Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Honoring and Recognizing each and everyone with a disability, today and everyday.

Recently, music lovers have mourned the loss of two amazing female singers – Christine McVie and Irene Cara.

On Wednesday, Fleetwood Mac vocalist and keyboardist Christine McVie passed away at the age of 79.

She wrote “Songbird,” a sensitive ballad that for years served as Fleetwood Mac’s closing number in concerts.

Last week, on Nov. 26, Irene Cara passed away. 

She brought her energy to two of the 1980s most iconic songs – “Fame” and “Flashdance…What A Feeling.”

In 1983, she released “Flashdance…What A Feeling,” from the movie “Flashdance.” Cara won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Life Is Not Measured By the Number of Breaths We Take,
But By the Moments That Take Our Breath Away

Good morning, friends.
It is December 3, 2022.
The sun shines bright over Kern CCD.

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Porterville College

PC Volleyball earns four All-Central Valley Conference postseason honors

Left-right: All-CVC honorees Victoria Dabney, Davina Lopez, Andrea Frausto, and Kailey Cha

Following the close of the 2022 Porterville College women’s volleyball season, four members of the Pirates were honored with All-Central Valley Conference postseason awards.

Heading the list is outside hitter Victoria Dabney as she was named first-team All-Central Valley Conference. The sophomore originally out of Porterville High School led the Pirates with 180 kills and a 2.54 kills per set average. Dabney also totaled 122 digs, 22 aces, and 17 blocks.

Second-team All-CVC honors went to middle blocker Davina Lopez. The freshman from Porterville High School had a team-high 73 blocks for the Pirates and totaled 133 kills.

Named honorable mention were sophomore defensive specialist Andrea Frausto (Bakersfield HS) and freshman defensive specialist Kailey Cha (Porterville HS). Frausto led PC with 220 digs while Cha contributed 123 digs.

Under fifth-season head coach Pete Rasmussen, the Pirates compiled a 10-16 overall record and finished sixth in the highly-competitive Central Valley Conference at 7-9.

Club honors mission for service with campus blood-drive

Porterville Rotary Clubs, in partnership with the Central California Blood Center (CCBC) and the PC Rotaract Club, held a blood drive on campus to benefit the central valley this past week.  

Students who were interested in donating were able to do so in the comfort of the CCBC’s mobile blood van right in the center of campus. The blood drive turned out to be a great success with even PC President Dr. Claudia Habib stepping up to donate.

The PC Rotaract club is one of the newer clubs on campus and the first Rotaract club in Porterville. Rotaract clubs bring together people ages 18 and older to exchange ideas with leaders in the community, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun through service. The goal of the PC club, according to club President Hector Hernandez, is to “bring people together to make a positive impact on the Porterville community”. 

Rotaract originally began as a Rotary International youth program in 1968 at Charlotte North Rotary Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has grown into a major organization of 10,680 clubs spread around the world with over 203,000 members. The Porterville Rotaract club started on campus in 2021 and they have already done some wonderful things for our community.  

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Cerro Coso Community College

Access Program Help with Hectic Holidays

Take a heap of child-like wonder that opens up our eyes to the unexpected gifts of life; each day a sweet surprise. 
Mix a fond appreciation for the people we know; like festive holiday candles, each one has a special glow.
Add some giggles and some laughter, a dash of holiday food (amazing how a sweet cookie improve our attitude). 
Stir it all up with human kindness; wrap it up in love and peace. 
Decorate with optimism, and our joy will never cease. 
If we use this healthy recipe, we know we will remember to be in the Holiday spirit, even when it’s not December
by Joanna Fuchs. 

This little poem sums Access Programs Annual Angel Tree party for students in the program and their families. 

With compassionate hearts and selfless acts of kindness, Cerro Coso staff and friends donate gifts for every child in attendance, recognizing the sacrifices they make while their parents pursue an education. 

Santa Claus handed out gifts as the children waited patiently and squealed in delight.  Peer mentors and staff assisted the children in making crafts and playing games. 

There is nothing like the smile of a child during the holidays! 

Pickerell Making a Difference for Children

Yvonne Pickerell, East Kern (Tehachapi) Department Assistant II was selected as the 44^th Annual Kern River Valley 2022 Christmas Parade Grand Marshal.

The parade occurred in the evening on Saturday, November 26, 2023 in downtown Lake Isabella.

Yvonne was recognized for this prestigious honor due to her ongoing dedication and efforts as the Toys for Tots Coordinator in the Kern River Valley for more than a decade. Her drive and passion to help children in need supported the distribution of 3,751 toys to 1,352 children in the Kern River Valley in 2022.

Her ongoing efforts and desire to help others truly make a positive difference in so many lives and the East Kern/KRV Team members are so very proud of her!

Library Offers Relief from Finals

Library Technician Davis Kunz greets students with refreshments.

Fuel up for finals offers free coffee, donuts, snacks, hot cocoa, and stress-free activities to help students nourish their minds and bodies during final exams. 

The last few weeks of the semester are arguably the most stressful time for college students.  As classes start to wind down, students find themselves buried under piles of essays, projects, and tests. 

The friendly staff of the Cerro Coso Library at the Ridgecrest Campus are here to help and offers students refreshments and a safe space to hang out to de-stress during finals week.   

The stress that comes with taking final exams is inevitable.  However, there are many ways students can manage that stress and turn it into positive motivation.  Stay hydrated, get plenty of rest, exercise, take regular breaks, make a list, and visit the CC Library are all great ways to make the most of this crazy time of year, so stay strong. 

Overall, remember to relax and take things as they come.

Don’t stress. Do your Best. 

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Bakersfield College

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is considered the leading university-level mathematics examination in the world, designed for undergrad students across the U.S. and Canada. This year BC will be one of many locations across the country proctoring the in-person competition this morning starting at 8:00am, and the competition is split up into two 3-hour sessions dedicated to solving 6 complex mathematical problems. Competition prizes are awarded to participants with the highest scores and include automatic admittance and a full-ride scholarship to any Harvard graduate program plus an extra $25,000. 

Link to Mathematical Association of America for more information: https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/putnam-competition

Math Matters

BC Math Club invited students and staff to the first MATH Matters event on Friday, December 2nd. This was the first of a sequence of talks intended to inspire, entertain, and amaze with the hopes of introducing the greater BC Community to the wonder of research mathematics. Dr. Robert D. Bates, Ph.D. was the featured speaker, and he shared a novel algorithm he developed for machine learning.

1st Annual AIDS Awareness Symposium

The Office of Student Life’s LGBTQIA+ Initiatives hosted the 1st Annual AIDS Awareness Symposium on December 29th. Raising awareness on HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, support and dispelling myths about HIV/AIDs are all part of a larger goal to support our community. The inaugural symposium included two workshops, a keynote speaker, and rapid HIV testing.

BC Foundation Panorama Newsletter

The newest edition of the BC Foundation’s Panorama Newsletter is available.

The December issue highlights the 2023 Sterling Silver honorees:

• Valley Strong Credit Union, Corporate Philanthropist Award
• Marjorie and Bud Lindsey, Individual Philanthropist Award
• Fran Florez, BC Foundation Service Medal
• Jean Fuller, Leadership in Education Award

The 15th Annual Sterling Silver Dinner will be held on March 25, 2023, in the Renegade Ballroom.

Other highlights from the December Panorama include BC Alumni Association Activities, Career & Employment Connections for Students, and features on the new edible garden and second peace garden at BC – and more!

Check out the December issue on the BC Foundation homepage.

Remembering Renegades

The Bakersfield College community recently lost two of our former employees:

I’m sad to announce that Allen Slate, a cherished colleague of mine from my time as a math professor, passed away over the Thanksgiving holiday. Allen served as a math faculty member and department chair during the early years of the Panorama Campus in the 1960s, and his wife JoAnn was active in the Faculty Wives and Women Association that existed during that time. He retired in 1993 and was the second recipient of the Shirley Trembley Distinguished Teaching Award (the first recipient of the Shirley Trembley Distinguished Teaching Award was Ray Ward in 1992). 

Allen Slate was forward-thinking about the role of technology in helping students understand mathematics. In 1993, he wrote a needs assessment report with Liz Rozell on the importance of hands-on exploration and multimedia tools for teaching calculus and statistics.

Retired Bakersfield College chemistry professor Robert Allison was a close friend of Allen’s, and he expressed his condolences upon his passing. 

“Allen was an outstanding mathematics teacher,” he wrote. “His gentle, dry wit and friendship of many years will be missed.”

Thank you to Jerry Ludeke for sharing this information.

I am also sad to share that former BC chef Brent Hicks recently passed away. Here is the message from Jerry Ludeke:

Brent Hicks was born on Christmas Eve in 1951 so he reached the age of seventy one. We remember when he was first hired to work in the cafeteria as a young man. He trained under the master, Pat Coyle, and worked his way up to supervise the catering service and banquets.  Eventually we were delighted to see him be added to the teaching faculty as Director of the Renegade Room where he trained the students in all aspects of the restaurant business.  As Lucy Clark said, “Brent was a Renegade Room star!”  Not only was he a talented chef, he was a true teacher with the students, and he was very thoughtful and popular with patrons and staff.  Brent was a happy, friendly, down-to-earth person.

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In the News

Kern County In Depth: The transition from fossil fuels and carbon capture technology

Dual enrollment thrives in Central Valley area where few earn college degrees

Emma Gallegos for EdSource wrote about Kern CCD’s dual enrollment program, which is the second in size in the state – trailing only the LA Community College District.

“In 2015, the Kern district began to roll out dual enrollment programs as a part of a larger push into rural communities. The goal of this effort, called Rural Initiatives, was to bring college directly into communities, such as Delano, Arvin, McFarland, Wasco and Shafter, where college-going rates are especially low and bachelor’s degrees are rare. One way to do that was to bring college onto high school campuses. Today dual enrollment has its largest presence on rural campuses where students opt for a range of courses from skills training to liberal arts.”

Thank you Trustee Romeo Agbalog, Retired Senator Dr. Jean Fuller, Steve Watkin, and Kylie Campbell for your leadership on Early College.

Learning and earning: Bakersfield College pushing hard to expand apprenticeship programs

Steven Mayer wrote this article for The Bakersfield Californian about how BC & Kern CCD are working to expand apprenticeship opportunities by offering programs with such industry partners as Bitwise Industries, OpenClassrooms, Adventist Health Bakersfield, Kern Medical and others.

Fun Photos & Spotted on Social Media

PC Vice President Primavera Arvizu shared this post:

Porterville College’s High School Counselor and Principal Retreat is a great opportunity to collaborate, strategize, and address Student Success. We are all partners addressing education for the community. @PCollegePirates #studentsuccess

Check out the BC Padrinos and the student club Ritmo y Sabor Folklorico group at the Padrinos de BC Posadas student scholarship fundraiser:

And PC President Claudia Habib shared how it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Porterville College:

We are getting into the Holiday Spirit @PCollegePirates our Maintenance & Operations crew surprised me this morning with the installation of wreaths in our quad. It’s starting to look like Christmas.

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Tagged: #KernCCDDaringMightyThings, Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, Kern Community College District, Porterville College, Sonya Christian