In 1981, the Puente program was established at California's City College of San Francisco to improve the transfer rates of Chicano/Latino students to senior institutions. The program provides a supportive and stimulating environment to help students build confidence in their writing skills and provides extensive counseling and mentoring services. In 1996, a study was conducted to examine the characteristics of Puente and non-Puente Latino students and compare the two groups' completion rates and rates of progress to university-level English courses. Data were gathered on the outcomes of 420 Latino students enrolled in spring 1993, spring 1994, or spring 1995, 87 of whom participated in Puente. Results include the following: (1) students enrolled in the Puente program were similar to the larger pool of Latino students for all characteristics except age; (2) only 12% of the Puente students withdrew from their pre-college English course, compared to 24% of the non-Puente Latino students; (3) over the 3 years, 86% of the Puente students passed the English course, compared to 55% of Latinos enrolled in regular sections; and (4) 95% of the Puente students who successfully completed pre-college English enrolled in the college-level English course, compared to 58% of non-Puente Latino students. (HAA)