Happy Retirement Liz!
At the end of our second day of the annual Admin Council Retreat, we surprised our fabulous Vice President of Instruction Liz Rozell with a gathering to recognize and celebrate her time at BC as she enters into retirement. Liz has bold vision, contagious energy, unrivaled work ethic, and …that gorgeous smile! Liz stepped up to be VP at a very crucial point at BC when we were in the middle of implementing Guided Pathways, AB 705, curriculum review, accreditation, development of new instructional programs, BC-Southwest, the growth of dual enrollment, inmate scholars and more.
Check out the entire gallery of Liz’s retirement ceremony!
BCSD Hall of Fame Honoring Senator Jean Fuller
On Friday evening, I enjoyed cheering for Senator Jean Fuller and Grimm Family Educational Foundation CEO Barbara Grimm Marshall as they were inducted into the Bakersfield City School District Hall of Fame. At the BC table we had Kern Community College District Trustees Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg and Romeo Agbalog, his wife, Lilly Perez Agbalog, and Bakersfield College employees Steve Watkin, Kylie Swanson, Norma Rojas-Mora and Michele Bresso — celebrating the service of Jean and Barbara, partners in BC’s Early College Program that enables high school students to earn simultaneous college degrees. Jean Fuller, a BC alumna, challenged Hall of Fame audience members on the spot to contact local high schools and ensure they are participating in Early College. We are BC!
Special thanks as well to the Bakersfield Californian for their coverage last April when inductees were first announced.
Admin Council Retreat – Day Two
On Tuesday the college administrative council gathered for the second part of our summer retreat.
Todd Coston organized different sessions on: Dealing with Difficult People and Having Hard Conversations by Stephanie Baltazar and Brett Redd, How to Facilitate Team Building and Effective Meeting Facilitation by Manny Mourtzanos and Steve Watkins, and Best Practices for Running a Screening Committee & Conducting Classified Staff Evaluations by Todd Coston and Monika Scott. Thanks to all who participated in these retreats.
Check out attendees’ photos in our SmugMug gallery!
Below are some fun photos from the first day’s retreat when everyone formed teams and went on a scavenger hunt across campus.
You can check out more scavenger hunt photos from day one of the retreat at our SmugMug gallery.
Umoja’s HBCU Tour
Umoja Community students went on a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in Georgia and Alabama. Umoja Coordinator Dr. Paula Parks selected four outstanding students who are interested in transferring to an HBCU. The grant-funded tour included visiting cultural and historic sites, with Heritage Empowered as the tour operator.
Earl Parsons poem published to local literary journal
Earl Parsons from MPR recently had a poem published that he wrote about local candy company, Dewar’s, mascot. Congrats Earl! Here’s the poem:
You can see the published poem on the Rabid Oak website.
Measure J Update
Currently we have 15 (!) Measure J projects underway here at BC. Check out the photos below to see the construction happening at the Campus Center, Veterans Resource Center, and Memorial Stadium. I’m so proud of the work that we are doing here to upgrade our campus for our students and community.
New Scoreboard at the Pool
We have a new scoreboard at the BC pool! Thank you to M&O for coordinating this and helping to continually beautify and update our campus!
Kern EDC 31st Annual Dinner
BC’s Tom Gelder, Heather Pennella, Norma Rojas-Mora and Tamara Baker attended this year’s Kern EDC Annual Dinner held at JEH Ranch. It was a great chance to catch up with fellow community leaders and show support for economic development in our region. Not to mention, the river looked exceptionally beautiful this year with all of the rainfall that we’ve had!
Student Deployment Spotlight
In a past blog post, I talked about BC student Elaine Moreno’s deployment to Baghdad. We have created a page on the BC website dedicated to Elaine’s story while she is overseas, where we will post updates as we receive them from Elaine. Make sure to keep up on the web link below to see Elaine in action!
Flex week is coming up and the only thing missing is you!
Fall Flex week is just around the corner and we want to make sure that you are prepared. We are gearing up for Flex week workshops August 19th-21st and we have a wide variety of sessions to meet your professional development needs. Sessions run from 8:00 am to 4:30 all three days and range from Active Listening to creating your own escape room in Canvas. Whether you are a faculty member looking to improve your technology skills or a staff member who wants to understand data, we have something for everyone.
Below are just some of the workshops being offered, along with a brief description. For a full list of workshops, check out Upcoming Workshops.
How to Create an Effective Syllabus
Come to this presentation to learn how to make your syllabus work for both you and your students.
Creating Accessible PDF Documents
Come to this workshop to learn how to create accessible PDF documents. (note: this workshop will not cover fillable forms)
Build an Escape Room in Canvas With Mastery Plans
Canvas possesses a little known utility for individualizing instruction called Mastery Paths. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use mastery paths and use it to build an escape room.
How often do we stop to actively listen within our daily communication exchanges? In today’s society, it is easy to be inundated with words, noise, and impersonal communication distracting us from the real meaning of messages and stories. It is always the right time to actively participate in listening. This workshop will focus on best practices to actively listen to your students, your colleagues and yourself throughout the semester.
Creating Badges within your Canvas Course
Are you wanting to create Badges to incentivize your students in your class? Are you wanting to track your students’ progress through your course modules…or maybe just create friendly competition? If yes, come to this session where Matt Jones will show you how to set up a badging account, link it to your Canvas Course, and Create Badges.
How does this Grant Thing Work
The goal of this workshop is to introduce grants to the novice and to (hopefully) inspire the veteran grant writer. Grants can be a mystery, where do you find these elusive things called grants? How do you know if you should even apply? What do all these terms mean? What is my timeline? In this interactive workshop Michelle hopes to dispel a few of the mysteries and ease your mind on applying. Michelle Miller-Galaz, is the Director for Grants and Resources at KCCD.
Personal Professional Websites
Workshop for developing a personal website to include planning, selecting a host, tools for creating, image and video preparation, etc.
Join us for a presentation on Jobspeaker the online and mobile platform to connect BC students to employment on and off campus. Learn about the benefits to students and how you can help promote in your area.
Fun Photo: Professor Scratchy
Our own Krista Moreland and her cat, Professor Scratchy both could not wait for the summer term to begin at BC. Krista said, “Professor Scratchy is ready to help out!”
Renegade Athletics Up Eleven Spots in Latest CCCAA/NATYCAA Standings
Renegade Athletics has finished the 2018-2019 academic year with a #19 finish in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and National Association of Two Year College Athletic Administrators (NATYCAA) Cup Standings. Out of all SoCal schools, the Renegades finished 12th. The ranking moves them up 11 spots from the 2017-18 spot of being tied for #30, and the year before that (2016-17) of being tied for #50. Congrats to our athletics department coaches and staff!!
Renegade Volleyball to Host Five Camps This Summer
Renegade Volleyball is excited to announce the dates for their 2019 summer volleyball camps.
There will be a total of four camps intended for 8th-12th graders with a minimum level of experience. There will also be a coaches clinic.
Camp #1 will focus on setting and run July 22-23 from 2pm-4pm each day.
Camps #2 will focus on attacking and run July 2223 from 5pm-7pm each day.
Camp #3 will focus on serving, SR passing and defense and run July 25-26 from 2pm-4pm each day.
Camps #4 will focus on attacking and run from July 24-25 from 5pm-7pm each day.
The Coaches Clinic will take place on Saturday, July 27th from 9am-2pm and focus on building a championship caliber team through vision, goals, athlete behaviors, team chemistry, technical skills and on-court demonstrations.
For further questions, contact Coach Carl Ferreira at 661-903-1911 or carferre@bakersfieldcollege.edu.
More Renegade Student Athletes Moving On To The Next Level
With the five Renegades who signed this week, we now have a total of 36 student athletes who will be continuing their careers at the four-year level. The four this week include:
Congrats to all our hard-working Renegade student athletes and wishing you much success in your futures! Go Gades!
Tagged: Bakersfield College, Liz Rozell, Sonya Christian
Great job capturing all of the end-of-the-year activities. Thank you for highlighting all the positive things and people coming out of B.C.
Until the Fall…
#WeAreBC
After reading the entry about the admin retreat I now know why the toilet seat covers in the men’s restroom are either scattered over the floor or missing. 🤪
Thank you for all of your blog posts. I really enjoy reading them. Everyone at BC, from the staff to faculty, are amazing people. It’s an honor to work with them.
[…] Last week I shared pictures from the first two days of Umoja’s HBCU Tour by Umoja Coordinator Dr. Paula Parks and four outstanding students interested in transferring to a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in Georgia and Alabama. The grant-funded tour included visiting cultural and historic sites, with Heritage Empowered as the tour operator. Dr. Parks has sent more pictures and descriptions of the exciting and rewarding tour that I would like to share with you: […]
[…] shared a couple of week’s ago that we had a retirement party for our VP of Instruction Liz Rozell, and wanted to share the video […]