakfast and presented data on the “A-G” high school requirements.

The data showed that it rose from 20 percent of students from the class of 2008 to 36 percent from the class of 2013 from students in the El Monte Union High School District graduates that met the UC and CSU entrance requirements. The number of students rose 16 percent within the last five years.

Additionally, the “El Monte Union Pledge” was said to have empowered more students to enroll at Rio Hondo from its recently found data that showed an increase from 309 students in the Fall of 2010 to 602 students, who are a part of the pledge, in the Fall of 2012.

The “El Monte Union Pledge” is a partnership between El Monte Union High School District, Rio Hondo College, University of California Irvine and California State University Los Angeles that guarantees EMUHSD students a one-time priority registration at Rio Hondo College. The students in attendance are then guaranteed admittance into UCI or CSULA later on.

The event was held from 8 a.m. to Noon at the El Monte Aquatic Center for the breakfast with representatives from around the community.