Sonya Christian's Blog

“The Sky isn’t the Limit,” photo by Sebastian Juarez for the Spring 2020 Art B16 Digital Photography class taught by Kris Stallworth.

#BCTalent #BCArt #BCInspiration #BCSpirit
#WeAreBC

The skies this week were full of clouds, color and movement … here are a few photos that I snapped during my Neo walks. And before you sink into the photos, take a few minutes to listen to this great Joni Mitchell song – Both Sides Now. The 2000 version.

Good morning Bakersfield.
It is Saturday, November 21, 2020 …
a great day to be a Renegade.

BC Recognized for ADT Program

On Thursday, the Campaign for College Opportunity recognized Bakersfield College as a Champion of Higher Education. 

Thank you to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Michele Siqueiros of Campaign for College Opportunity, who were on the webinar to announce the recognition. Ten years ago, 2010, Alex Padilla introduced the transfer landmark legislation SB 1440.

Over the last five years Bakersfield College has seen an 800% increase in ADT awards, quadrupled Black student completion, and achieved enrollment-completion parity among Latino/a students.

We are BC! Thank you to the BC Transfer Team.

EOPS Annual Association Conference

EOPS, CARE and NextUp programs had their annual association conference early November.

Our Bakersfield EOPS college team had the opportunity to present on the topic of Engaging with Students in the Virtual Environment.

During the virtual conference, our very own Bakersfield College graduate, Kyle Campbell, was awarded the California Community College Extended Opportunity Programs and Services Association (CCCEOPSA) scholarship.

To wrap up the conference the BC EOPS team won a photo contest.

Also shout out to the BC EOPS team for volunteering to moderate the virtual breakout sessions and the conference help desk.

Kris Tiner published in The Aesthetics of Imperfection

Music faculty member Kris Tiner was recently published in The Aesthetics of Imperfection in Music and the Arts, a collection of essays from Bloomsbury Academic edited by Andy Hamilton and Lara Pearson. Tiner’s chapter “Expanding the Ideal: Systemic music as a dialogue of becoming” originated from a presentation he gave at Durham University in England in 2016. It explores the relationship between improvisation and composition in musical performance.

Here is the extract:

“The classical ideal of music composition involves the gradual perfection of an inspiration, the painstaking process of bringing a concept to completion. In contrast, a common theme in literature and research on improvisational music is the value of spontaneous creation emerging from higher, ideal states of mind. This essay examines the history and practice of systemic music as a method of applying conceptual parameters to improvisational performance in order to bring together the “interpenetrating opposites” of composition and improvisation in an expansive dialogue of becoming, where the continuously evolving creative process of a musician or ensemble is valued over the production of individual works.”

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Umoja at Black Student Leadership Summit

Dr. Paula L. Parks served as a panelist at the Florida African American Student Association (FAASA) fall leadership conference. The organization is the statewide organization of Black student associations at 2- and 4-year colleges.

The panel was entitled “Building and Sustaining Black Student Organizations in Turbulent Times Like These.”

Umoja peer mentor Alexis Brown provided a student perspective. Dr. Parks, English professor, is the Umoja Community coordinator and Umoja Club advisor.

Panelists affirmed the need for Black Student Unions (or African American Student Unions) at the college level because students need the academic support, cultural grounding, leadership opportunities, and connections with each other and with Black faculty and staff. This need hasn’t changed in the 44 years since FAASA was founded.

Students also spoke to the “illusion of inclusion” that they saw at their institutions. Colleges may showcase pictures of students of color on the college website and in brochures, but many African-American students feel as if they are only tolerated – not welcomed, appreciated, valued, or at the decision-making table.

Very grateful for Dr. Paula Parks, Steve Watkin for their leadership. Also thank you to community leaders Michael Bowers, Keith Wolaridge, T Johnson, and others. We are BC! We are Bakersfield!

BC Marching Arts Receives KFHC Community Grant

As the BC Drumline plans to safely return to rehearsals, masks aren’t the only PPE they’ll be sporting. Thanks to Kern Family Health Care’s Community Grant program and Etymotic Education’s Hear for a Lifetime campaign, earplugs were able to be purchased for students and staff of our Marching Arts ensembles to continue to promote hearing health.

Eight of our current BC Drumline students were the first to receive their ETY Plugs when they came to campus for a socially distanced performance at a “get out the vote” caravan. The drumline took the opportunity to talk about hearing health and the importance of limiting exposure to the intense sounds that are a part of marching music.

We can’t wait to distribute the remaining earplugs once our ensembles are able to safely return to campus. Thanks again to Kern Family Health Care for their support of our BC students and our community!

Adopt a Family this Holiday Season

From an email the CARE and CalWorks Programs:

“Dear Faculty, Staff, and Friends,

The Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) and California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) programs will be hosting a Drive-thru Holiday Celebration this year. CARE and CalWORKs serves BC students who are also parents, with CARE parents being single head of household. Both programs are designed to promote student educational success by offering specialized services to parents receiving public assistance (CalWORKs/TANF/Tribal TANF) to increase wage earning power and lead to self-sufficiency.

In the spirit of the holiday season, we invite you to help us spread holiday cheer. Our goal is to ensure that the child(ren) of our CARE and CalWORKs students receive a gift from their wish list to open on the winter holiday. This year we will be providing families with a hot meal and the gifts collected from our “Adopt a Family” program. We want to thank everyone who has already registered to help. We still have 30 families who need to be adopted.”

To sign up to adopt a family, fill out the Adopt a Family Form online.

You can also contribute monetary donations through the Bakersfield College Foundation. Make your donation to “CARE/CalWORKs- Adopt a Family”.

Use Amazon Smile as you do your personal/holiday shopping this November/December. Visit smile.amazon.com, sign in to your Amazon account and select “Bakersfield College Foundation.” The Foundation will receive 0.5% of all eligible purchases made through smile.amazon.com!

Future of Fuels Webinar

Our interdisciplinary partnership in energy is building traction throughout the community, and we hosted our second webinar today on the Future of Fuels. We had a great panel of experts in research, policy and implementation of biofuels moderated by Stu Witt, the former CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port. Adam Bratis from NREL shared some information about research around bioenergy, using organic plant material to create everything from fuel to carbon fiber. Kelly Murillo from SoCalGas gave an overview of all the different technology used in processing clean biogas. Michael Carr is a manager of West Coast policy for Shell Oil company, and he shared some ongoing trends in carbon management. 

The next major event as part of the Energy Technology Transfer and Workforce Development partnership will be the Energy Summit on December 5 at 6 p.m., live on KGET.

Today, I’d like to share Adam’s presentation. It’s about 21 minutes long, and is filled with amazing information about the work being done at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

Virtual Seminar on Student Progression and Completion

Also on Tuesday, we held the second virtual seminar in our Strategic Directions series helping us gear up for the renewal of our three-year Strategic Plan. This session focused on Student Progression and Completion, and we had Kylie Campbell to talk about Early College, Krista Moreland to talk about Enrollment Management, Leo Ocampo on our 8+8 Week Classes, and Grace Commiso to talk about Starfish and the Student Information Desk. Thank you to all the participants in the webinar, and thank you to everyone for tuning in.

Check out Krisa Moreland’s presentation below:

Learning Together with the Library 

On Thursday, we had our third campus-wide “Learning Together” event. Presenters included Paula Parks and Nick Strobel.

This week, we discussed two academic journal articles:

• “Postsecondary Equity Through the Lens of Policy Change”, published through the academic journal Change.
• “When Pursuing Diversity, Victory is Hard to Define” published in Chronicle of Higher Education  

Please remember to view the libguide “Race and Cultural Competence” which is available at https://bakersfieldcollege.libguides.com/culturalcompetence.

Today, I’m sharing the Q&A session with Paula Parks and Mindy Wilmot from that discussion:

Levan Events

This week, there were also two virtual Levan Events.

“Deep Cuts and Conversations” featured Josh Ottum, Kris Tiner, and Reggie Williams listening to and breaking down some music.

“Civil Disobedience and Civil Unrest: Drawing Difficult Lines in Difficult Times” was presented by Pam Boyles, Gloria Dumler, Michael Harvath, and Erin Miller.

Love and Information

This weekend, the performing arts department presented a live Zoom play production of Caryl Churchill’s “Love and Information.”

BC Theatre students took on the challenge of performing live via Zoom Webinar, directly from their homes.

Thank you director Kimberly Chin, and the entire cast and crew, for innovating and finding ways to perform together!

Measure J Update

Gym and Field House Starting Construction Soon

Exciting news came in from the BC Facilities Team last week with the announcement that our new Gym and Field House had received final approval from the California Division of the State Architect, or DSA, the agency which provides oversight for construction of public school facilities. Construction on the project  is scheduled to begin on December 1. The timeline for the Gym and Field House has been pushed back due to DSA backcheck delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new anticipated date of completion of this project is February of 2023.

Spotted on Social Media

And speaking of our A Better BC construction, Academic Technology Dean Bill Moseley shared this photo of construction on campus this week:

Jenny Frank, Veterans Services Manager, shared this photo of her getting ready to talk to KGET about the services BC offers our veterans:

(And you can check out the interview on the KGET website!)

Communication faculty Helen Acosta said she was “living her best life on Zoom”:

BCSGA shared another #ThrowbackThursday photo of campus:

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I also enjoyed this throwback post from 2018 of Corny Rodriguez.
“We had our Planetarium field trip today and got to visit Tata at work!”

And we got another look back at Corny on the Padrinos de Bakersfield College instagram:

Community Voices

Kim Arbolante wrote about the Bakersfield College Writing Center and how they have adapted to helping students during the pandemic in a Community Voices piece this week.

“BC’s Writing Center has used this time during a pandemic to sharpen our lens on equity and put thought into action. We have recommitted ourselves, as professional tutors, to pivoting what we do and how we do it where it would cause further undue burden to ask our students to do so. This is why we remain open on Zoom with extended evening and weekend hours for busy parents and caregivers. This is why we insisted that all of our announcements to students about our new online Writing Center went out in both English and Spanish. This is why our new Umoja and Writing Center peer mentors even monitor social media to ensure no student goes with questions unanswered.”

Read more on The Bakersfield Californian website.

Athletics

2019 CCCCCTCA Scholar Athlete Team

Congrats to three of our cross country student athletes – Adolfo Escudero, Elias Artega and Elias Martinez – for being named to the 2019 California Community College Cross Country and Track Coaches Association (CCCCCTCA) Scholar Athlete Team.

To make the team, cross-country student athletes must complete a minimum of 24 academic units with a 3.5 GPA or higher. This is the second year in arrow that Adolfo has made the team. This is a well-deserved recognition for all three of these students. Go ‘Gades!

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That’s all for now.
Until next time.
With much Renegade Pride and Collegiality.
sonya –
the luckiest and happiest college president ever