Good morning Bakersfield.  It is Saturday, December 9, 2017 and fall semester is a wrap.  A great day to be a Renegade and a great semester to be a Renegade.  BC students have been completing their finals all week long and the cool, chilly weather has us all in the holiday spirit.

And then Felix Adamo from The Bakersfield Californian dropped by during a lunch meeting at Don Perico.  I was so delighted to listen in on the banter between Felix and Nan.  Did you know that this fabulous photographer with the twitter handle @TBCpix is a veteran, was a student at BC, was the photographer for the Renegade Rip and the Raconteur….  Just wonderful.  Also, try a google image search with “Felix Adamo”…. you will find thousands of photos, but not one photo of him.  So I felt quite sneaky stealing this picture of Felix with Nan and then blasting it on social media — twitter and now my blog 🙂

He was the student photographer for the 1975 Raconteur when BC won the Rosebowl championship.  James E. Meadows was the sports editor and started the article with

On December 11, 1975 a crowd of only 21,200 gathered in the sun-warmed Rosebowl in Pasadena for the Los Angeles Times sponsored Junior Rose Bowl — the 22nd of its kind …

And as I scrolled through the Dec 1975 Raconteur I found this picture of Bill Thomas and Sharon Thomas by Lewis Wakeland.

Thank you Felix Adamo.
I’m so proud that such a talented photographer is a Renegade!

100th Graduating Class of the BC Associate Degree Nursing Program

On Thursday evening, we celebrated the momentous occasion of the 100th Graduating Class of the BC Associate Degree Nursing Program.

Did you know the Nursing program at Bakersfield College is the 6th oldest RN program in the state? An article in one of the BC Archives newsletters says, “It all started in 1951 when a vocational nursing program was initiated in cooperation with Kern General Hospital (now Kern Medical Center). Its first group of nurses graduated in 1952.”

It continued, “The original intention of the vocational nursing program was to train nurses to address the shortage brought on by World War II. It is thought that the program might end when the registered nursing program was initiated, but this did not occur.”  The registered nursing program began at BC in 1957 under the direction of Kathryn Cafferty. Accreditation was granted in June 1958 and the first graduating class was the following year.

Thursdays Ceremony had 59 graduates and all grads have received and accepted job offers. The evening began with a performance by the BC Drumline and attendees were welcomed by the Master of Ceremonies, Jaime Mendiola and the Pledge of Allegiance by Gagan Jattana. Speakers for the evening included Carla Gard, Director of the Nursing Program, Lisa Harding, Faculty, Jeanette Harvey and Haley Wayts, Students, Ronnie Knabe, Debbie Kennedy, and Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg.  

In recognition of the 100th Graduating class of the Bakersfield College Associate Degree Nursing Program, the department shared a few mementos that commemorate the amazing milestone. This is such an exciting time for the department and our college.

Special thanks to Cindy Collier, Carla Gard, Michelle Burton, Bryan Lainez, Treana Adams, and Vanessa Reyes.

See all the photos at the Bakersfield College Smugmug.

Culinary Caroling

I walked into the third annual Culinary and Caroling dinner event to find this distinguished gentleman playing the piano to greet the guests.

Mark Wilcox, the proud father of the talented, passionate and beautiful Jen Garrett.

On December 2nd, the BC Chamber Singers and BC Culinary Arts partnered to create their third annual Culinary and Caroling dinner.  Last year’s event was on Dec 3, 2016.  Here is my blog post from last year https://sonyachristianblog.com/2016/12/10/17775/

Chefs Alex Gomez, Suzanne Durst and the Renegade Room staff hosted a delicious holiday dinner, and host Christian Flores made sure all guests were taken care of. Decorations were by Christine Foth.  My guests this year included Mayor Karen Goh, Chancellor Tom Burke and his wife Tina, KCCD Trustee Romeo Agbalog and his wife Lily, and Ed Davis and his wife Shelley Davis.

Each table had a chamber singer assigned to take care of the guests.  Our chamber singer was the fabulous Mark who you see in the picture below.

The beautiful voices of the BC Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Garrett, always make this special annual event magical. One piece had a student signing to it and I love that they added this. Here is a short video:

 

Patt Davis sang Santa Baby and here is a picture when she visited the table with our Chancellor, Tom Burke. So fun!

It’s heartwarming to see multiple departments at BC come together, along with the support from local businesses that donated items and services. It’s a joy to see the amazingly generous attendees enjoy their visit to our campus and experience the true talent of our students and staff.

Here is Trustee Romeo Agbalog visiting with faculty and staff — in the pictures below you see him with Cindy Collier, Dean of Allied Health and Career and Technical Education and Talita Pruett, faculty member in Communication.

Chef Suzanne and Jen Garrett thank you for another great event.

 

Loved this picture that Lily Agbalog texted me with the photos of Santa captioned.

Markelle (Mark) Taylor, one of our students and a music major was in charge of our table. Mark performs in a lot of musical theater in the community.

 

 

Here is Matt Garrett with his mom Barbara Garrett who did the m&m counting for the jar of 1000 m&ms and his grandpa Roger Garrett.

Here is Chancellor Tom Burke with his lovely wife Tina, and the lovely Suzanne Durst.

Special thanks to Dr. Jen Garrett and the BC Choirs, Chefs Suzanne Durst, Alez Gomez, Christian Flores, and our BC Culinary Arts students. And thank you to everyone who purchased tickets and visited “Harvard on the Hill” for this special annual holiday evening. I know we’re already looking forward to next year.

Mayor Karen Goh has some lovely photos on her Facebook. 

BSO & BC Choir

On Saturday, December 16th, the Bakersfield College Choir is partnering with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra for the winter concert, Home for the Holidays. The show begins at 7PM at Fox Theater and tickets are available now at www.thebakersfieldfox.com.

LVN graduation

In addition to the RN nursing students graduating, this Friday, December 8, 2017, we had our LVN cohort graduating as well with the ceremony being held at the Indoor Theater.

After three semesters of hard work and perseverance, the students from our Vocational Nursing program got to walk across the stage and earn their pins at a special ceremony Friday night in the Indoor Theater.

Along with their certification as Licensed Vocational Nurses, the graduates were awarded a special pin commemorating all of their hard work and success. The pin is a traditional badge of achievement, and each nursing school’s pin is different.

After a brief welcome from Jennifer Johnson and MC Kren Campbell, student speakers Krystal Shendo-Quidachay and Juana Aguilar spoke about all of the hard work that the group of 21 graduates had to endure in order to earn the licensure; the support they received from family, friends, BC faculty and their peers; and the relief that the effort resulted in a certification that enables them to achieve their career goals, or to continue their nursing education.

The holiday spirit was in the air as Aguilar lead the audience in singing “Feliz Navidad” while poinsettias decorated the theater.

The graduates and their family members in the audience were often moved to tears as the nursing staff recited the Nightingale Pledge and pinned the graduates. Faculty speaker Sandra Davis spoke highly of all her graduating students, and was ecstatic for all of the lives that she knew her students would go on to help save.

I’d like to congratulate all of our newly licensed vocational nurses and our nursing staff for all the work they do to transform the lives of our students and community through the education that they provide.

Community Christmas Parades

We are so fortunate to have a variety of local community based Christmas Parades. BC was so happy to walk in the Shafter Parade a few weeks ago. I shared photos in my blog last weekend here, and I loved the photos from Mayor Jose Gurrola from the Arvin Christmas Parade. It’s great to see our community leaders working together and supporting our various communities.

Leaders Leticia Perez and Former Mayor Harvey Hall both came together with a financial donation to support the Arvin Christmas Parade. The Bakersfield Californian covered this here.

A few nights ago, the community came out to see the Bakersfield Christmas Parade and The Bakersfield Californian has some incredible photos available here. I also loved the opening of this article, “Christmas Parade kicks the holiday season into high gear.” Author, Steven Mayer wrote,

There were toddlers wearing footed PJs dancing in the street. There was a man sporting a black sombrero riding a Brahma bull. There was a dude herding cats — although he claimed he was director of the Washington Middle School Marching Band. There were thousands of smiles, hundreds of princess parade waves, and enough good will toward men to make you feel like everything is going to be all right after all.

Don’t miss the article. It’s fantastic.

BC Holiday Party

On November 30th, right before the busy week of finals, our campus faculty, staff, and administrators came together for a little holiday party in the Fireside Room. An assortment of treats and hors d’oeuvres were available including the famous bread pudding with caramel sauce from BC Food Services. There was a raffle for dinner for four at the Renegade Room, various BC shirts and sweatshirts, and mini desktop christmas trees. Kris Tiner and our BC musicians provided festive music.

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Renegade Wrestling

Jon Mettus of The Bakersfield Californian reported on BC Wrestling this week in his article, “BC wrestlers on potential state championship collision course.” BC’s Adrian Godinez is the number one ranked 184-pound wrestler in the state and BC’s Jeremy Maas is the second ranked. The article describes the two, “Godinez is dynamic upright while Maas works well down on the mat. Godinez excels with his footwork and Maas has heavy hands.”

Renegade Basketball

The BC women’s basketball team got a huge effort from Octavia Croney this week, in a 83-67 victory over Taft College. Croney poured in 27 points, had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals to lead the Renegades.  Brianna Mendez and Jasmyn Rodriguez also scored in double figures with 19 and 15 points respectively.  Aubrey Stone led BC in rebounds with 13.

And the Men’s Basketball Tournament scheduled for this weekend has been canceled due to the ongoing fires in California. The Bakersfield College Men’s Basketball team has added two games to their schedule to make up for the games lost this weekend. The added games are January 3rd at LA Valley and January 9th at Oxnard.

To stay up-to-date on all things Renegade Athletics, visit www.gogades.com. Go ‘Gades!

Kerntax

This week was the annual Kern Tax Annual Installation Luncheon.  Tom Burke is a member of the board and invites me and several others to sit at his table.  Mike Turnipseed, CEO of Kerntax has done a remarkable job connecting various entities and aggressively educating our community on due diligence with tax dollars.  It seemed as it the all of the community leaders were there at the end.  I quickly snapped this picture of Chancellor Tom Burke with the President of the KCCD Board, Kay Meek.  Trustee Romeo Agbalog was present as well.  He was sitting at Mike Turnipseed’s table.   I was sitting right next to Vice Chancellor John Means and had a great time listening to the speakers and catching up with John.  Life is good.

BC OChem Letters

A copy of the newest BC OChem Letters, Volume 5, Number 1, crossed my desk this week. It’s incredible to see the work of Professor Kenward Vaughan and our students. In the editor’s notes, Professor Vaughn mentions the challenges of the separation and identification of components of binary liquid mixtures using various research techniques spanning distillations, physical and chemical characterizations, and spectroscopic work.

The intro states “People in general tend to categorize things that they encounter as a way to organize information. Observations of similarities and/or differences are used to make correlations between things, which in turn, people can make predictions of other characteristics an unknown may show. This is especially important in the field of chemistry, where matter is studied all the way down to its microscopic level. Observations of various atomic structures have been made throughout the years, which paved ways to methods of separations of mixtures using the differences of physical and chemical properties between substances.”

Fun photos

On Friday, I received this fun text from Zav Dadabhoy. It said

“Engaging in a deep discussion about copyright law, and debating which “G” is better (they are identical, except for the colors.) Georgia State or the Green Bay Packers!”

 

Loved seeing Dennis Spencer and his grandson Andrew visiting BC and our office — Andrew, a future Renegade

Snapped these pictures of Liz Rozell with granddaughter May at Don Perico on Oswell where we were having a meeting while enjoying the fabulous lunch buffet. Liz and May joined Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, Jennifer Johnson, and myself.

And then I ran into Joshua Gonzales having lunch with his family.  Josh is a Rad tech student who is graduating in May 2018.  He was very complimentary about the program Nancy 🙂

 

 

BC Foundation Holiday Dinner

I was at an accreditation meeting in LA and could not attend the Foundation Holiday Party.  I want to thank the Bakersfield College foundation for all their support in passing Measure J.  And thank you Karen Thompson for your leadership through the entire process.

We had our choir perform at this event as well.  Here are a few photos.

We are BC!

 

That’s all for now.  

Until next time.

With much Renegade Pride and Collegiality.  

sonya —
the luckiest and happiest college president ever