Manuel de los Santos | Sonya Christian's Blog

Chicano/Latino Commencement, World’s Got Talent Show: Two Awesome Events, One Super Busy Night

Part of the pleasure of being a member of the BC family is that there’s always something happening on this campus.

Always. Almost literally.

It is a very rare night during the school year when at least one performance, exhibit or gathering of one kind or another isn’t scheduled in one of our facilities. (The college does quite well given that it was built in the 50’s and is in need of serious infrastructure upgrades and remodeling of classroom and laboratory spaces.)

More and more frequently in looking at our calendar the question isn’t which event to attend. It’s HOW MANY to attend. On any given night, two or more stellar events at various campus venues can be vying for our attention.

Such was the case on May 6th when some of our most crazy-talented BCers were showing their stuff in the Simonsen Performing Arts Center Indoor Theatre stage as part of the final round of The World’s Got Talent Show, hosted by the International Student Organization. Thank you Shohreh Raman! Meanwhile, just footsteps away in the center’s Outdoor Theatre, family and friends gathered to honor 2015 BC graduates at the beautiful Chicano/Latino commencement ceremony.

Getting emails like this one from BC Criminal Justice faculty member Pat Smith brings it all home…

“I attended the talent show last night and brought a friend of mine who is also a BC graduate and a retired probation officer. I must tell you that I was so proud of our college students who showed off their talents on stage. It was quite fun and so entertaining.

My alumni friend had not been on the campus lately and was impressed with the indoor and outdoor theater upgrades. She expressed how wonderful BC looked at 100 years old and as we peaked down at the Hispanic commencement that was still going on, she was in awe of the outdoor theater upgrades and stated BC should have more concerts for the public and bring Mentu Buru and jazz artists. I mentioned there were two recent concerts, but she was not aware of them. She stated she wants to support BC more after seeing the wonderful campus upgrades…I am so proud to be a Renegade!”

Despite having so many talented students, only one could win it all — and a big congratulations to BC freshman Tristen Bangi for taking home the title with her amazing vocal performance. The 18-year-old kinesiology major made it to the finals with knockout renditions of Broadway hits “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” and “On My Own” from “Les Miserables,” then took home the trophy with a bravura diva turn on the Barbra Streisand classic “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl.”

While the talent show was going on inside, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house outside as hundreds came out to celebrate the success of our 2015 Chicano and Latino graduates at an intimate, heartfelt commencement ceremony.

The bilingual ceremony gives the Spanish-speaking family and friends of our Chicano and Latino students the chance to share in the pride and achievement of our amazing graduates. Thank you Corny Rodriguez and Joanne Acosta and the rest of the team for organizing the event.

And a word of advice to anyone attending the ceremony in coming years — bring tissue. Because it’s impossible not to get emotional hearing stories of perseverance and joy from students who often had to overcome so much just to see a day like this become a reality.

Don’t take my word for it — just watch this fantastic video below from the ceremony by BC videographer supreme Manuel de los Santos. Manny, u r the best!

A truly magical night on this truly magical campus…

Learning in Community: Staff Bring Home Ideas from Streaming Media Conference

Photo of staff from Streaming Media West conference

Manuel de los Santos (Media Specialist), Kristin Rabe (Media Services Coordinator), and Todd Coston (Director of Information Services) at the Streaming Media West conference.

Several members of Bakersfield College’s Information Technology team headed to the Streaming Media West conference to learn more about the options for Bakersfield College when it comes to new and emerging media. Manuel de los Santos, Media Specialist, Kristin Rabe, Media Services Coordinator, and Todd Coston, Director of Information Services represented Bakersfield College.

When they returned, Todd sent information about how each member of his team approached their learning at the Streaming Media West conference. Below is what Todd reviewed from the conference.

Manuel’s focus at this conference was very technical. He wanted to understand the equipment others were using, settings on the cameras, audio strategies, etc. Also, he wanted the opportunity to network with people who are doing streaming events on a large scale. Manuel felt that he got what he need from the conference. Many of the discussions he had confirmed the direction he was taking with our hardware solution for doing effective streaming events. Like any technology project, the costs associated with doing effective streaming can vary dramatically depending on how much you want to spend. Manuel is going to create a priority list, with costs, of the various pieces of equipment we can purchase that would improve our ability to stream events. Based on monies we may have left at the end of the year, we will then use some of that money to improve our streaming equipment.

Kristin was more focused on the big picture strategy of streaming events. She participated in sessions like, “Reinventing Education With Video” and “Best Practices for Live Streaming”. These sessions helped her gain a better understanding of where the industry is going and how we might use streaming technology more on our campus. Kristin already has a solid background in video production but this conference really helped her gain some insight into how that translates to the web streaming world. Kristin’s goal is to try and find an effective strategy that will help us utilize streaming without costing us a fortune in both hardware and people resource. Between sessions we had some very candid discussions about how we can make our streaming solution effective but also how we can archive our videos for reference and future use.

My goal was to just understand better how streaming can fit into our video strategy for Bakersfield College. One of the big things that became obvious to me is the lack of basic understanding of the terms used in the video production world. I understand technically how to make video work over the internet but haven’t a clue on the various codecs, equipment, lighting, audio, etc. This conference gave me a little of that insight and a realization that quality video requires planning and thought for it to have a professional quality.

At the end of the conference, we got together to determine a goal for each of us to work toward. Each of us have a different role but I think the goals we came up with our relevant to our role.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to attend the conference. It was useful in different ways for each of us.

While conferences and trainings may be considered to take staff away from the important roles they play at Bakersfield College, they provide an essential opportunity to experience new and innovative approaches to student success, from what we teach in the classrooms, to how we provide that education through rich media and technology.