MEMBER NEWS: West Hills College Lemoore awards nearly $200,000 to 20 STEM students

West Hills College Lemoore awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM CORES Scholarships to 20 STEM students studying biology, engineering, physics and math, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member announced earlier this month.

The scholarships are valued up to $10,000 annually per student ($5,000 per semester) for a maximum of four semesters. This academic year, the college is distributing nearly $200,000 in NSF S-STEM CORES Scholarships, half of which was disbursed Dec. 12. A second distribution is planned for the next semester.

The scholarships provide recipient with comprehensive support, including a dedicated faculty mentor and complementary tutoring for courses up to Introduction to Calculus, monthly cohort meetings and seminars, field trips each semester, and paid research opportunities. Additionally, two students will attend conferences.

WHCL President James Preston said the scholarships are part of the college’s commitment to develop future STEM leaders.

“Our mission is to remove barriers and provide opportunities,” said President Preston, who is a member of the CVHEC Board of Directors. “These scholarships are more than just financial aid; they invest in our students’ futures and potential to contribute to the STEM community.”

 

See the West Hills College Lemoore press release.

 

 

MEMBER NEWS: WHCCD campuses eligible for 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

The West Hills Community College District’s Coalinga and Lemoore campuses have been named eligible candidates for the prestigious 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

The Aspen, often referred to as the “Oscars for great community colleges,”  is a highly-coveted award presented biannually to recognize community colleges nationwide for their exceptional performance in critical areas, including teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success, access, and equity for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.

Out of the thousands of community colleges nationwide, only 150 have been identified as eligible candidates for the 2025 Aspen Prize.West Hills College Coalinga and West Hills College Lemoore are the only community colleges in the Central Valley region to receive this prestigious acknowledgment.

“We are incredibly proud of West Hills College Coalinga and West Hills College Lemoore for their outstanding achievements and well-deserved recognition as eligible candidates for the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence,” said Kristin Clark, West Community College District Chancellor. “This achievement reflects our colleges’ dedication to providing exceptional education and support services to our students, empowering them to achieve their goals and aspirations.”

Chancellor Clark serves as chair of the CVHEC Board of Directors which includes WHC Coalinga President Carla Tweed and WHC Lemoore James Preston.

 

See the WHCCD press release.

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (November 2023)

Chancellor Christian reflects her
commitment to California students

Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,

Greetings and welcome to this beautiful fall weather as we prepare for the upcoming holiday season and the end of the fall semester.

We are delighted to report that we are coming off a very successful Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023  held at the Fresno convention Center Oct. 20 when we were joined by over 150 of our friends and colleagues to showcase the work of consortium member colleges and universities over the last year.

The highlight of the summit was welcoming our new California Community Colleges Chancellor, Dr. Sonya Christian, home to the Central Valley to serve as our keynote speaker.

 As expected, her presentation was inspiring and reflected her commitment to students in the state.  Dr.  Christian took this opportunity at the summit to announce and launch the CCCCO Central Valley Transfer Pathways Demonstration Project that will build upon the progress of our own Transfer Project partnership between the community colleges, the CSUs and UC Merced here in the valley.   The CCCCO project is unique in California in that it includes the three segments of public colleges and universities and will eventually include the independent universities as well.

In this issue’s “What the CV-HEC is happening” blog, you will read an update about CVHEC’s innovative approach to delivering college dual enrollment math courses for high school students throughout the region via our Math Bridge project in partnership with CVHEC partner, College Bridge.  The project, designed to get high school students through their first gateway college math course, will serve as a springboard for completing their degrees.

Also please plan on attending the virtual zoom San Joaquin Valley Affordable Internet Adoption Summit on Thursday, Nov. 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The deadline to register is Nov. 7 at: https://bit.ly/SJVSummitRSVP. Bringing affordable broadband internet services to the most vulnerable populations in the Central Valley is an important part of the work CVHEC does in the valley.

Finally, enjoy our summit photo galleries where we share images and comments about the recent CVHEC summit as well as the board meeting and reception they day before.  I am sure you will see many familiar faces.

Have a great November and a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends!

CVHEC Summit 2023 wrap: a myriad of takeaways for participants

Porterville College President Claudia Habib (third  from left) introduced CVHEC Summit student panelists Hailee Guerra,  Araceli Tilley, Jesús López Nuñez, Alondra Veloz and moderator Dr. Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District.  

Student panelist ‘earns’ a trip to CCLC to share
her transfer experiences statewide

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Coordinator 

 

See CVHEC Summit Media Coverage:  KVPR Radio and GV Wire. (MORE)

 

For Araceli Tilley, an alumna of Merced College, the Program Pathway Mapper used by the CVHEC Transfer Project proved to be not only useful for her transfer to UC Merced in fall 2022, it provided her an easy way to map her college courses for her final two years of college at UC Merced that is leading up to graduation in May 2024 with a degree in psychology.

Araceli shared her experiences on the student panel at the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023 held in Fresno Oct. 20 where the breadth and depth of CVHEC activities such as the Transfer Project were showcased.  The summit is sponsored by College Futures Foundation.

She was joined by four other students who shared their experiences in activities CVHEC has sponsored and how much their success could be attributed to those initiatives: Hailee Guerra,  Araceli Tilley, Jesús López Nuñez and Alondra Veloz.

Araceli Tilley

“The mapper provided a straight path that really helped me out, especially because counseling and advising is super impacted at many colleges and you don’t always get to meet in-person with advisors so it was nice that I was able to self-direct using it,” Araceli said.

“And since I worked at Merced College as an outreach ambassador, I was able to help other students showing them how it works. It’s a very useful tool, especially for students who are self-directed.”

From a major announcement to kick off the day to the student testimonials, the CVHEC Summit Oct. 20 at the Fresno Convention Center accomplished its goal of convening educators and community leaders to continue developing a unified voice for higher ed issues.

“The student panel was a glimpse into the reason why educators dedicate themselves to this profession,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

Araceli’s assessment of Program Mapper and how it helped her plan courses throughout college earned her an invitation by Stan Carrizosa, CVHEC regional coordinator who is the lead for the consortium’s Transfer Project, to participate in the presentation his team will make to the Community College League of California Annual Convention Nov. 16 in Indian Wells.

“I’m very excited about going to the Indian Wells conference,” Araceli said. “I didn’t expect to get asked to go to another conference but it’s a great opportunity to voice my experiences as a transfer student and how the Mapper tool helped me.”

But a key highlight of the summit came early in the day as Dr. Sonya Christian, chancellor of the California Community Colleges,  returned “home” to deliver the summit keynote.

In presenting on the CCC Vision 2023 strategy plan, she announced the new Central Valley Transfer Pathways Demonstration Project, evolving from CVHEC’s own Transfer Project, to help community college students streamline the transfer process to four-year. (See  story).

“As expected, Chancellor Christian’s presentation was inspiring and reflected her commitment to students in the state,” Duran said.

PHOTO GALLERIES for the CVHEC Board of Trustees and Summit Reception (Oct. 19) and
the Central Valley Higher Education Summit (Oct.20)
at the Fresno Convention Center:

What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog: Math Bridge Update

This month’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” guest blog is an update of the Math Bridge program presented by Owynn Lancaster, vice president for Academic Strategy with College Bridge, a California non-profit based in Los Angeles County dedicated to forging a path towards both college access and success for underrepresented students.  College Bridge is a partner with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium in the innovative program designed to improve math outcomes for struggling 11th and 12th graders and streamline Math pathways into college. Funded by a five-year $4 million grant through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program in January,  this ambitious endeavor was kicked off in May with a convening of more than 150 valley K-16 educators in Fresno to begin the onboarding process for this historic intersegmental collaboration between CVHEC member community colleges and high schools in their respective service areas. That initiative was followed in April with a $1.1 million state grant to CVHEC/College Bridge partnership through the Central San Joaquin Valley K-16 Partnership creating the Dual Enrollment (DE) Math Bridge that will provide equitable access to transfer-level math courses with embedded support for high school students who are disproportionately impacted, and/or are not traditionally college-bound.  This fall, the College Bridge and CVHEC Math Bridge teams have been visiting campuses to continue the onboard process in preparation for the program’s launch next fall.  

 

Expanding the Reach of the

Central Valley Math Bridge

 

BY OWYNN LANCASTER
College Bridge

 

After our successful College Orientation meetings in September, the College Bridge team has been darting up and down the San Joaquin Valley, meeting with interested feeder highs schools to onboard and launch them for the coming academic year’s CV Math Bridge Project.

Inspiring our efforts, two amazing CVHEC member colleges have “jumped to lead the pack” as Dr. Lynn Cevallos, our College Bridge president, often says. The first of those with an impressing showing come from Merced College where their team has helped us garner interest from seven possible high schools! Showing the region’s commitment to opening options for their students in math and the impressive connecting power of the college’s administration.

In equally exciting efforts, San Joaquin Delta College helped to secure two committed high school partners from Stockton Unified, with interest from others in their region. Those two Stockton schools, Amos Alonzo Stagg High School and Captain Charles M. Weber of Applied Science and Technology have been two of the smoothest schools to onboard so far! More importantly addition of these schools and the partnership with Delta College now helps us open the CV Math Bridge Project across the breadth of the Valley.

With schools as far north as Stagg High School and as far south as Taft Union High School the reach of this project is now slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina! This means several more flights and drives are still ahead for our College Bridge team to continue to onboard and launch these high school partners, but in the end, we are excited by this transformative work.

The CV Math Bridge’s first cohort of schools will be starting in the coming academic year, 2024-2025, and there’s still room for more in the second cohort starting in academic year, 2025-2026. We invite high schools interested in participating to reach out and contact me at Owynn.Lancaster@college-bridge.org.

 

Also see: https://bit.ly/CVHECblog1223-GiftOfMath 

CVHEC Math Task Force meets in-person Oct. 13 for AB 1705 follow-up  

Registration is still open for the CVHEC Task Force in-person convening, “AB 1705 Student Success Workshop,” at the Fresno Convention Center Valdez Hall Oct. 13.

Impactful legislation is focus of two math convenings
as community colleges prep for deadlines

With two convenings this month, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Math Task Force is tackling questions regarding California Assembly Bill 1705 requiring that California’s community colleges expand their efforts to enroll and support students in transfer-level math courses.

In partnership with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, CVHEC presented the first session via zoom Oct. 6 (see recording)  and the second will be an in-person convening Friday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fresno Convention Center – Valdez Hall (702 M Street).

Registration is still being accepted for the free all-day session which includes a lunch.

Titled, “AB1705 Student Success Workshop,” the  Fresno convening will explore how to best support students within the framework of AB1705 — a follow up to AB 705, previous legislation that fundamentally reshaped placement and remediation at the community colleges.

Dana Center representatives will be present to facilitate the development of materials and strategies that promote student success in the quantitative reasoning, statistics and BSTEM pathways.

“Additionally, we will explore the skills and andragogy (pedagogy) needed for the modern calculus course,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

The 18-member CVHEC Math Task Force consists of math educators and administrators representing CVHEC’s 15 community college member institutions (total 28 CVHEC members with CSU, UC and private colleges in the nine-county region).

Central Valley Math faculty, chairs and deans are invited and encouraged to attend the Oct. 13 convening, said Dr. Durán.  (See registration information below).

“Throughout California, there is varied understanding of the impacts of this assembly bill on college structures and on math educators,” said Dr. Durán.  “These convenings provide the opportunity for our region’s community college math educators and administrators to strategize on paths to effective implementation.”

He said this is especially critical now given the deadlines next July that were discussed in the first session last week calling for colleges to validate the effectiveness of the transfer level prerequisites to gateway STEM calculus by July 1, 2024.

That was one of the areas covered by Dr. Erik Cooper, CCC assistant vice chancellor for Data, Visualization and Research,  at the first session Oct. 6 in an hour-and-half virtual meeting entitled “AB 1705 in the Central Valley.”

Cooper addressed areas of confusion regarding the bill and its implementation with 44 math educators and administrators representing most of CVHEC’s 15 community college members.

Participants were asked to review the AB1705 FAQ prior to the virtual session and submit additional questions which Dr. Cooper addressed during the Oct. 6 meeting.

Passed in 2022 for implementation July 1, 2024, AB 1705 expands the provisions established in AB 705 (2017) by explicitly requiring community colleges not only to place students directly into transfer-level English and math courses but also to ensure that students actually enroll in those courses.

The recent legislation also establishes that for students who need or desire extra academic support, community colleges shall provide access to such support. The new law clarifies that a community college can require students to enroll in additional concurrent support if it is determined that the support will increase the student’s likelihood of passing transfer-level English or math.

Cooper’s presentation included a briefing on remedial education reform; multiple measures and prerequisites; throughput (successful completion of the gateway course in the discipline ); resources for implementation of the $65 million allocation and its impact on  college plans; the AB 1705  Implementation Guide and AB 1705 FAQs; transferability;  using data and using data locally; prerequisite validation; course success and its potential impact on prerequisite validation; meeting deadlines and matching majors; modalities; and limitations.

For deadlines, he explained that the Implementation Guide spells out that non-STEM programs were to validate transfer-level prerequisites to gateway English and math/quantitative reasoning courses by July 1, 2023 and make changes if necessary by July 1, 2024.

“STEM programs are limited to two transfer-level prerequisites prior to gateway STEM calculus after July 1, 2024,” Cooper emphasized. “The college must validate the effectiveness of the transfer level prerequisites to gateway STEM calculus as described by July 1, 2024 and make changes if necessary by July 1, 2025.”

Dr. John Spevak, Merced College vice president-emeritus who now coordinates CVHEC’s math and English task forces, noted that decisions need to be made by this fall and that many colleges have deadlines in early 2024 if not sooner for fall 2024 catalog course listings.

“The Math Task Force is using these fall sessions to get ahead of such deadlines,” Spevak said and noting that a possible third session may be discussed at Friday’s meeting.

For more information: Angel Ramirez, CVHEC finance operations manager, angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu. (For media inquiries, contact Tom Uribes at cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu).

 

Registration: CVHEC in-person Student Success Workshop registration (Oct. 13)

See agenda.

(Those unable to attend the Oct. 6 virtual meeting are asked to view the recording of that session prior to the Oct. 13 meeting. The recording link will be available Oct. 7 at the CVHEC website).

 

See:

• Original Math Task Force fall convenings news release  online

• CVHEC Math Task Force: legislation review, Math Bridge and current best practices

After a review of AB 1705 via Zoom Oct. 6, the CVHEC Math Task Force will convene in person Oct. 13 in Fresno with other valley math educators and administrators to map out strategies for student success in the law’s new environment. Registration is still available,

CVHEC Summit 2023 panelists: summit of college leaders takes on valley’s higher ed issues


 

(UPDATED OCTOBER 19, 2023) – Several area chancellors and presidents lead the charge Oct. 20 when the heads of 28 valley colleges and universities and other educators and policy makers convene for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023 in Fresno.

Panel discussions include the historic CVHEC Transfer Project and its Program Mapper software that is widely acclaimed statewide and nationally and other topics such as a student panel sharing their higher education experiences and a federal education legislative update by U.S. Congressman Jim Costa.

CVHEC released its line-up of panelists for the summit which features a keynote address at 9:15 a.m. by another former valley higher education leader and former consortium board member, Dr. Sonya Christian, who became chancellor of the California Community Colleges July 1.

With the theme “Student Success through Equity and Inclusion — Thriving in the Central Valley,” the summit will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at the Fresno Convention Center’s Ernest E. Valdez Exhibit Hall (702 M Street). See summit agenda).

About 200 higher education officials and educators, legislators and partner representatives are expected to attend the summit sponsored by the College Futures Foundation.  The quarterly meeting of the CVHEC Board of Directors – consisting of the chancellors, presidents and campus directors of the consortium’s 28 member colleges and universities in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern – will precede the summit the day before.

CVHEC’s Welcoming & Networking Reception also will be the day before the summit, Oct. 19 following the board meeting to provide summit participants an opportunity to connect with other attendees and the CVHEC Board of Directors in an informal relaxed setting.

Reception music will be provided by Fresno vocalist Merlinda Espinosa, an alumna of CVHEC-members Fresno City College and Fresno State where she studied early childhood education. Merlinda is a preschool teacher at St. Joachim School in Madera and performs regularly at events throughout the Valley.

The summit will feature conversations on Dual Enrollment, Central Valley Transfer Project, Math Pathways and Open Educational Resources starting with  Dr. Kristin Clark, chancellor of West Hills Community College District and the chair of the CVHEC Board of Directors, who will open the event with a welcome at 9 a.m.

For the keynote remarks, Chancellor Christian will be introduced by Tom Burke, interim chancellor of Kern Community College District who is temporarily filling the position vacated by her CCC appointment.

Following the keynote, Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, president of Fresno State, will introduce the first topic of the day, “The Central Valley Landscape: Pathways to and through College in the San Joaquin Valley.”  Olga Rodriguez, director and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, will share some data and findings about the Central Valley’s educational landscape.

Dr. André Stephens, president of Fresno Pacific University, will introduce the first panel, “Central Valley Transfer Model: The Breakthrough.”

Panelists will be facilitator Stan Carrizosa, CVHEC regional coordinator and president-emeritus of College of the Sequoias in Visalia; Dr. James Zimmerman, special assistant to the executive vice chancellor and provost for Transfer Initiatives at University of California, Merced; and KCCD Interim Chancellor Burke.

Dr. Lisa Aguilera-Lawrenson, superintendent/president of San Joaquin Delta College, will introduce the second panel, “Different Approaches to Equitable Dual Enrollment.”

For that panel, Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director and president-emeritus of Merced College, serves as facilitator for panelists Lynn Cevallos, founder and president of College Bridge; Dr. Vivie Sinou, dean of Regional Education and Distance Learning at San Joaquin Delta College; Dr. Richard Aguilar III, director of Dual Enrollment/Early College at West Hills College Coalinga; and Dario Diaz, principal of McFarland High School.

Following lunch, Chancellor Clark returns to introduce Rep. Jim Costa, 16th Congressional District Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives for his annual “Federal Legislative Update” remarks.

In the panel, “Real Colleges Serving Real Needs,” Madera Community College President Ángel Reyna will introduce fellow community college chief executive, James Preston, president of West Hills College Lemoore, as facilitator. Panelists are fellow CVHEC-board member Fresno City College President Robert Pimentel and Jeff Garner, executive director of the Kings Community Action Organization.

The final panel of the day, “What Does this Mean for Students?,” features student voices introduced by Dr. Claudia Habib, president of Porterville College and facilitated by Dr. Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District. The student panelists will be:

  • Alondra Veloz, an  Open Educational Resources student at Fresno Pacific University discussing her experiences with OER;
  • Araceli Tilley, discussing her transfer experience from Merced College to University of California, Merced;
  • Hailee Guerra, an OER Student at West Hills College Lemoore  transferring to Fresno State;
  • Jesús López Nuñez, whose dual enrollment experiences led to an associate of arts degree from West Hills College Coalinga while attending Avenal High School and is now enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The closing session at 2:50 p.m., “Where We Go from Here” will be brief remarks delivered by Durán.

Registration for the free event is now closed. Summit updates are available at https://cvhec.org/event/2023-cvhec-summit/ or email Ángel Ramírez, finance and operations manager, at centralvalleyhec@gmail.com.

 

 

CVHEC media inquiries: Tom Uribes at 559.348.3278 (cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu)

 

ABOUT CVHEC — The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a California non-profit made up of 28-institutions of higher education in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern that is the size of some states. Through CVHEC, higher education professionals and academicians in the Central Valley address difficult and complex initiatives, scaling them up across the region for mutual effectiveness to serve our students and communities. CVHEC provides its members a unified voice at local, state and nation levels to address issues of higher education affecting the region.

CVHEC Summit 2023 – Student Panel


CVHEC reception music Oct. 19 will be provided by vocalist Merlinda Espinosa, an alumna of two CVHEC member colleges.

MEMBER NEWS: Reedley and Merced Colleges host Math Bridge orientation for feeder high schools  

Reedley College President Jerry Buckley addresses math officials from feeder high schools Sept. 21. Earlier in the day, his counterpart at Merced College, President Chris Vitelli, addressed his north valley districts. Both are CVHEC board members.

Central Valley Higher Education Consortium members Merced and Reedley community colleges hosted high school math educators and administrators from their respective service area schools Sept. 21 for an orientation and onboarding about the Central Valley Math Bridge Program that is now in full swing.

In a morning, session, Merced College hosted about 30 math officials from its service area feeder school districts who were welcomed by President Chris Vitelli. At the afternoon session in Reedley 30 were welcomed by President Jerry Buckley.

They met with the CVHEC and College Bridge teams led by Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, and Dr. Lynn Cevallos, president and cofounder, of College Bridge to discuss how the program could benefit their students and follow up steps.

“We wanted to bring all the feeder high school leaders for Merced College and Reedley together to create a Math Bridge cohort of high schools involved in the project and create a regional community of practice for networking and collaboration,” Cevallos said.

She said interactions with participating high schools has been positive and supportive, “focusing on opening up options for their students and helping them to strengthen their connection between their college and feeder middle schools.”

Among several program features, the educators learned that this funding opportunity earmarked for the Central Valley specifically, will bring $160,000 in services per high school at no cost to districts.

Funded by a five-year $4 million grant through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program, the ambitious endeavor was kicked off in May with a convening of more than 150 valley K-16 educators in Fresno to begin the onboarding process for this historic intersegmental collaboration designed to improve math outcomes for struggling 11th and 12th graders and streamline Math pathways into college for their students.

See: 

UPDATES

Merced College

Reedley College

CVHEC Blog: Master’s Upskill Program Success Story

 

This month’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” guest blog is presented by Mrs. Jade Martinez, an English teacher at Sanger West High School in Sunnyside (east Fresno) who earned a master’s degree from National University in December 2022  through CVHEC’s Master’s Upskilling Program. Jade earned her bachelor’s degree at Fresno State in 2020 and began her teaching career at SWHS that fall.  Here, she shares her experience fulfilling an academic dream of obtaining a Master’s that has led to teaching dual enrollment courses this fall, the primary objective of the Master’s Upskill Program.

 

Sanger teacher recounts road to a post-bac degree
and her first dual enrollment class  

 

BY JADE MARTÍNEZ
Dual Enrollment English Teacher
Sanger West High School

I went back to school when my son was two years old and my daughter was six months old, starting at Reedley College. I worked nearly full-time and was a full-time student as well, inspired to be a life-long learner ready for the demands of teaching.

I knew that I wished to complete my Master’s degree in English but soon realized that I would need an additional year or two of prerequisite courses before I could do it. The idea was placed on the backburner, as I needed to focus on becoming a teacher and providing for my family after nearly eight years of building debt.

When I was in my final student-teaching at Sanger West in 2020, my master teacher became our English Language Development curriculum support provider (CSP) so I interviewed for his vacated position. Because of his promotion, I continued working with my students for the whole year rather than one semester. Within a few months of becoming a teacher, I learned about CVHEC Master’s Upskilling Program being offered through Sanger Unified in partnership with National University that would qualify high school teachers to teach dual enrollment courses at their high school campus.

An additional plus was that there would be a specialization in rhetoric attached to this degree, which matched my undergraduate emphasis on composition and rhetoric. I was instantly interested because I already qualified without the additional prerequisites but I was also hesitant since I was still considered an intern with an emergency credential at the time.

After consulting with my mentor and professors, I was ready to take on the challenge.

I began the upskilling program while I worked on induction simultaneously, spending nearly every hour away from work completing assignments for each program. Many mornings I woke up early to complete work before my kids were awake. When I had free time at work, I read various texts for classes and completed mentor logs, professional development, and my individual learning plan. Once I was home, I could afford to take a short break for an hour and had to begin work once more. There were many times when my kids would ask me “Are you done with homework yet, mom?” and unfortunately, I would not be finished until long after they went to sleep for the evening.

Once again, the mom-guilt set in as I tried to see the positives that this program would bring, trying to avoid the voice in my head telling me that I am not a good mother because of all the years of sacrificing time together so that we could be financially stable enough to not struggle anymore. Many days I forced myself to stay strong and keep pushing, knowing that with each completed class I would be closer to the end of my education journey for a while.

I received the news that my thesis was approved right before my 30th birthday. I always told myself that I would graduate college by the time I turned 30 yet I went one step further and completed my master’s as well as having my dream job being a teacher. All of the sacrifices and long hours had finally paid off once that piece of paper was framed and hung on my classroom wall.

A world of opportunities opened in front of me, as I soon became the leader for my professional learning team (PLT) and most recently I was asked to begin the dual enrollment program for English 1A at Sanger West High School.

In August, I received confirmation for that assignment and now this fall I am teaching the dual enrollment course thus achieving the objective CVHEC set with its leadership in this area not only for both high school student advancement to degree or certificate attainment but also for high school teachers seeking professional development.

In just one month, I am enjoying the freedom that teaching dual enrollment provides. Even the challenges we face — that any program in its infancy may experience — are providing a valuable learning episode of its own. But the overall sense of accomplishment that comes from knowing we are forging a path that ultimately helps our students is the motivating inspiration.

And I know that my degree affords many other opportunities such as editing, freelance writing or even becoming a professor at the community college level. I have progressed two unit levels on the payscale and also receive a monthly stipend just for having my postbac degree.

At last, I can fully provide for my family without hardship or struggle!

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (October 2023)

CVHEC Summit panelists bring dynamic convos to the table

Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,

We are delighted to welcome you to the October edition of our CVHEC e-newsletter as we enjoy fall in the valley, which is always a special time of the year.

With our 2023 CVHEC Annual Summit, “Student Success through Equity and Inclusion — Thriving in the Central Valley” just around the corner (Friday, October 20), we present our lineup of distinguished panelists and the official agenda.  We are especially excited to welcome back to the Central Valley our own Dr. Sonya Christian, newly appointed Chancellor of the California Community Colleges as well as the many CVHEC board members who will introduce and serve on the four dynamic panels we are presenting this year.  Dr.  Christian, the former chancellor of the Kern Community College District and former CVHEC board member, will serve as our special guest and deliver the keynote address.

If you have not registered for our no-cost summit yet, please take the time to do so. Join us as we showcase the great work being done by our colleges and universities in our nine-county region that continues to capture state and national attention.

You will hear about and discuss our innovative Math Bridge Project intervention for targeted high school students and our Central Valley Transfer Project, which is providing pathways to our partner universities from our local community colleges (for a preview, see colleague Stan Carrisoza’s Transfer Project update in this issue). The summit also will feature a panel of Central Valley students who have benefited directly from these initiatives.

As always, we also direct you to our “What in the CV HEC is Happening?” Blog that features guest contributors each month.  This month we are pleased to share the contribution from Sanger West High School (SWHS) English teacher Jade Martínez.

Mrs. Martinez is amongst the first of our Fresno/Madera K-16 Collaborative Master’s Upskilling grads from National University. This fall, she has taken her new degree into the classroom at SWHS and is delivering her first college English dual enrollment class to her students.  This, folks, is what it is all about.  Great job Jade!!

We hope to see you on Oct. 20, at the Fresno Convention Center for our CVHEC Summit.  Feel free to bring your colleagues and partners (registration).

Contact Us

  • centralvalleyhec@gmail.com

  • 559.292.0576

Join Our Newsletter