Sonya Christian's Blog

Good morning Bakersfield.  It is Saturday, November 18, 2017….a great day to be a Renegade.

I often say it’s an exciting time to be at BC and it’s true. I mentioned in last weekend’s blog that Bakersfield College is bringing higher education to Shafter and at our Express Enrollment event this week, it was great to see the excitement and activity in the Shafter area. Over the past three years, BC has remained focused on the strategic goal of bringing higher education into the communities of Delano, Shafter, Wasco, McFarland, Lamont, and Arvin. We look forward to expanding courses offered  in Shafter so that students can complete all or a significant part of their degree locally and I know this will directly benefit our students.

Some of the comments heard throughout the day included:

• “I don’t also have access to a car to drive to school, so I sometimes miss class or miss office hours. I could be a better student in Shafter.”
• “This would be great! I could save money and focus more on my school work so that I can start my career.”
• “I have been taking classes online, but would rather take them in person. “

Thank you to all who have believed in this goal and have worked hard to make BC in Shafter a success. Thank you Steve Watkin, Abel Guzman, Rich McCrow, David Franz, Ashlea Ward, Victor Crosthwaite, Lovejot Chahal, Mark Osea, Dinorah Castro, Jesus Oropeza, Jessica Garcia, and Monika Scott.

Thank you to our KCCD Board of Trustees for supporting these goals and thank you to our media partners for highlighting our event on KGET and at The Bakersfield Californian.

Let’s listen to Jessica a young woman who came in toe register

From Shafter Learning Center Facebook post

Season of Giving

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the spirit of giving; a spirit which is alive and true in our community. As I look forward to celebrating thanksgiving next week, I’m almost overwhelmed by the list of things to be thankful for… family, friends, opportunities, blessings, each and every day… I couldn’t list everything.

But, I’d like to spotlight one service on campus which gives all year long, thanks to the kind donations from our community, and this holiday season if you’d like to make a donation of some non-perishable goods, they will go to students in need.

The Renegade Pantry is a student assistance program which aims to help students in need, with nonperishable food, clothing, and hygiene items. Each year, they hold a Holiday Turkey Drawing, and over the past week, 93 turkeys have been distributed to students who signed up and were chosen through the drawing.

The pantry, however is always accepting non-perishable goods like instant noodles, spaghetti, rice, beans, canned chicken, mac and cheese, etc. If you’re considering a donation to a local food pantry over the holidays, consider donating dry nonperishable goods or hygiene items, such as soaps, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to the Renegade Pantry.

This heartfelt season of giving is truly something to be thankful for.

And thank you to BC’s Child Development Center for donating goods to our veterans on the heels of our weeklong Veterans celebration which I covered in last week’s blog, “Celebrating Veterans All Week Long!”

Cafecito Time with Prez Dez

I’m so proud of BC’s Student Government Association led by this year’s President, Dezi Von Manos. SGA is always looking for ways to support the student body and regularly hosts events where students can come together and speak to the administration of the school. Examples of these events are “Coffee with the Chief” or like this past Monday, “Cafecito Time with Prez Dez” where students could directly speak to the Dezi and the SGA team.

Dezi spoke of how the SGA is always available to lend support and help assist students through their academic studies but also in life itsself.

Pictured in the group photo below is Jose Manuel McIntyre Cortez, Rayven Acosta-Webb, Dezi Von Manos, Jose Eduardo Lopez, and Mustafa Barraj.

Randy Rutledge

I recently had the opportunity to meet Randy Rutledge, a Taft College graduate who played on the 1984 national championship winning football team before transferring to the University of Oregon and getting to be a Rose Bowl MVP. Randy relished the opportunity to tell me how they “smashed the Renegades” during their championship-winning season.

Taft College hasn’t had a football program for over 20 years, but their rivalry with BC was one of the best in junior college sports, serving as the inspiration for the 1986 film “The Best of Times” starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell. In the film, Robin Williams is a former Taft College receiver obsessed with the worst moment of his life – dropping a pass in the 1972 game between Taft and BC. Thirteen years later, he convinces Kurt Russell, his Taft quarterback, to help him re-stage the game.

A must read is this article from The Bakersfield Californian from 2006 titled, “Film on Kern rivalry still hit XX years later.”

And here is the movie trailer from 1986.

 

I also got to visit with Dennis McCall who was a journalist with the Taft Midway Driller and later became a faculty member at Taft College. Dennis now volunteers at the Oil Museum at Taft that is open 3 days a week Thursday through Saturday and half a day in Sunday.  I promised him that I would go check out the museum.  In fact when I dropped by Senator Jean Fuller’s Thanksgiving Open House, her husband Russell was very complimentary about the Museum saying that it is a ” must visit” location.  I had a wonderful time visiting with both Dennis and his wife Jan.  I was Googling Dennis and came across this July 22, 2015 article in the Midway Driller. It is a fun read!
http://www.taftmidwaydriller.com/article/20150722/news/150729902

Athletics

As the football season comes to a close, the Renegades will take the field one last time in the Patriotic Bowl against Long Beach City College at 4 p.m. tonight. The Bakersfield Californian published two articles about the game this week, including a brief informational blurb when the game was announced last Sunday, and a preview article by Teddy Feinberg on Tuesday highlighting what Renegade fans can look forward to. I’m excited to watch our team close out the season strong. Is anyone else traveling to Long Beach for the game?

The BC Wrestling team won the SCWA Southeast Conference championship last weekend, with five champions and two runners up. Our coaching staff were also winners of the Head Coach of the Year and Assistant Coach of the Year awards.

Team Results: 1) Bakersfield College –   147 points 2) West Hills College –    137 points 3) Cuesta College –        107.5 points 4) Moorpark College-        49 points 5) East LA College –        39.5 points 6) Victor Valley College-  13 points

Individual Results: Pedro Ramirez – 1st place @ 125 Marco Velasquez – 2nd place @ 133 Pedro Corona – 1st place @ 133 Emmett Kuntz – 1st place @ 149 Brayden Riley – 1st place @ 165 Adrian Godinez – 2nd place @ 184 Jeremy Maas – 1st place @ 184 Zavion Roberson – 2nd place @ 197

 

Coaches’ Awards:
Assistant Coach of the Year – Joe Espejo
Head Coach of the Year – Marcos Austin and Brett Clark

A complete list of team results and placers is available at GoGades.com.

Men’s Basketball

The Renegades used a strong second half to pull away from Santa Barbara and secure a 89-65 victory.  Four BC players scored in double-figures.  Tucker Eenigenburg (22 points and 7rebounds), Jaylunn English (15 points and 9 rebounds), Henry Galinato (13 points and 9 rebounds) and Johnathan Murray, who led the Renegades with 5 assists, added 12 points and 7 rebounds. (from gogades.com)

Women’s Soccer

The BC women’s soccer team finishes the regular season, with a 1-0 victory over Victor Valley, on Friday.  Ashley Quintanilla scored for the Renegades, her fisrt goal of the season and Taylor Serrano earned her 5th shut out of the year.  The Renegades finished in second place in the conference (8-7-3, 3-3-2). (from gogades.com)

Geology Field Trip

Bakersfield College Geology Professor, Chris Benker and six BC Geology majors joined the annual CSU Bakersfield Geology three-day field trip to the Zzyzx Desert Studies Center in the Mojave Desert.  BC students planning to transfer to CSUB had an opportunity to network with CSUB Geology professors, as well as CSUB undergraduate and graduate Geology students. This partnership has been longstanding. Geology Instructor Cari Meyer has also taken groups on this great adventure in past years. BC and CSUB Geology work hard to create a seamless pipeline into the Geology pathway and have fun at the same time! Bakersfield College participation was sponsored by CSUB’s Claude Fiddler Endowment.

The fun trailer highlights just a few of the adventures on this three-day geology expedition!

 

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Conference is the main event for SHPE the and the most massive technical and career conference for Hispanics in the country. Respectively, the SHPE Conference attracts over 6,000 engineering professionals, students, and corporate representatives. The meeting is an opportunity for engineering companies and corporations to recruit talented SHPE members and also to provide educational and career opportunities for professionals and engineering students.  This 2017 SHPE conference was held in Kansas City from November 1-5th. Six BC/MESA/ASME  students attended with Professor Lewis from the math department as the chaperon.  The students and faculty were sponsored by the engineering department and MESA.

Arvin Christmas Parade

 

In Richard Beene’s column, Bakersfield Observed, he mentioned that Supervisor Leticia Perez donated to save the Arvin Christmas Parade from cancellation. I’m one of many who wish to publicly say thank you. This is a special parade for a special community.

Did you miss the news we announced in August regarding BC in Arvin?  Check out my blog post from August 8th, “Enriching Lives through Campus and Community.”

This week on Social Media

I loved seeing this tweet from Assemblymember Rudy Salas:

Kimberly Bligh posts on Facebook about the wellness class

From Jen Garrett’s Facebook.

The future of BC Music

Tweet from Connie Gonzales

Thank to you the KCHCC

With the technology of today and how much we utilize email, texting, social media, etc., it is a real treat to have time to sit and open up the mail. I was overjoyed to open a large envelope from BC friend and supporter, Jay Tamsi and the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for the beautiful award and recognition.

The Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce works to promote Hispanic and minority-owned businesses, and those that cater to, or employ Hispanics by being active and visible in the community and by raising the level of awareness of our member’s needs in the business community. Their vision of the KCHCC is to create innovative and influential business programs that will promote Hispanic Business and economic development at the local, state, national, and international level.

In February of this year, I was honored to be recognized as Woman of the Year by KCHCC and you can see my blog from February here.

Great College Council Meeting:

I really enjoy my work with various groups on campus.  These folks are smart and dedicated to students.  This week at College Council, a team of faculty and deans presented the work BC is doing with the money that we received for “Strong Workforce.”

This is money legislated to improve the workforce for high wage jobs.

Here are the local and regional projects that are underway.  For example, BC’s baccalaureate program in Industrial Automation has made the regional list.  This work includes working with the community colleges close to us in the region to align the freshman and sophomore level curriculum for Industrial Technology so that students can transfer with junior standing into the baccalaureate program.

The presenters did a fabulous job describing how they were using the funding to develop the various certificates within the degree programs.  In some cases the equipment is so expensive that BC would not have been able to purchase the equipment without this grant.

Let’s see what Dr. Josh Ottum and our Commercial Music program is doing related to Strong Workforce

 

Let’s hear from Sarah Baron about the Patient Navigator program within BC’s Health Sciences degree.

I’m so proud of this work!  We are BC.

Alex Epstein in Bakersfield

Chad Hathaway invited me to the Alex Epstein talk on Thursday, Nov 16th.

His book:

Loved seeing Jean Fuller, one of my favorite people at her Thanksgiving Open House on Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Oliver and Samson

Neo on November 14, 2017, 3 days before his 8-month birthday

 

That’s all for now.  

Until next time.

With much Renegade Pride and Collegiality.  

sonya —
the luckiest and happiest college president ever