Good morning, Bakersfield.
It is Saturday, February 15, 2020… A great day to be a Renegade.
Financial Aid Fest
The Financial Aid Department encouraged our students to “Beat the Clock” and “Get the Money” before the March 2 FAFSA and Dream Act deadline as part of the weeklong Financial Aid Fest held at our three core campuses.
For Wednesday’s Financial Aid Fest on the CSS Lawn of the Panorama Campus, Renegades got the chance to play games, enjoy some tacos catered by BC Food Services, and listen to some great music from Danny Morrison and DJ Ace on the turntables. There were also Financial Aid Fests held at BC SouthWest on Tuesday and the Delano Campus on Thursday. This was the first year that the Financial Aid Department planned a circus theme for Financial Aid fest, and it was a beautiful setup that caught the eyes of everyone who passed through on their way to their classes.
Events like Financial Aid Fest and the FAFSA workshops equip our Renegades with the resources they need to be successful. This year’s Financial Aid Fest also featured booths from several other BC programs such as EOP&S, who came out to inform students about book vouchers, counseling and other resources that may be available to them.
Thank you to the talented folks at Financial Aid for working so hard to put together this event. There are Financial Aid Application Assistance workshops planned throughout the weeks leading up to the March 2 deadline, so check the Bakersfield College calendar for dates and remember to get your applications in for next year!
Rudy Salas Roundtable on Homelessness
Fun Photos: Mayor’s Ball
BC was present in full force at Karen Goh’s inaugural Mayor’s Ball at the City Center in downtown Bakersfield which raised money for Pastor Robin Robinson and CityServe, a local non-profit organization that provides churches with food, hygiene items and more to help the homeless and other members of our community in need.
Gadfly Cafe
Students and faculty engaged in spirited and insightful debates at the Levan Center as part of the first Gadfly Café of the Spring 2020 semester on Wednesday.
Philosophy professor and Levan Center Director Reggie Williams served as moderator for this month’s topic “Aging, Disease, and A Timely Death”. Students were really engaged, sharing their thoughts on the health complications that come with aging, as well as the feelings of grief that suicide and death can elicit in our loved ones. The group started recognizing that matters of aging and death are very personal and each person has a different answer to finding their purpose in life, and it is our experiences that determine whether or not we’ve lived up to that purpose. I lost my dad in 2006 and my mom just last year… I am really grateful for Norm Levan who through his generous gift has allowed BC the ability to host the Levan Center and its remarkable programming. Also thankful for the Levan Director Reggie Williams.
Dr. Norman Levan 
Dr. Jack Hernandez 
Dr. Reggie Williams
College is supposed to be a place where people can have deep, important conversations with their peers to determine their beliefs and priorities. Events like the Gadfly Café are important for developing BC’s core values of Community, Diversity and Wellness, so I would like to thank Professor Williams for providing our students with a space for Socratic discourse.
The roundtable discussion in the Levan Center. 
Reggie Williams
Rad Tech Students Compete at National Conference
I was delighted to hear that the second-year students in BC’s Radiologic Technology Program got to attend a nationwide conference in Las Vegas last week. The Association of Collegiate Radiologic Technology (ACERT) Conference held on February 5-7 featured Rad Tech students and educators from across the country.
BC Rad Tech Director Jacelyn Hill and the BC students participated in the annual Rad Tech Student Bowl, a 2-hour academic competition against 600 other students. BC stood proudly against other community colleges and universities, with the majority of our 21 students finishing in the top 60, and Renegade student Yolanda Puente finishing in 29th place!
Thank you to all of our Rad Tech students for representing BC at this nationwide conference, and thank you to Jacelyn Hill and our Rad Tech and Allied Health staff for training the radiology professionals of tomorrow.
SLO Symposium
Last week, BC’s assessment team participated in the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Symposium at Monterey Peninsula College. The 7th-annual event is organized by Jarek Janio and the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, a research and resource-development organization that advocates for the systematic use of student learning outcomes in colleges and universities.
I keynoted the event, and called on the group to #OccupyLearning using the framework established in the books “Redesigning America’s Community Colleges” and “Degrees that Matter”. For more information, you can check out the slides from my keynote presentation on the Bakersfield College website.
There was quite the back channel chatter on twitter. Here are some screen captures.
Dean of Academic Technology Bill Moseley also presented during a panel discussion with representatives from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, and the American Institute for Research. Two videos from his presentation can be viewed below. Thank you Teresa McAllister for capturing the video.
Jarek Janio from Santa Ana College, organized this event. He is a missionary to improve student learning. Jarek, let’s plan a statewide gathering sometime in the fall to advance this conversation!
Reconnecting with Teens Conference
Did you know that Bakersfield College provides support and training to over 1,800 foster families in Kern County each year? As part of the efforts to improve the outcomes of foster children, the BC Foster & Kinship Care Education (FKCE) program hosted the Reconnecting with Teens Conference on Friday, January 31 at the Marriott in downtown Bakersfield with State Ombudsperson, Rochelle Trochtenberg.
Among the 250+ events and 1,140+ training hours offered throughout the year by FKCE, “Reconnecting with Teens” was a special event. Caregivers who care for foster youth attended the event to learn strategies on how to better support teenagers as they launch into adulthood. FKCE Director Imelda Simos-Valdez provided a gracious welcome presentation guests were treated to a very special guest speaker and breakout sessions.
Rochelle Trochtenberg, our guest speaker at the FKCE Conference, is currently the California Foster Care Ombudsperson and a former foster youth. Originally labeled “severely emotionally disturbed”, Rochelle gained her own voice when she shared criticism of Humboldt County Dept. of Health and Human Services approach to group homes at a 2008 conference. She was eventually hired by the department, earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Social Work, and has become nationally recognized for her work as a lead organizer for the Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaborative. She is the first former foster youth appointed to the Office of Foster Care Ombudsman.
More information can be found at the FKCE website.
Thank you to Araceli Navarro, the FKCE Program Manager at Bakersfield College, as well as Imelda Simos-Valdez and the rest of the FKCE staff for putting together this important conference for foster families, and for everything you do to provide for foster families throughout the year.
This Week at BC: Agriculture
People came to the Panorama Campus from across Kern County last week to pick fresh oranges and grapefruits at the BC Ag Farm. Members of the community were able to pick their own fresh fruit straight from the citrus trees in our ag laboratory off Haley Street, beautifully maintained by our Renegade students and faculty.
The Agriculture Laboratory and the BC Ag Ambassadors are the focus for the newest edition of This Week at BC, a video series put together by Marketing and Public Relations student interns Ramon Carreido and Juan Reyes.
Fun Photos: Journalism Day
We talked about Journalism Day in last week’s blog, but I wanted to share some more great photos from the on-site competition featuring the Bakersfield Police Department’s “A Life Interrupted” trailer about the dangers of drunk driving. Students also got to ask questions of current and former local journalists during a Q&A session that featured the talents of BC professors Erin Auerbach, John Harte, and Olivia Garcia, CSUB communications professor Jennifer Burger, Chain-Cohn-Stiles Marketing Director Jorge Barrientos, KBAK anchor Sara Shouhayib, and Bakersfield Californian editor Mark Nessia.
The On-The-Spot News Award presented to student journalists. 
A Bakersfield Police Department officer speaks at the “A Life Interrupted” trailer.
State of the Downtown Breakfast
BCSGA President Samantha Pulido with Tony Cordova, Jaime Lopez, and Benny Balderama attended the State of the Downtown Breakfast on Thursday morning.
The Downtown Business Association (DBA) celebrated 65 years of service to the community, and the program focused heavily on their Block-to-Block program, which gives 300 square blocks in the heart of the city a platform to voice their concerns with DBA.
Fun Photos:
BC hard at work!
Enjoying Renegade Softball!
Emails worth Sharing: David Koeth
Check out HelveticaBakersfield, a blog created by BC students enrolled in his Art B25 Typography class for the last 11 years.
Since February 2009, my Typography students and I have been collecting samples of the typeface Helvetica, and posting them to a blog.
It’s an assignment I use to encourage them to look closely and critically at type.
In the early years, when blogs were a new trend, the blog was featured in the Bakersfield Californian.
https://helveticabakersfield.tumblr.com
Seen on Twitter: Renegades at Bakersfield Heart Hospital
The Bakersfield Heart Hospital highlighted our amazing Renegades in a tweet from their “meet-and-greet” event at the BLVD on Wednesday. Check out the screenshot below:
Renegade Athletics Report
Watch this week’s edition of the Renegade Report on the Bakersfield College Athletics Facebook page featuring our Renegade Softball team at the Dean & Adah Gay Sports Complex. Head Coach Casey Goodman and student athletes Alantis Rede and Alex Venegas sat down with host Kenny Calvin to discuss the 2020 season.
Renegade Recruiting Round-Up
Big thanks to Darrel Ballard, the Athletics Program Manager for Student Success who successfully planned and coordinated the Renegade Recruiting Round-Up this last Monday.
This event was for prospective Renegade student athletes to learn more about attending BC. Darrell pulled the offices of financial aid, student outreach, student life, career education, athletic counseling and the housing service Sharing Spaces together to provide information and educate these future Renegades! Great event Darrell!
Kern Schools FCU Renegades of the Week: Feb. 2-8
Renegade Athletics is proud to announce this week’s (2/2-2/8) Kern Schools Federal Credit Union Renegades of the Week.
Alantis Rede, Softball – Alantis hit two grand slams – one against Porterville and one to tie the game in the bottom of the 12th against Riverside last week. She was 7 for 14 at the plate (.500 avg.), with 6 walks and 17 RBI’s in four games.
Alejandro Murillo, Baseball – Against El Camino on 2/6 he pitched nine innings, giving up one unearned run, three hits and 15 strikeouts. He earned a no-decision as the game was tied 1-1 after nine innings. The Gades eventually lost 3-1 in 15 innings.
Renegade Athletics Updates from This Past Week:
- Baseball goes 1-2 in series with El Camino
- Track and Field hosts Battle of the Regions
- Men and Women’s Swimming take third at WSC Preview
- Men’s Tennis Falls to Fullerton
- Women’s Tennis wins three matches to move to 6-0
- Softball sweeps Riverside in doubleheader
- Women’s Basketball Falls to Glendale
- Men’s Basketball Tops Glendale
- Men’s Golf Takes Fifth in WSC Match
- Softball Falls to Sequoias
- Baseball Can’t Overcome Sequoias
- Men’s Golf Competes at Eagle Classic Invitational
- Women’s Basketball Drops to Antelope Valley
- Men’s Basketball Drops to Antelope Valley
Athletics ‘Action’ Photos from This Week
Renegade Events ‘On The Hill’ Next 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:
- Tue. 2/18 – Women’s Tennis vs. Santa Monica at 2 p.m.
- Wed. 2/19 – Women’s Basketball vs. LA Valley at 5 p.m.
- Wed., 2/19 – Men’s Basketball vs. LA Valley at 7 p.m.
- Fri., 2/21 – Track and Field hosts WSC North Meet at 12 p.m.
- Fri., 2/21 – Women’s Basketball vs. Canyons at 5 p.m. (Sophomore Night)
- Fri., 2/21 – Men’s Basketball vs. Canyons at 7 p.m. (Sophomore Night)
- Sat., 2/22 – Baseball vs. LA Pierce at 1 p.m.
Tagged: #OccupuLearning, Bakersfield College, CityServ, Danny Morrison, JArek Janio, Levan Center, Mayors Ball, Reggie Williams, Sonya Christian
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