Good morning, Bakersfield.
It is Saturday, July 6, 2019… A great day to be a Renegade.

Celebrating Fourth of July

One of my favorite songs as we celebrate an American day. Let’s listen to the Peter, Paul and Mary version.

As summer settles in, Americans of every belief and background get together with their friends and family on the Fourth of July to celebrate freedom, to celebrate having been blessed to participate in the grand social contract of American democracy.

A time for swimming, barbecues, and of course, fireworks.

In a letter to his wife Abigail dated July 3, 1776, John Adams declared that the signing of the Declaration of Independence taking place the next day “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary festival.”

Adams continued: “It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with…bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more”.

Early celebrations included the firing of guns and cannons that evolved into our backyard celebrations and increasingly, large fireworks displays, like the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular which takes place each year over the Charles River. This year’s Boston Pops event featured an F-15 Eagle flyover by the 104th Fighter Wing from Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Massachusetts, and a performance by Queen Latifah.

A beautiful display was held in Bakersfield in the Spectrum Amphitheater at the Park at River Walk, coinciding with the Independence Day 5K Run and featuring live entertainment before the fireworks at 9 p.m. Other notable fireworks on July 4th included at the Petroleum Club in Bakersfield, and celebrations in Taft and Tehachapi. Firework displays at Wasco and Shafter were held on July 3rd, and at Lake Isabella on Saturday the 6th.

Bakersfield Californian features writer Kelly Ardis, a former Renegade Rip reporter, wrote about all of the planned July 4 activities in an article from June 26.

However you observed Independence Day, I hope it was wonderful — and safe . I can’t stress enough how proud I am to be an immigrant and citizen of this great country.

Rudy Salas secures $1 million for workforce development

As you may have seen in the media, Bakersfield College is once again the proud recipient of a $1 million allocation from the 2019-20 state budget to continue to grow our Rural Initiatives Program! We will be holding an official press event on Monday, July 15, but I couldn’t wait to share the news! I’d like to thank Assemblymember Rudy Salas for helping secure funding for BC’s workforce development programs where we prepare our students for steady, well-paying jobs upon graduation.

Read all about it in The Bakersfield Californian’s article.

One Year of Rural Initiative Funding

You may also recall that a year ago I wrote about a press event announcing an allocation of $1 million for Bakersfield College’s Rural Initiatives program thanks to the support of Assemblymember Rudy Salas.

That $1 million funding enabled BC to launch a variety of programs that directly improved the lives of rural residents, helped meet area workforce needs, and helped rural students build marketable skills. North Kern Career Technical Education (CTE) classes associated with the funding realized nearly 1,400 enrollments in a range of disciplines including: Agriculture, Electronics, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning), Industrial Automation/Industrial Drawing, and Welding.

The new HVAC program, located on BC’s Delano Campus, realized 117 enrollments last year and saw students complete HVAC certificates, and one student earned an Associate in Science degree in just the first two semesters. In less than one year, program completers have the skills needed for a lucrative job market with entry-level earnings of 35,000 to $60,000 per year.

This is just the start. With the new funding secured due to support from Assemblyman Salas, Bakersfield College and its rural communities will continue to provide positive economic impact and opportunity for those seeking to improve their lives through education.

Here are a few pictures from the 2018 press event.

Read about the 2018 press event in last year’s post and read about the HVAC Tech Program unveiling in Delano .

Summer Bridge

Jo Ellen Barnes sent me some pictures of her first time helping at Summer Bridge.  There were close to 60 incoming students who participated in the event.

Jo Ellen’s team made a poster that depicted going from high school to BC graduation, the possible roadblocks, and how BC can help resolve those roadblocks.  Their poster won first place, which included some cool BC swag.

They also took part in a great team-building project after lunch. The Summer Bridge participants were grouped by major, then tasked with working together to build the highest tower. Here are some of the fun results!

CTE Goes Online

While many think of a college being quiet, or even dormant during the summer, work at BC is in full swing, including faculty, staff and administrators laying the groundwork for another set of innovative projects that will launch this fall.  One of those projects is our CTE Goes Online grant program.

This $500,000 grant, which we received from the state in June, will fund the development of several fully-online Career and Technical Education programs, including the Health Navigator Certificate, and our Commercial Music Program.  When complete, these programs will use Open Educational Resources to provide low or no-cost books to students, and will leverage micro-credentials to help students connect with great jobs in the workforce.

Thank you Bill Moseley and Tony Cordova for working to make this project a reality!

BC Pathways Program Mapper

Have you experienced the  Pathways Program Mapper? I’ve mentioned this innovative web-based application in previous posts. Craig Hayward, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, is working diligently with California Community Colleges, CSUs and Concentric Sky on this revolutionary way for students to map their education goals. Read all about it in my post Educational Systems and Intersegmental (ESIP) Task Force from March.  If you haven’t tried out the mapper, I’d like to showcase one of the programs mentioned above, Commercial Music.

The mapper begins with a description of the program and a short video.

Next, it give the student some learning outcomes.

The “Careers” section gives information on salary and growth opportunities in specific careers.

The program map is a flow chart of the courses at Bakersfield College. This interactive map has options, depending on the program, students can choose to tailor the map more toward their needs.

Students can also view the course map as a list and print it to take with them to discuss with a counselor.

Explore the pathways Program Mapper, it is a truly wonderful tool.

2019-2020 Bakersfield College E-catalog

BC’s commitment to assisting students reach their education goals is never ending. This year, our Catalog Team worked very hard to create a new electronic catalog or e-catalog. While we have provided electronic version of the catalog in PDF format for nearly 2 decades, we now have a true e-catalog in web format. 

The e-catalog can be searched; it is interactive, and it has links throughout. This means students can immediately find their programs and courses and can go directly to further information by clicking links. One of the truly wonderful things is that each program has a link to its map in the Pathways Program Mapper. This gives our students the means to find all of the information that they need.

Best of all, this e-catalog pulls the program and course information directly from e-Lumen, our curriculum management system. E-Lumen manages our curriculum from draft through the approval process at the college, district and state levels to the approved version. Pretty high tech! Pretty cool!

This project was hard work and took a team of dedicated people to produce.  I would like to thank the Catalog Team: Billie Jo Rice, Vice President of Instruction, Jennifer Johnson, Nursing Department Chair, Edie Nelson, Academic Services Assistant, Linda Allday, Academic Services Assistant, Aricia Leighton, Web Content Editor, Erica Menchaca, Education Professor, Craig Hayward, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, David Greenfield, Educational Media Design Specialist, Pamela Rivers, Academic Technology  and last, and definitely not least, Bill Moseley, Dean of Academic Technology, who worked tirelessly with e-Lumen and Concentric Sky on the programming to enable this to work. I encourage all of you to check out the 2019-2020 Bakersfield College e-catalog.

In the News: Job Spot

The Members of the Job Spot Team including Endee Grijalva and Terrence Banks, BAS-Job Spot Site Coordinator, joined Aaron Pearlman from 29 Eyewitness News on their sunrise segment this past Wednesday morning. They had the opportunity to promote the multi-level services provided at the co-location of Bakersfield College, Bakersfield Adult School and America’s Job Center. In addition, the new Arvin transit route provides residents transportation directly to the location, eliminating barriers and creating educational accessibly! #AdultEd #ResourceHub #ExpandingOpportunity #ArvinTransit

Bakersfield Californian Staff

I’m still coping with the transitions at The Bakersfield Californian. I know I’m a champion of change… but I can be a creature of tradition when it comes to some things. The local Californian is one such thing. I was pleased to see these photos posted by John Harte on Facebook and I wanted to showcase them. Here’s to the Californian… which will always have a piece of my heart.

In the News: Incoming McFarland freshman…

Last week, I wrote about welcoming our first Cougar-Renegade Class of 2023. This week, Bakersfield Californian’s Gene Garaygordobil wrote a story on the amazing day for the incoming McFarland High School dual-enrolled students for The Delano Record. Read the full article Incoming McFarland freshman get a glimpse at Early College program.

Planet Panorama

Web Content Editor Earl Parsons shared some close-up photos he took of various locations around campus.  He edited them with the goal of making them look other-worldly.  Great photography, Earl! You’re a shooting star!

That’s all for now.

Until next time.

With much Renegade Pride and Collegiality.

sonya-
the luckiest and happiest college president ever

Tagged: Bakersfield College, Sonya Christian