This long weekend, I am grateful to be able to take a short break and enjoy the quiet beauty of the world around us. In our hectic lives, it’s these peaceful moments that can help renew and restore us to continue the things we must do.

And as we head into Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I wanted to share this email W. Christian Flores-Castaneda in our Culinary Science department, full of Renegade love. It is notes like this from our campus community that also help renew and restore my spirit:

Thank you for supporting the Food and Nutrition Program here at Bakersfield College.

Hey, Y’all…

I had started this email a number of times, months ago, only to delete it over and over again, because it felt like I just couldn’t get the right words to flow together… I was trying to be funny, or quirky, or all wordsmith-y to keep you upbeat and interested.

And then I got to thinking, y’all just need some Love. Like, “Hey, we didn’t forget about you all, and how supportive and invested you are, and how much we rely on your gratitude and guinea pig-ness, and gosh darnnit, WE MISS YOU!” kinda love. The kind of love I tell our new students about. The RenRoom Fam. The “every Tuesday at 6 pm at THAT table” kinda love. We’ve been missin’ all the good times, and the not-so-perfect-but-let’s-chock-it-up-to-learning-experience times…

Well, the show must go on. People gotta eat. And we gotta make sure our students know what to do when they get out there. So, we are working on training them appropriately to today’s measures, ensuring theirs and others’ safety as they navigate the industry. COVID gave us an opportunity to build humane relationships with each other as we learn new techniques and skillsets under new guidelines and prevention measures. We’ve needed to adhere to the most practical methods of teaching our culinarians without compromising anyone’s health and safety. We’re connecting with each other in ways we had not completely relied upon in prior lesson exchanges. These moments are being seized.

“Are we open for business?” We are working on that, actually. We will provide our students opportunities to engage in real-time application as far as production expectation and sanitary distribution. That’s fancy talk for “how to cook and package things nicely.” Our advanced students are poised to begin processing orders this week. Because we are working with reduced class sizes, our production team can only offer a limited number of portions, so it’s gonna be a little “First Come, First Served”-fashioned at first.

Renegade Room Take-Out events are being coordinated for both Tuesday Night Fine Dining and Wednesday Lunch services, with tailored menus and pricing. As we begin to offer more service, I’ll be updating our webpage and send out communication regarding menus and payment methods.

You can visit the Renegade Room page of the Bakersfield College website for more information here: https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/renegaderoom

Glad to be back, fam. We’ll see you soon.

W. Christian Flores-Castaneda

Good morning Bakersfield.
It is Saturday, February 13, 2021 … a great day to be a Renegade.

BC Vaccine Clinic Updates

While preparations continue for our vaccination clinic on the Panorama Campus, more Renegades are getting access to the vaccine.

Yovani Jimenez, one of the newest Trustees to the Kern Community College District, is also a case worker for Clinica Sierra Vista, got his vaccine. Mary Jo Pasek also took her first treatment of the vaccine.

Jennifer Garrett also recently received her first dose of the vaccine:

If you have photos of yourself or loved ones getting vaccinated for COVID-19, please email them to earl.parsons@bakersfieldcollege.edu or president@bakersfieldcollege.edu

I also wanted to share another video from the February 2, 2021, Virtual Forum about the COVID-19 vaccine, with Dr. Michael Saag. You can see more videos from that session at https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/covid19/resources.

In this 6:20-min video, he gives a brief description of the body’s immunization process and how the COVID-19 vaccine works. Thank you to BC Pre-Med student Ian Spark for taking part in the Q&A session:

For more information about Bakersfield College’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic, visit the COVID-19 page.

Poem: “Silencing Song”

Jack Hernandez shared a poignant poem with me this week:

Silencing Song

Abusive voices lash
the air and souls
of those
they despise.
Amid the endless rancor
words like peace
hide behind doors
of despair.
Yet ready to pounce
with love
forgiveness begins
her silencing song.

She does not avert
her eyes,
her lyrics tell those
whose tongues
are whips
she will not
strike back,
will stand strong
without hate,
waiting and singing
waiting and giving.

Putnam Exam Open to BC Students

From email from Jonathan P. Brown:

The William Lowell Putnam Competition is “the leading university-level mathematics examination in the world.”  The exam is fun, challenging, and if you score anything greater than a 0 on it, then that is something remarkable to put on your resume/CV or applications.  I am happy to announce that it will be available for the first time to any BC students who do not already hold a bachelor’s degree.  The exam will be Saturday, February 20th, and we will have two study sessions before then.

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is “the leading university-level mathematics examination in the world.”  The competition consists of two 3-hour sessions.  During each session, participants work individually on six challenging mathematical problems. 

The 81st Putnam Competition will take place virtually on Feb 20, 2021

For more info: www.artofproblemsolving.com/contests/putnam
Register at https://artofproblemsolving.com/contests/putnam/student

Contact jonathan.brown@bakersfieldcollege.edu for more.

KHSD Opens Early College Pathway Applications for 2021-2022 School Year

KHSD announced this week that applications for their Early College pathways are now open for the 2021-2022 school year. In addition to the 4 pathways launched last Fall (Industrial Automation, Public Health, Psychology, and Administration of Justice), the district is also planning a new “Introduction to Health Careers” pathway with their CTEC facility that will align with our Title V objectives and expose high school students to the many Health Science pathways available here at BC. A cohort of 35 incoming 9th grade students will be selected for each of the 5 pathways, and students from other grades will be selected for courses that will get them a head start on pathways of their choice.

To learn more about these pathways, you can visit https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/earlycollege/khsd.

Tutoring Center Online and Open for BC Students

From email from Bradley Cramer:

Great news! The Bakersfield College Tutoring Center is now open and available online.

Services offered:

• Weekly 50-minute appointments
• 15-minute drop-in tutoring (for math and English)
• Tutors available in many subjects

For more information and to sign up for tutoring, go to our website at: https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/student/tutoring

The link to our website is also accessible by clicking the “BC Peer Tutoring” link in Canvas. Our online hours are:

• Monday: 9 am – 7 pm
• Tuesday: 9 am – 7 pm
• Wednesday: 9 am – 8 pm
• Thursday: 9 am – 7 pm

The BC Tutoring Center is a proven student success service that provides FREE online tutoring to all currently enrolled Bakersfield College Students. Our one-on-one Peer Tutors, who are trained and certified, can assist you with many Bakersfield College courses. Assistance with course content, assignments, required papers (at any stage of the writing process) and/or academic skills are available through drop-in and scheduled appointments for most BC courses. Please feel free to share this information with your students. Thank you so much.

Opening Day Spring 2021

On the first day of our Opening Day Spring 2021 production, CSEA President Tina Johnson shared an update:

We also featured a performance from the Renegade Chorus. Please enjoy “Resilience”:

For more videos from our Opening Day Spring 2021 production, visit https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/president/opening-week-spring-2021.

Community Voices

Philanthropy just may be the best tool we have for increasing social, economic mobility

Sheri Horn-Bunk, executive director of the Taft College Foundation, and Cheryl Scott, executive director of the Bakersfield College Foundation, co-wrote this piece in the Bakersfield Californian about the $100 million donation from the Jay Pritzker Foundation to fund the Finish Line Scholarships for 34 California community colleges.

“By providing students Finish Line scholarships, we’re able to remove barriers while supporting the overall community. When a student is able to feed their family, pay rent and complete their college degrees, they are putting the money back into the community. In fact, students earning a degree or certificate from a California community college nearly double their earnings within just three years!”

Get on track with Renegade Fitness

Nicky Damania wrote a piece for the Bakersfield Californian highlighting the virtual Renegade Fitness program, and shared how it has evolved over the course of the pandemic:

“Even though we are all virtually apart and not able to come physically together to workout, this avenue provides a small community for us to engage with each other. Also, as the workouts are shown on social media platforms, many community members have also started engaging with the workouts. We even have a couple of regulars who join in from the states of Indiana and Colorado.”

You can check out the Renegade Fitness program Monday through Friday from Noon to 1 p.m. Register on Zoom or tune in on Facebook Live, Twitter, Twitch, or YouTube. Archived videos are available on the BCSGA YouTube channel.

Spotted on Social Media

The Padrinos de BC Instagram page shared this photo from the Latinx CCC Virtual Mixer:

Endee Grijalva had a family-style nachos night:

Shannon Musser shared this photo of her and her dog, Zoe:

Maria Wright shared this photo of her family:

And Abel Guzman shared this update about his work at BC:

Archives Throwback: Portrait of an Older Woman

In the Feb. 5, 1971 edition of the Renegade Rip, Mark W. Johnson breathes life into the casual and the mundane with his poem “Portrait of an Older Woman”. There aren’t many details available other than that, so enjoy the poem below:

Portrait of an Older Woman

she sits
in the shadow
of the window
noiselessly
she sits
the shadow
of the window

in a shadow-window
she sits
noiselessly
she sits
a wooden shadow
in the window
an etching
sunlight-shadow
carved

sunlight breaks
on bended knees
and sags upon
her feets
and slides
away across
the wooden floor
a river of bright
and dancing dust
splashing
noiselessly
as she sits
the shadow
of the window

Athletics

Throwback to 1979 Women’s Volleyball

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• 

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It’s always fun to throwback to pictures of the past. Here’s some action pics from the 1979 women’s volleyball season – almost 40 years ago! That year the team placed fourth in the conference and had four players selected to the All-Conference team – Sharlene Carroll, Jill Turner, Terri McNamara and Rhonda Harrington. Do you know any of these ladies? What a blast from the past!

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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

Tagged: Bakersfield College, Cheryl Scott, Jack Hernandez, Jenn Garrett, Mary Jo Pasek, Michael Saag, Nicky Damania, Sheri Horn-Bunk, Sonya Christian, Yovani Jimenez