The Puente Project is a statewide program that helps Mexican American/Latino community college students in California achieve their academic goals. Puente's goals are to reduce the number of Mexican American/Latino community college students who drop out of school and increase the number who transfer to four-year institutions. To meet these goals, the project trains English teachers and Mexican American counselors to work as teams in conducting one-year writing/counseling/mentoring programs for Mexican American/Latino students. Since Puente began at Chabot College in 1982, 18 other California community colleges have initiated Puente programs on their campuses and over 1,800 students have been served. The programs are monitored on a regular basis, and data are collected each year on student enrollments, retention, and transfer. These data indicate that 83% of the students who enrolled in Puente successfully completed the developmental writing class; 72% of those who went on to take English 1A completed it; and a total of 134 Puente students transferred to a state or private university. The program's success can be attributed to the collaboration between English teachers and Mexican American counselors, research-based writing methods, culturally-based academic counseling, an exemplary training model with ongoing staff development, strong community-based support, and a working partnership among community groups, postsecondary institutions, philanthropic organizations, and corporations. (JMC)