Look who came to visit….

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Bessie and Neo are best buddies. When Bessie visits it’s like summer camp. Not pictured is when Bessie rushes Neo in a mock attack, like in an old Pink Panther movie when Inspector Clouseau is surprise attacked by his assistant Cato and chaos ensues…

This week, the weather cooled down a bit, and the arts were alive and well at Bakersfield College with the annual Panorama Creative Music Summit, the opening reception of the latest gallery in the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery, and a special faculty music recital.

Remembering Cokie Roberts

Pioneering broadcaster Cokie Roberts passed away at the age of 75 on Tuesday. A correspondent for NPR and ABC News since the late 1970s, Roberts paved the way for thousands of women to become broadcast journalists at a time when women weren’t fully integrated into the newsroom. 

Roberts was the daughter of Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, and her mother Lindy Boggs served in his place when he died in a plane crash in 1972. After covering Washington politics for almost 40 years, she would put her encyclopedic knowledge of American history into the best-selling books “Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation” and “Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington”.

Roberts won three Emmys during her career as a broadcaster, and she was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.

Health, Education, and Learning – HEAL

Bakersfield College Delano Campus hosted educators and health community representatives to plan a course of action to improve the health, well being, and workforce opportunities for residents of rural Central Valley from Bakersfield to Merced.

The vehicle for this work is the formation of Rural HEAL—Health, Education, Equity, Economy and Learning—a collaboration of partners working to improve the lives of rural residents. Partners pictured here represent The Housing, Opportunity and Place (HOPe) Lab  at U.C. Merced, UC San Francisco at Fresno, ​Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State, Central Valley medical professionals and Bakersfield College health and workforce training programs.

Other HEAL partners are healthcare providers, elected officials, non-profit agencies and community leaders. Addressing poverty and health needs of our rural communities takes a big step forward on November 22 when Bakersfield College co-hosts the Rural Poverty and Health Equity Summit along with the National Academy of Sciences.

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The inaugural meeting of the HEAL Collaborative included:

• Dr. Kathy Murphy 
• Dr. Irene Yen, UC Merced
• Dr. Serena Yang, UCSF Fresno *
• Sean Tan, UC Merced
• Dr. Tania Pacheco-Werner, CVHPI
• Mayra Lemus Rangel, CVHPI

and from Bakersfield College Norma Rojas-Mora, Dr. Michelle Bresso, Cindy Collier, Dr. Charles Daramola, Abel Guzman, and Janalynn Castillo.

BC Welcomes CSUB to Campus!

On Friday morning BC welcomed a team of administrators and faculty from CSUB to the Panorama Campus for a tour and to gather the planning group. This group was formed last April to enable seamless communication and collaboration between the campuses as we work together and plan for the colocation for BC at CSUB.

The planning group has seven individual workgroups that are co-chaired by both a CSUB faculty member and BC faculty member. These groups will identify various areas where we can collaborate to benefit and serve students.

Special thanks to Vernon Harper of CSUB who led his team to BC, Todd Coston and Tamara Baker for the tour of the BC campus, the chefs at the Renegade Room for the delicious breakfast, and to Jessica Wojtysiak for coordinating the visit on behalf of BC.

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I particularly enjoyed seeing Dr. David Gove after so many years. David is a math faculty at CSUB and seeing him brought back so many memories when I was a math faculty at BC and we did many joint projects with CSUB.

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Panorama Music Summit

The Panorama Creative Music Summit made its way back to Bakersfield College with four days of music and workshops. Hosted by BC’s Jazz Studies and Commercial Music programs, the annual summit is where local performers and professional musicians can come together with BC students, faculty and alumni to perform their music.

This is a great opportunity for artists to perform and collaborate other musicians and composers such as BC alum Omar Murillo, Kris Tiner and guitarist Mike Baggetta.

We are proud of our former student Omar Murillo, who led and composed a 13-piece ensemble with great original pieces including one piece he wrote for his mother. Also on Monday, talented local artist Jeff Ardray was one of the performers on stage.

On Tuesday, BC jazz students got to sit in on an improvisation workshop and guest lecture from guitarist Mike Baggetta. Baggetta, a well-established guitar player from Knoxville, Tenessee, performs with BC professor Kris Tiner as Tin/Bag, and he lit up the room whenever he picked up the guitar.

The performances on Wednesday night featured Commercial Music students performing original songs alongside songwriter Emily Sprague, whose music was featured in Beyonce’s “Homecoming” documentary. LA-based quartet Kidi Band closed out Wednesday night’s performance with their interpretations of West African pop music. You can listen to the Kidi Band on YouTube if you missed them on campus!

This event was a success with great performances. Thank you Lydia Jennings Finlinson and Burns L. Finlinson Endowment of the Bakersfield College Foundation, as well as our other generous sponsors and all the attendees.

Wylie and May Louise Jones Art Gallery

BC’s Art Department held the opening reception for the photography exhibition “Things That Will Make You a Man” on Thursday at the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery in the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library to welcome Santa Fe, New Mexico photographer and videographer, Sage Paisner. “Things That Will Make You A Man” is Paisner’s latest project on the personal and cultural stories of masculinity within the Latinx community.

Art faculty Jeffrey Huston and Ronnie Wrest hosted the exhibition and presented Paisner’s work to the BC community, which conveys Paisner’s interpretation of “What makes masculinity?”. Special thanks to these art faculty and BC’s Art Department for organizing the exhibition. It’s amazing to have artists like Sage Paisner present his work to our students and the community.

Faculty Music Recital

On Thursday evening, BC’s Performing Arts held the first Faculty Recital with the inaugural debut of BC’s new Steinway Concert Grand Piano! Also want to do a special THANK YOU to the talented and dedicated Patrick Bender who was everywhere. And thank you to Dr. Jen Garrett who brings music and positive energy to our community.

CPR Training on Campus

Bakersfield College held CPR, AED & First Aid Certification Course for students that would like to be more prepared, equipping students with the tools to confidently react during emergencies. On Friday in Levinson Hall, students got hands-on training lead by professionals Matthew Rodriguez, the senior public safety officer at the Delano Campus, and Freddie Rodriguez, senior officer at the Weill Institute downtown.

Using a mannequin, Matthew Rodriguez demonstrated proper CPR hand placement and compression techniques. Those who attending earned certification in CPR, AED, First Aid. Here’s a great picture of Dr. Nicky Damania who took time out of his busy schedule to participate.

There are other opportunities, and I invite you to enroll in one of the next classes taking place on October 4, November 1, and December 6. Thank you BC’s Campus Safety department for hosting these important learning opportunities.

Seen on TV: Inmate Scholars Program

Last Saturday, Jim Scott‘s KGET Program Kern County In Depth featured Trustee Romeo Agbalog and BC Professors Bryan Hirayama and Pat Smith as they told the story of BC’s Inmate Scholars program. I shared recently in my blog that last month BC’s first cohort of 17 Inmate Scholars graduated with an Associates degree in Communication.

Seen on TV: BC Professor Allen Bolar

It’s always a joy to see BC faculty participating in the local news broadcasts. This week, political science faculty, @allenbolar was featured on KBAK.

Fun Photos:

Celebrating New Faculty

BC’s newest faculty posed for a group photo with Trustee Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, former Congressman and Trustee Bill Thomas, Mayor Goh and myself. What a great time to be a Renegade!

DWK Event

BC was represented at the Women in Politics event last weekend — Dean Andrea Thorson, Kylie Swanson, Chris Cruz-Boone, Kristen Mercer, Steve Watkin and many others. From the community, Congressman TJ Cox and his wife Kathy Murphy, Leticia Perez, Katie Hall, Jan Graves, and Debra Thorson.

Mariachi Girl

Dean of Instruction, Corny Rodriguez shared fun photos from Mariachi Girl at CSUB’s Dore Theater last week. BC is proud to be a sponsor of the event which Corny tells me was “just outstanding.”

L.U.P.E. Cupcake Sale

On Tuesday the Latinos Unidos Por Educación (LUPE) were fundraising outside the Gym, selling cupcakes to help with the activities that this student organization puts on throughout the year.

BC’s IT Department visits BCSW

The IT team from Bakersfield College led by Todd Coston and Brett Redd visited the location of BC SouthWest this week.

VRC Signage

What a beautiful sight at BC this week!

New faculty seminar

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Renegade of the Week

Renegade Athletics is proud to announce this week’s (9/8-9/14) Kern Schools Federal Credit Union Renegades of the Week:

• Kennedy Jimenez, Women’s Golf – Kennedy helped lead the Renegades to a fourth place finish in conference play at Santa Barbara Golf Club on 9/9. Kennedy’s efforts have placed her in 19th position overall and the team in fourth place in conference standings.

• Daniel Schoene, Wrestling – Daniel collected three pins over the weekend in leading the team to a 3-1 finish at the BC Dual Tournament on (9/14) and a 42-3 win over Victor Valley on Friday (9/13).

Men’s Soccer at the Classic Car Show

Our Renegade Men’s Soccer team spent their Saturday morning helping out at the Classic Car Show put on by the Alzheimer’s Association at Brookdale Riverwalk. The entire team took turns with the wheel chair push, the wheel chair car wash and running the BBQ. Thank you coach Vayron Martinez and team for serving our community!

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Early College Football Night

Join us at the Inaugural Early College High School Football Night where you can learn more about the Early College resources and programs available at BC. Enjoy free food, games, and giveaways, and root for your Renegades as they take on Golden West College on Sept. 28th.

Check-in on the lawn across from the North entrance of Memorial Stadium for free game tickets and free food. The first 200 high school students will receive free food, and all high school students will receive a free game ticket. Students must bring their current High School ID card to get a game ticket and food. Be sure to show your school pride by wearing your High School colors!

Renegade Report with Men’s Soccer

This week’s edition of the Renegade Report is on the Bakersfield College Athletics Facebook page featuring our Men’s Soccer team. Coach Vayron Martinez, Goalie Armando Alvarez and Midfielder Christian Gonzalez sat down with host Kenny Calvin to discuss the season and who they think would play them in the movie of their life.

Renegade Athletics News Roundup

• Wrestling Demolishes Victor Valley
• Men’s Soccer falls to SBCC on the road
• Volleyball: 3-0 win over Palomar
• Volleyball: 3-1 loss to Miracosta
• Wrestling goes 3-1 at BC Dual Tourney
• Football falls to El Camino on late field goal
• Men’s Soccer Tops COS, 3-2
• Women’s Volleyball Notches sixth sweep of the season with win over Ventura

Athletic events ‘On the Hill’ this coming week

Be sure to put on your Renegade Red and cheer on our student athletes as they compete this coming week. If you can’t make it in person, check GoGades.com to catch the livestream. Events include:

• Wed. 9/25 at 6pm – Volleyball vs. Canyons
• Fri. 9/27 at 1pm – Cross Country, BC Invite
• Fri. 9/27 at 1pm – Cross Country, BC Invite
• Fri. 9/27 at 6pm – Volleyball vs. Glendale
• Sat. 9/28 at 6pm – Football vs. Golden West

Purchase your tickets to the remaining football games in advance!

To avoid waiting in line on gameday, the athletic department strongly encourages fans to purchase football tickets in advance for the remaining home football games. Tickets can be purchased online through this link:  https://vallitix.com/bc-football/   or by calling 661-322-5200.

On gameday the ticket offices outside of Memorial Stadium will open at 4:30pm with gates opening at 5:00pm. Adult tickets range in price from $9.00 to $14.00. Children (3-12 years)/Student/Senior tickets are $6.00 per ticket. Our next home football game is this coming Saturday 9/28 vs. Golden West. We’ll see you out there!

Tagged: Bakersfield College, Brent Wilson, Bryan Hirayama, Jen Garrett, Jessica Wojtysiak, Pat Smith, Patrick Bender, Sonya Christian, Trustee Romeo Agbalog, Vernon Harper