This week, while she was getting her vaccine at BC’s very own vaccination clinic, Jennifer Serratt stopped by to visit our culinary program. She sent me this photo:

Did you know our Renegade Room is back open for take-out service? Thank you so much to Christian Flores-Castaneda and everyone in our culinary arts program for all the work you’ve put in to making it possible for our students to serve our community.
Good morning Bakersfield.
It is Saturday, March 13, 2021 … a great day to be a Renegade.
Sterling Silver
Last Saturday’s Sterling Silver broadcast on KGET/Channel 17 was an amazing celebration of our outstanding philanthropists. I hope you were able to tune in and watch as the BC Foundation honored Margaret “Peggy” Haight, Patricia Mettler, Greg & Mary Bynum, and Becki Whitson.
If you missed the production, or if you’d like to check it out again, please enjoy the following videos.
Thank you to KGET-17’s Tami Mlcoch, who served as emcee for the evening:
BC Foundation Executive Director Cheryl Scott:
My introduction:
KCCD Board of Trustees President Romeo Agbalog‘s remarks:
Of course, our honorees.
Margaret “Peggy” Haight:
Patricia Mettler:
Greg & Mary Bynum:
And Becki Whitson:
And finally, the conclusion of our production:
Thank you so much to our honorees; to Cheryl Scott, Heather Pennella and the BC Foundation team; Norma Rojas-Mora and the BC Communications team (especially video editor Valerie Urso); tp Tami Mlcoch and everyone at KGET; and to everyone who put so much careful time and effort into creating a memorable evening.
We are BC!
Previous Sterling Silver Celebrations
Sterling Silver 2020
Sterling Silver 2019
BC Vaccination Clinic

BC’s Renegades have been dedicated to being a part of the solution to end this pandemic. Today, BC’s Student Health and Wellness Center hosted BC’s first vaccination clinic to distribute the Johnson and Johnson Janssen vaccine. THANK YOU to BC’s nursing students and faculty, the KC Latino COVID-19 Task Force, and all our partners who provided PPE, support, and guidance helping BC do our part to serve the community. #WeareBC!
You can see a photo gallery from the clinic on the BC SmugMug site.
Our updated vaccination clinic schedule is available on the BC website at https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/studenthealth/clinic. Any any eligible individuals who meet the COVID-19 Vaccine Schedule per Kern County Public Health are able to attend these clinics.
Billie Jo Rice also shared with me these photos of our students giving vaccines at Bakersfield Heart Hospital:
Our BC community is continuing to get vaccinated, and I enjoy every time another photo comes into my inbox. Check out these recent Vaccinated Renegades:
If you have a photo of your COVID-19 vaccination, please send it to president@bakersfieldcollege.edu.
And be sure to check out our gallery of vaccinations.
Virtual Theatre Performance: The Book of Fairy Tales
Spring 2021 THEA B27: Acting Theatre Lab class produced a virtual performance of “The Book of Fairy Tales: Stories from Around the World.” The stories were adapted and directed by Cody Ganger and inspired by Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales.
Each piece was first discussed and rehearsed over Zoom before meeting in small groups to film. The actors and crew followed masking and social distancing guidelines for all in-person meetings, including being masked any time they were in the same space as other actors.
The cast of the performance is Vanessa Beltran, Connor Deming, Ivy Hasselbar, Alexxandra Lamacchia, Jason Land, Michael Morales, Serena Ornelas, Abraham Ortega, Abigail Putman, April Toelle, and Shane Young.
The stories include Kate Crackernuts (England), The Rabbit (Swahili), The Princess in the Suit of Leather (Egypt), The Letter Trick (Suriname), East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon (Norway), The Three Lovers (Mexico), The Wicked Stepmother (West Africa), The Werefox (China), The Armless Maiden (Russia), Nature’s Way (Armenia).
The performance will be available online until Sunday, March 21.
A Shot of Reality – Alcohol Awareness
The Office of Student Life held a zoom viewing of “A Shot of Reality,” an interactive alcohol awareness program presented by two professional comedians. A Shot of Reality has performed for the US Navy/Army and hundreds of colleges. The presenters have a realistic interactive discussion about the destructive and deadly consequences of alcohol abuse, assault, DUIs, health issues and more. This program was created with health professionals, local police, and members of various alcohol rehab programs. The two presenters not only use comedy to engage the audience, but they also attack the serious impact of this national campus epidemic.
You can view the “A Shot of Reality” video at https://vimeo.com/148129896
Tutoring Center – Open for Students
From an email from Tutoring:
Great news! The Bakersfield College Tutoring Center is open, available online and ready to support our students. The BC Tutoring Center offers free, one-on-one online peer tutoring with CRLA trained tutors.
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 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. Whether for course content, assignments, required papers (at any stage of the writing process) and/or academic skills, assistance is 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.
Thank you to the BC Tutoring Center Team – Bradley Cramer, Monica Huyck, and Sonia Avila – for proving this important service to our students!

Community Voices
Political Science professor Allen Bolar wrote a piece in the Bakersfield Californian about using Discord – an app originally used by gamers – in the classroom to encourage connection and engagement.
“Text chatting on Discord allows students to show their personality as discussions segue from the pros and cons of upcoming ballot propositions to a movie recommendation to advice about scholarships to a question about the next quiz deadline. We even had a heated debate about what makes the perfect pizza. It’s much easier to respond quickly (and painlessly) to requests, and students benefit from seeing questions others ask rather than being isolated in an individual email silo.”
Spotted on Social Media:
Isabel Castaneda gave a shoutout to Carlos Medina:

EODAC shared a Zoom photo of a recent meeting:

Abel Guzman gave a radio interview to encourage the Latinx community to enroll at BC:

Nick Strobel shared some beautiful springtime poppies:

Athletics
Renegade Athletics Are Back!!
After much work and tireless coordination – Renegade Athletics became one of the first colleges in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) to return to sports competition this last week. BC is one of a handful of schools from the over 100 CCCAA schools that compete in athletics to 1) Opt-in for the Spring I season and 2) Have enough regional opponents to create a schedule of games.


Volleyball and Men’s Soccer started the Spring I season off with a bang by winning their opening games of the Spring I abbreviated season. Both teams played College of the Sequoias in their respective sports with Volleyball winning 3-1 and Men’s Soccer 4-2.
At the current time only Men’s Soccer, Volleyball and Men’s and Women’s Basketball are playing. All teams however are practicing and conditioning on-campus. While strict COVID protocols do not allow for fans in the stands at this time, it doesn’t mean you have miss out on the action – make sure to visit GoGades.com to know days/times for each sports and catch the live-stream’s through this link: https://video.ibm.com/channel/bc-renegades-athletics.
Action Photos
Seems like a dream that some of our student athletes are back in action, soon we’ll have more teams competing as well! Here are Volleyball and Women’s Basketball in action this week. Thank you Brandon Urry for getting these photos to me.



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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, Greg Bynum, Mary Bynum, Patricia Mettler, Peggy Haight, Sonya Christian, Sterling Silver 2021
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