I started my week up in Sacramento at the 2023 CCLC Legislative Conference, and was thrilled to meet with Kern CCD Leadership Academy participants from all three colleges.
On Tuesday, I joined Kern Community College District colleagues and others in our community at the Kern County State of the County. Thank you to newly-elected Kern County Chairman Jeff Flores, who delivered the address, and to the entire Kern County team for an excellent event.
Kern CCD starting February on the move.
Good morning friends.
It is February 4, 2023.
The sun shines bright over Kern CCD
Porterville College
Porterville College CHAP Announces the First Event of the Semester
The Porterville College Cultural and Historical Awareness Program (CHAP) continues its celebration of 20 years with another enlightening event, this time from Porterville College (PC) History Instructor Dr. Ben Nelson.
If one were to widen the scope of religious analysis, it may become clear that humans not only remain “political animals,” as Aristotle insisted, but they remain spiritual ones as well.
Join us on the Porterville College Campus on the 10th of February at 7:00 pm for a lecture by Dr. Ben Nelson entitled “The Triumph of Secularism or a Great Awakening: Belief and Spirituality in the Anthropocene”. In it, he will take a close look at religion and religious institutions and explore the implications of belief and spirituality in our modern world.
Dr. Ben Nelson is an Adjunct Instructor of History at Porterville College, a Valley native, a product of Porterville area schools, and a proud graduate of PC.
After PC he received his B.A. in History from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. in History from UCLA. He specializes in popular religious expressions in early American society and culture. While in graduate school he felt a powerful pull to teach and in 2009 returned to Porterville to begin his teaching career at Harmony Magnet Academy. He has also taught as an adjunct in the History Department at PC since 2015.
For more information on this event or the PC CHAP, contact Jim Entz at 559-791-2257.
For more information on CHAP you can also view this video, produced by PC’s Multimedia Production Certificate Program Students:
Pirate Baseball beats Barstow 11-9, split opening games of the season
Playing in front of the home crowd for the first time this season, the Porterville College offense showed its fans what it is capable of this year. The Pirates totaled 14 hits on their way to an 11-9 non-conference win over visiting Barstow Community College on Tuesday.
PC scored early and often. Porterville put up four runs in the bottom of the first inning and added four more in the third to take a commanding 8-2 lead that they wouldn’t give up.
Catcher Daniel Clancy led the charge, driving in three runs while going 3 for 4 at the plate. Dylan Novotny also had three hits (3 for 4) and had 2 RBI. Ayden Markovich (2 for 4, 2B) scored a pair of runs and also drove in two.
Jason Kramlich went a solid three innings for the Pirates in the start. He allowed 2 unearned runs and 2 hits while striking out 7.
The victory came after a tough 12-3 loss on Friday in Porterville’s 2023 season opener against Feather River College in a game played in Taft. Feather River totaled just four hits but took advantage of five PC errors to score six unearned runs.
Chris Ortega smacked a two-run home run for the Pirates in the sixth and Koda Larsen hit a pinch-hit RBI single in the ninth.
Porterville, now 1-1 on the season, returns to action on Saturday (Feb. 4) at 11 a.m. when the Pirates travel to Barstow for a doubleheader.
Cerro Coso Community College
Student Spotlight: Mikailey
Mikailey is a recent graduate of Cerro Coso who was accepted at California State University Northridge, class of 2025, where she is a Kinesiology Major! While at Cerro Coso Tehachapi, Mikailey received two AA degrees: one AA-T in Art History and one AA in Liberal Arts and Humanities. While a student at CC, she worked as an English tutor. We caught up with Mikailey to ask about her time as a student at Cerro Coso and what her future holds: a career in medicine.
“I started Cerro Coso classes when I was 14. I actually started the summer before I began high school. My first class was an ASL C101 class, and I fell in love with learning at the college level. Being surrounded by adults who were working jobs and managing families gave me a huge appreciation for education. I grew not only as a student but as a person as well. Trying to juggle high school, college, extracurriculars, family, and friends wasn’t easy, but it taught me grit and determination.”
Scholarship Application Workshop
Cerro Coso Community College is hosting a scholarship application workshop on Wednesday, February 8, at 12:30 pm. Get information about Cerro Coso Foundation Scholarships, outside scholarships and more! We will also be providing step-by step information, and provide support while you finish and submit your application.
The workshop will be held in LRC 709 at the Ridgecrest campus from 12:30-1:30 pm. Sign up online!
Bakersfield College
Delano Library Open House
The Delano Library, Writing Center, and Tutoring Center invite staff, faculty, and students to an Open House event on February 7th from 2PM-6PM. Grab some snacks and meet with Delano librarians, writing center staff, and tutoring center staff to discover valuable services readily available to students.
HBCU Caravan 2023
BC hosted another successful HBCU Caravan! Several students left the event with scholarships and acceptance letters in-hand! We are always so overjoyed to see students take control of their futures, and this HBCU Caravan was full of hard-working and motivated students ready to jump into the next phase of their education.
BC Library Workshop Week
BC held 16 different Zoom workshops on Library Research Skills from January 30th to February 2nd. Students were able to learn about strategies for effective research, looking up articles in databases, and evaluating news sources.
Kern CCD hosts food policy summit
KernCCD was happy to host Adventist Health Blue Zones Food Policy Summit on Friday, February 3 at the Bakersfield College Conference Center. We are a proud partner of Blue Zones Project which uses the secrets discovered in the original Blue Zones to help people live longer and better through community transformation programs.
The partnership is working towards making Bakersfield an even greater place to live, learn, work, play, and worship by engaging the three main components of community: people, policy and places. The efforts will result in making it easier to make healthier choices and improve the quality of life for everyone in the Bakersfield area.
In the News
BC’s Kris Tiner Shares His Story
The Bakersfield Californian published a piece highlighting one of BC’s best, Kris Tiner. In the article, Professor Tiner talks about his musical story beginning in elementary school all the way through his professional career. He gives readers a glimpse of where his musical influence came from, his struggles along the way, and how his family and students inspire him to continue sharing his gifts. We know how lucky we are to have him as a department chair and faculty member as he continues to work tirelessly to inspire students. Kris says in the article, “If I hadn’t had music, I wouldn’t have had confidence that I had something to say that anybody was going to pay attention to. It’s kind of a small-town syndrome, too: ‘I’m nobody from no place and nobody is going to listen to what I have to say.’ … But on a deeper level, what we’re doing when we teach the arts is give kids confidence to know who they are and to have the courage to express that and to understand they’re a viable part of a bigger community. Kids from small communities need that.”
Professor Tiner is being inducted into the CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame on March 3 at the Doré Theatre on campus.
Educators and aerospace join forces to prepare workforce of the future
The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest published this piece about Wednesday’s Aeropsace Working Coalition meeting at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The meeting was hosted by Cerro Coso Community College President Dr. Sean Hancock and MASP CEO Tim Reid.
Hancock said the hope is the ongoing interaction between educators and employers can reap big dividends for all involved. “We want to be able to provide the training necessary to support their future workforce,” he said.
Kern Community College District hosts USDA Rural Development meeting
BakersfieldNow covered the recent USDA Rural Development meeting, held January 26th at the BC Delano Campus.
Fun Photos and Spotted on Social Media
Check out these photos from the Kern CCD team at a Job Fair in Oakland – thank you to Laci Beyes, Nicole Griffin, Michelle Miller- Galaz, Dustin Acres and Nikita Lowe!
From Cerro Coso Outreach:
Yotes supportin’ Yotes!
Love to see it. Students, family, friends, and fans came out and packed the stands today to watch the Women’s Softball team take on San Diego City for their home opener.
Check the schedule and join us for an upcoming game!
www.cosocoyotes.com/sports/sball/2022-23/schedule
From PC President Dr. Claudia Habib:
Visiting our legislators was the highlight #LeadershipAcademy @KernCCD attending the 2023 Legislative Conference @ccleague #cclcLC23 Thank you @Senator_Hurtado @DrJasmeetBains for supporting #HigherEd #Students @PCollegePirates @cerrocoso @BAKcollege @CalCommColleges #Advocacy
And I loved this note from Mindy Wilmot at BC:
We wanted to share this amazing picture of a delicious partnership!
Within 24 hours, collard greens were in the BC Edible Education Garden, harvested, and prepared by Culinary Arts students.
Yummy! There is much more to come!!
***
That’s a wrap for now.
See you next Saturday!
The future is bright at Kern CCD.
-sonya
a joyful and grateful Chancellor
#KernCCDDaringMightyThings
Tagged: #KernCCDDaringMightyThings, Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, Kern Community College District, Porterville College, Sonya Christian
Really enjoy the overview of events. You are continuing to lead in really great ways. Getting Marko to an event is no small feat
Ha ha! Was great to have Marko at the event. Thank you for your post Michael. We need to get you to the next event.