“Annie Glenn found her voice and then she raised it for others” — Scott Simon, NPR. May 22, 2020.

What better way to start, on this unconventional Memorial Day weekend, than by listening to this 2:35-min segment that aired on NPR this morning, by Scott Simon on the life of Annie Glenn who passed away last week:

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Good morning Bakersfield
It is Saturday, May 23, 2020…A great day to be a Renegade

Last year at this time we went on a family trip to Lake Arrowhead. I went back and found the blog post with some great photos as well as an inspiring open letter from Paul Beckworth to the campus. Check out this May 20, 2019 blog post: https://sonyachristianblog.com/2019/05/30/remembering-those-we-lost-this-memorial-day/

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Have you been to Banff….. I was there, i think it was the summer of 2011… Just beautiful.

And I wanted to share with you all this video of the Bells of Banff that Mary Jo Pasek sent to me earlier this week.

Each day at 1 pm, Heather Jean Jordan rings the bells of St. George-in-the-Pines as a symbol of hope and community for the town of Banff, Canada.

I hope you will take a few minutes and enjoy the sheer pleasure of the sights and sounds in this video:

Work continues to build #abetterbc — BC-SW

This week, concrete was poured at our BC SouthWest campus, all part of our pledge to build #abetterbc.

Videos from Closing Week

I shared a few of the Closing Week videos in my last blog post. I will continue featuring a few every week until I go through them all 🙂

Welcome and Introduction by Todd Coston

Samantha Pullido BC SGA President

President’s Leadership Award for College and District IT

Employment Ready in a Socially Distancing Society

The Radiologic Technology graduates embarked on a successful virtual mock interview campaign to complete their preparation for the job market. It was a daunting task, but it reflected the grit of the program and the vision of the Director, Jacy Hill. Roughly 24 students, multiple zoom rooms, faculty, industry experts, and employers convened to critique the knowledge and employability of the graduates.

Workforce development was layered within the student’s education as they started preparing for employment last fall. Vikki Coffee, the Job Development Specialist for the Health Science Pathway, conducted job readiness trainings and led the mock interview project.

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The students put in countless hours preparing and perfecting their resumes, cover letters, and interview presentations. Each student dressed in business attire for the zoom interview and brought their A-game to impress the panel.

Finding our voices and raising it for others

California Humanities Awards BC $5,000 for Inmate Education Students

Bakersfield College has been awarded $5,000 for its project “Portraits in Their Own Words” through the California Humanities’ Humanities For All Quick Grant.

The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program supporting locally-initiated public humanities projects. These projects respond to the needs of Californians, encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences, and promote understanding and empathy among the state’s residents to cultivate a thriving democracy.

Over the course of the “Portraits in Their Own Words” project, select BC faculty will mentor a group of art students and formerly incarcerated student writers as they create an exhibit featuring portraits of the student writers paired with their autobiographical narratives.

This project is co-directed by BC faculty members Andrew Bond, Shawn Newsom, and Kristopher Stallworth.

For more details about this amazing project, check out the news release on the Bakersfield College website or the read the articles in KERO and the Bakersfield Californian.

Virtual Concurrent Enrollment Support

Our Admissions and Records team guided Kern County high school students through our Early College offerings during a virtual enrollment session on Wednesday. The first concurrent enrollment courses of Summer 2020 will start in June, so we want to make sure students get enrolled as soon as possible to hit the ground running as they begin their higher education journey.

There will be another Concurrent Enrollment Support Session next Wednesday, May 27 starting at 11 a.m. Visit the Bakersfield College News page for a list of all of the dates throughout May and June, or if you’re ready to apply now, visit the Concurrent Enrollment Application page.

Back to College Extends to Summer 2020

We know that a lot of people in our community are struggling with furloughs and unemployment during the COVID-19 crisis, so we’ve extended our Back to College program into the Summer 2020 semester. For Summer 2020, students can enroll in our Tools for College Success and Public Speaking six-week courses, while qualifying for financial aid, academic support services, and all of the tools available to students as part of the Renegade family.

If you or someone you know is ready to get started on a pathway to a new career, as soon as possible, visit the Back to College website for more information, and encourage those close to you to jump start their education at BC to get back on the right track.

Finding our voices and raising it for others

Umoja Community Celebrates graduates, transfer, success

The Umoja Community program held a virtual Celebration to acknowledge student success. Students had an opportunity to thank their mentors for support, and be recognized for completing the composition sequence and for graduating/transferring.

Tahnjanique thanked her mentor for keeping “me going and on track.” She added, “Mrs. Randall has opened my eyes to new ideas and opportunities that weren’t on my radar. She doesn’t sugar coat anything, and I love that about her.”

Umoja mentor and retiring business professor Valerie Robinson received a special thank you from Dr. Paula Parks, Umoja coordinator. “Since I founded Umoja five years ago, Professor Robinson has served as a program mentor and participated in almost every event and celebration. She is such a kind, giving person who will be missed on campus.”

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Kelley thanked Dr. Parks and Library Professor Faith Bradham: “Dr. Parks, you are an amazing woman, so full of patience. You taught me so much. When I didn’t want to give it my all, you pushed me and forced me to give it the best I had.”

Students talked about how they persisted through the challenges of moving online. Mercedez, who started BC in January, said she was just getting acclimated to college when she had to study at home. Technology challenges and a chaotic home resulted in her finding that the only quiet place to study was in her car in a shopping center parking lot.

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Students acknowledged for graduating this May included Michaela, who said she received “the full Umoja experience” including coursework and trips. She said she never felt she was smart in high school, but found ways to reach her potential at BC through Umoja. She will attend Cal State Fullerton in the fall.

Kierra, who said the Umoja trip to Historically Black Colleges (HBCU), helped her decide that she wanted to attend an HBCU, is planning to attend Texas Southern in the fall as an English major pursuing a career in law.

Virtual attendees including Trustee Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, administrators Steve Watkin, Nicky Damania, and Lesley Bonds, Deans Steven Waller, Andrea Thorson, and Marisa Marquez, and advisory board members Addonica Stanley and Kesha Owens, cheered students on using the chat feature.

Said Trustee Nan: “Congratulations Umoja students! You have shown you can take on anything and cross the finish line.”

Fun stuff…. photos, social media, etc

This week, the Bakersfield Condors mascot, Colonel Claw’d, stopped by campus:

Abel Guzman shared this screenshot from the BC Rural Initiatives team’s Back to College enrollment workshop:

Kalina Hill shared the work of our Guided Pathways team:

And the BC Nursing program shared photos from their their social-distancing celebration for students:

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Blast from the past: I stumbled onto my Feb 9, 2014 blog post which was my 100th blog post. I wrote about Marian Triplett who turned 100…check it out. https://sonyachristianblog.com/2014/02/09/happy-100th-birthday/

Blast from the past: stumbled on this 2015 college night video.

Some additional photos from this week in Bakersfield

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Renegade Athletics

‘Virtual Tryouts’ Are A Huge Success for Renegade Cheer

Our fantastic Renegade Cheer program adapted and overcame the COVID-19 circumstances in a huge way with virtual tryouts this last week. They had 85 applicants, which is the most they’ve had in over ten years!

Coach Heather Spring and five judges had a busy week working around the clock to get through over 170 video entries. Each student had to answer interview questions as well as submit two videos via the app ‘BAND’.

“We had a very fun and long week of learning with so many incoming high school seniors from our community and even some transferring students with their heart set on making this team. It’s a reason it’s led some to BC, to be part of a continuing legacy”, said Coach Spring on the success of the week’s tryouts.

We very much look forward to another talented group of Renegade cheerleaders driving the energy at many campus events this coming school year.

Renegade Softball Highlight Video

Again our athletics student media intern Jacob Amado put together another captivating highlight video from our Renegade Softball team’s shortened season. Click the link below to watch – you won’t be sorry you did!

Finding our voices and raising it for others

Tagged: Annie Glenn, Bakersfield College, John Glenn, Scott Simon, Sonya Christian