CVHEC MEMBER NEWS: CHSU Sim Center

A valley first: CHSU Simulation Center granted provisional accreditation

California Health Sciences University (CHSU) announced its state-of-the-art Simulation Center is the first in the Central Valley to receive provisional accreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, the largest healthcare simulation accrediting body in the world with over 100 accredited programs in 10 countries.

At CHSU’s Simulation Center, located at their College of Osteopathic Medicine, students learn with high-fidelity manikins, patient trainers and standardized patients in specialized labs, including in-patient hospital environments and out-patient clinic or doctor’s offices.

The center will be eligible to apply for full accreditation in 2024.

See:  CHSU Sim Center press release 

The Business Journal story about the CHSU Sim Center

CVHEC Member News: Historic COS Gift

$5 Million Donated to College of the Sequoias

College of Sequoias Press release — Jan. 20, 2022

The College of the Sequoias Foundation has announced $5.4 million in gifts received from a family trust. This marks the largest gift in the college’s 95-year history. The family trust was formed by a local couple that have since deceased and wished to remain anonymous in this announcement.

While they were still with us, the couple were funding $50,000 in COS scholarships annually to support students in the Nursing Program, the Physical Therapy Assistant Program, and other medical majors. They wished to help build skilled medical professionals locally as they were beginning to interact with so many themselves. They saw COS as a great partner in doing so. The trust’s executor saw sustaining these scholarships forever through a $1.25 million endowment aligned perfectly with the donors’ values.

Beyond these scholarships, the COS Foundation Director, Tim Foster and the trust executor spent some time aligning other needs of the college with what they knew to be the donors’ values. Through these discussions, the executor determined three more areas of support:

A $550,000 capital gift to expand and enhance the COS Nursing and Allied Health simulation lab. Providing quality, hands-on experience and debriefing of simulations is critical to the education of future medical professionals. Simulation became more critical during the pandemic when nursing students could no longer obtain the hands-on experience and clinical hours required as medical facilities restricted access to non-essential workers. This gift will support the equipment purchases and building modifications needed to complete a three-phase sim lab upgrade master plan.

A $2 million investment in the COS Local Heroes Fund. The Local Heroes Fund collects and directs resources for scholarships and other investments in the recruitment, education, certification and hiring of “Local Heroes”, those in the education, medical, law enforcement and firefighting professions. This gift initiated a Local Heroes Endowment within the Local Heroes Fund to perpetually support scholarships and other investments in students seeking to become teachers locally. One such scholarship supports COS students that transfer to the Fresno State South Valley Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) offered on their Visalia Campus. In this program, participants already have an associate degree. Through ITEP, students earn their bachelor’s degree and teaching credential simultaneously within two years.  Both donors were local teachers for forty years. The executor knew these lifelong educators would have loved to support such a cause.

And finally, a $1.5 million investment in creating a Technology Endowment that will perpetually fund opportunities to put cutting-edge technology in the hands of students. The husband of this donor couple was very interested in science and technology. In honor of his desire to see students engage with technology, this funds COS programs that do just that. One such program is the COS Friday Night Lab, a weekly makerspace that engages students in various projects currently focused on virtual reality, mobile application development, 3D modeling, and many other design projects and competitions. The executor believed he would have really enjoyed participating in Friday Night Lab. Additional projects will be determined annually through the COS Foundation’s existing internal mini-grant program.

Remaining resources were short-term investments in some of these new areas as the endowments begin to generate investment income for sustained use.

“This couple are incredibly philanthropic. Their frugal lifestyle and generosity resulted in three endowments and several other transformative gifts that will bring positive changes in COS student lives forever. We are honored to be entrusted with stewarding such wealth from one family. Our students have much more need for such gifts, but these gifts are real game-changers for the COS Foundation and the college.”, said Tim Foster, the COS Foundation Director.

For more information about the College of the Sequoias and the COS Foundation online go to: COS.edu or call the COS Foundation at 559-730-3861.

YCCD Names Dr. Tran President of Columbia College

Congratulations to Dr. Lena H. Tran, a San Jose City College vice president, on her appointment as the next president of Columbia College effective March 7 when she also becomes a member of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Board of Directors.

The Yosemite Community College District Board of Trustees unanimously approved Dr. Tran’s appointment at its Feb. 9 meeting. She succeeds Dr. G.H. Javaheripour, who has served as interim president since January 2021 when Dr. Santanu Bandyopadhyay, Columbia’s former president, was named to the same role at Modesto Junior College in June.

“Dr. Tran has a strong track record of developing strategic partnerships with K-12 schools, universities, and business and industry,” said YCCD Chancellor Henry Yong, citing Tran’s experience working with companies such as Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google, Honda, IDT, Facebook and Samsung.

Dr. Tran earned a Doctorate in Education in Organizational and Leadership Development at the University of San Francisco; a Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship and Marketing at Seton Hall University; and a bachelor of science in International Business and Marketing at Montclair State University.

“I am honored and humbled to accept this wonderful appointment, and I’m excited to begin working together with Columbia College and the Sonora community,” said Tran who currently is SJCC vice president of Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Innovations.

“During my service in higher education, I’ve realized that community colleges are accomplishing something extraordinary in America through their positive impact on the lives of the people we serve,” she added. “The opportunity to work with multicultural groups of college students over the last decade has given me a profound appreciation and respect for the benefits that community colleges are bringing to our society.”

Columbia serves about 4,000 students, mostly from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. In addition to its academic programs, it offers many highly regarded vocational programs, including culinary arts and hospitality as well as forestry and natural resource management.

See the YCCD press release.  

MEMBER NEWS: National University Joins Forces with FUSD For Equity-Focused K-12 School Principals

As part of an $8.2 million grant, Fresno Unified School District and National University’s
Sanford College of Education join an effort to develop equity-driven school leaders

National University announced recently that its Sanford College of Education has been selected by Fresno Unified School District and the Wallace Foundation to participate in a $102 million nationwide initiative focused on building a pipeline of school leaders dedicated to supporting equity in K-12 classrooms.

A nonprofit university with a 50-year history of serving working adults and home to one of the largest schools of education in the United States, National University operates a campus in Fresno and is a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member institution.

With funding from Wallace Foundation, the five-year Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative will support eight large and socio-economically diverse school districts across the country, including California’s Fresno Unified School District.

“At a time when our nation is grappling with profound questions of social injustice, weaving the principles of equity into school leadership is one of the most powerful levers we have to address issues of educational access and outcomes,” said Dr. Donna Elder, associate dean of National University’s Sanford College of Education in the Oct. 20 announcement. “This work is about helping aspiring school leaders build the equity mindset to understand systemic barriers facing students and communities—and design the teams and supports needed to ensure every learner’s needs are met.”

As part of an $8.2 million grant awarded to the district, faculty and leaders from National University will team with Fresno Unified School District to evaluate and evolve current practices as part of a multi-year initiative to develop the next generation of effective, equity-centered school leaders. Beginning with the current fall semester, National University will work with Fresno Unified School District to define the characteristics of an equity-centered leader and provide mentoring and training to current and aspiring school administrators.

With a team of more than 60 full-time faculty and 935 adjunct faculty, serving more than 11,000 active students, the Sanford College of Education brings to the project a unique blend of faculty expertise—as well as deep experience in developing district partnerships and supporting in-service professional development for educators.

The new school leader pipeline initiative comes at a time when schools across the country are working to address a shortage of experienced principals and school leaders. Consistent research on K-12 school leadership has found effective principals have a strong, positive impact on schools and student outcomes. A comprehensive literature review from the Wallace Foundation, covering 20 years of research on principals and school leadership, found that an effective principal has a positive impact on student achievement comparable to that of an effective teacher but across an entire school.

“Preparing school leaders to engage with and understand the unique history, demographics and aspirations of the people and communities they serve is essential for meeting the needs of the whole student,” said Dr. Robert Lee, dean of the Sanford College of Education at National University, a nonprofit university with a 50-year history of serving working adults and home to one of the largest schools of education in the United States. “This is about building a community of practice of current and aspiring school leaders committed to integrating the principles of equity into the day-to-day work of leading a school.”

The initiative also builds on a rich history of engagement between National University and Fresno Unified School District. For the past ten years, aspiring educator candidates studying at National University have participated in pre-service practicum and rotations in Fresno Unified schools, working under the tutelage of experienced mentor teachers to prepare for the experience of classroom instruction.

The Sanford College of Education joins a select group of partners — which includes community-based organizations, teacher preparation programs and the California Department of Education — selected by Fresno Unified to participate. Fresno Unified is one of eight major school districts across the country—including Baltimore; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, DC; Jefferson County, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina—awarded funding through the grant to participate in the initiative.

See the full National press release.

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

MEMBER NEWS: CHSU Dean Graneto Receives Hispanic Health Leadership Award 

Dr. John Graneto

Dr. John Graneto, dean of the California Health Sciences University – College of Osteopathic Medicine in Clovis, was one of four honorees presented the Hispanic Health Leadership Award at the 2021 Hispanic Health Professional Student Scholarship Gala recently in Los Angeles.

The Hispanic Health Leadership Award is presented to outstanding individuals who have served in significant leadership roles and have helped improve the health of Hispanics and other underserved populations.

“It is an honor to receive this award that recognizes the historic endeavor of establishing an osteopathic medical school and health sciences university in the Central Valley,” Dr. Graneto said.

“Here in the richest state, our region has some of the poorest outcomes, especially for our Hispanic/Latinx community. We are making strides towards reversing that trend and expanding access to health care and health equality for everyone in our community, especially the rural and underserved populations.”

Dr. Graneto was recognized for his leadership and role in establishing the Valley’s new medical school and helping alleviate talented local students leaving the area to pursue medical education. The medical school has held numerous preparatory programs to help guide community college students and other Pre-Med  students to apply to medical school.

He and his academic leadership team have embedded cultural competencies and nutrition modules designed to help the diverse Central Valley population in the first two years of the curriculum. A medical Spanish class is also required for all graduates.

See the CHSU press release.

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

MEMBER NEWS: Merced College Hospitality Career Academy Graduates

Merced College Honors Inaugural Hospitality Career Academy Graduates

Merced College’s Hospitality Career Academy (HCA), a new and innovative partnership between the college and JdV by Hyatt, held its inaugural graduation ceremony Dec. 6.

The ceremony honored the first cohort of 15 students from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds who completed the 12-week academy, which is designed to equip and prepare local residents for careers in the hospitality industry.

“This program is a shining example of what Merced College does best,” President Chris Vitelli said. “We provide our students with outstanding opportunities to learn and grow into new careers, and we partner in thoughtful ways with businesses and organizations in our community to help meet their needs in the process. This is a huge win-win for our region, and we’re so proud to be a part of it.

Merced College and JdV plan to offer another Hospitality Career Academy in Spring 2022, with the addition of a new mixology class to prepare students for in-demand jobs in bartending. A kickoff event is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 31.

See the  MC press release.

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

The first cohort of Merced College’s Hospitality Career Academy received Certificates of Participation Dec. 6 and earned three units of college credit.

CVHEC BLOG: ‘WHAT THE CV-HEC IS HAPPENING’ (Dec. 2021)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The opening panel discussion at the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project convening Nov. 4 in Merced included Shirley Asher, Jennifer Johnson, Karissa Morehouse, Sonya Christian, Gregg Camfield and Chenoa Woods.

 

The beat – serving student success – goes on!

An inside look at the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative and Mapper

By Tom Burke
CVHEC Transfer Project Coordinator

(Photo Gallery below)

In June, when I stepped down as chancellor of the Kern Community College District, many thought I would embark on the typical “retirement” life of fishing, hunting, traveling and just resting after a 40-year career.

While I did enjoy some of that, I also soon found myself right back in the saddle in a “new” role with KCCD as Deputy Chancellor and as a coordinator with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. So for those of you wondering: no I’m not officially “retired!”

Rather I am happy to report that the past few months have been quite a rewarding whirlwind as I plunged headlong into a new “assignment” as coordinator of CVHEC’s Transfer Project with the intent to enhance what has been my life’s work: serving students in general and in this case specifically, helping build effective pathways to our community colleges for a smoother, efficient transfer experience.

To that end, these past 45 days alone have seen the fruition of two great milestones.

First was the public celebration of the completion of Phase I of a joint program, the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative, at a convening Nov. 4 on the UCM campus with community college partners Bakersfield and Merced Colleges.  Secondly, at that historic event, we also launched Phase II of this project that includes the participation of four more CVHEC member institutions: Porterville College, Reedley College, Clovis College and West Hills College-Lemoore.

 

Revolutionizing Positive Outcomes

The Transfer Pathways Initiative is the result of a $500,000 grant from the California Educational Learning Lab to Bakersfield College, Merced College and UC Merced for the development of 2+2 transfer maps that streamline and guide the transfer of community college students to the University of California system.

Last month’s convening, “Charting Better Maps to Degrees – Developing Transfer Pathways to UC Merced,” demonstrated how we can revolutionize positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students while emphasizing UC Merced’s commitment to significantly expanding transfer pathways for community college students within the San Joaquin Valley to UC Merced.

With about 172 participants representing all three segments of higher education, the hybrid convening itself was a hallmark of sorts being the first major gathering convened by CVHEC and its partners since the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020. The energy from seeing and hearing our colleagues in the flesh was very evident throughout the six-hour event that was also presented virtually via Zoom (130 virtual and 42 in person).

CVHEC member community colleges were well represented at the convening where we discussed how in Phase 1, our partner teams completed 14 Transfer Pathways from Merced College and Bakersfield College to UC Merced as well as Transfer Pathway work with California State University, Bakersfield.

The convening also further introduced interested colleges to the Pathway Mapper software program, particularly its ability to enhance the student transfer experience as well as early student success results from institutions utilizing the Pathway Mapper. Participants also received information on future Program Mapper software enhancements that are scheduled.

The topics of four breakout sessions portrayed the breadth and depth of our mission:

  • The Tech Behind Program Pathways Mapper
  • Student Impact of Program Pathways Mapper – On-path Percentage, Student Engagement
  • Getting Started with Program Pathways Mapper: Cleaning and Loading Your Curriculum
  • The Technology of Collaboration – How to set up effective intersegmental discipline faculty teams and develop 2+2 transfer Documentation of process and guidelines.

 

Implementation teams of faculty, staff working hand-in-hand

The second great milestone is the launch of Phase II which actually got its start in the summer when a convening of representatives from all 15 CVHEC community colleges included an update presentation on the aforementioned Phase I completion of the 14 Transfer Pathways from Merced and Bakersfield Colleges to UC Merced.

At that June 16 convening, significant interest was expressed for participation in Phase II project implementation so in the early fall CVHEC reached out to interested member community colleges with a call to form and submit their implementation teams.

The four Phase II community colleges mentioned above — Porterville, Reedley, Clovis and West Hills-Lemoore — established teams and scheduled convenings to commence the development of curriculum transfer pathways to UC Merced. They will now be individually convening in the next four months with the first held Dec. 2-3 at Porterville College.

That recent convening was my first as a coordinator and I was impressed with the commitment and excitement by the Porterville College, faculty, staff and administrators to develop nine transfer pathways directly to UC Merced including a new pathway in Spanish.

Perhaps the pinnacle of that enthusiasm was to observe, when a potential curriculum issue arose, how UC Merced staff collaborated and interfaced with community college faculty and staff for solutions on the spot.  They collectively brainstormed and developed options for resolving the issue.

In particular, the level of commitment by host Porterville College to fulfill this mission for their students was further demonstrated by the active involvement and attendance in the two-day convening by the Vice President of Instruction Thad Russell, Vice President of Student Services Primavera Arvizu and President of the Academic Senate Robert Simpkins.  In addition, Porterville College President Dr. Claudia Habib made an appearance at the convening impressing upon faculty and staff the importance of their contributions to this project for their students’ success and thanked them for their work on the pathways.

Equally, I was impressed with the Transfer Project planning team, especially CVHEC colleague Stan Carrizosa, a former College of Sequoias superintendent/president, and James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education at UC Merced.

We hope this level of partnership by all parties will be emulated by all our members, which I am convinced will only lead to a great reward: positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students.

And that will clearly make for happier fishing, hunting and traveling days along the way (when I can squeeze them in)!

Happy Holidays to all!

See UC Merced press release: https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2021/uc-merced-offer-simpler-transfer-pathway-central-valley-community-college-students

See Merced Sun Star story: UC Merced announces partnership to encourage Valley community college student transfers

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director; Dr. Sonya Christian, Kern Community College District chancellor; Lark Park, director of the California Education Learning Lab; and Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz, UC Merced chancellor.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_images_carousel images=”6150,6118,6120,6119,6184,6171,6164,6162,6161,6147,6148,6149,6151,6144,6142,6141,6096,6140,6107,6170,6139,6138,6136,6135,6121,6122,6126,6127,6130,6131,6132,6133,6110,6109,6108,6143,6059″ img_size=”large” autoplay=”yes” title=”Gallery: CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative — UC Merced campus Nov. 4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Mini-Grant Success Story: CHSU Pre-Med Pathway Bootcamp

Pre-Med Bootcamp Helps Local Students
with CHSU-COM Med School Applications 

NOTE: For the past three years, CVHEC Mini-Grants have been awarded to member institutions in support of CVHEC’s mission to increase degree attainment rates. We are highlighting how our member institutions’ innovative uses for the grants are positively impacting students. 

A Pre-Med Pathway Bootcamp helped 25 local students prepare to apply to California Health Sciences University College of Osteopathic Medicine (CHSU-COM) thanks to funding from Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s Mini-Grant project.

CVHEC’s $6,000 mini-grant offset course fees for students so they only had to pay $25 to reserve their seats. The grant also provided all MCAT prep supplies and instruction, T-shirts, certificates of completion and a catered lunch for the attendees.

“Our local pre-med students greatly benefited from only having to pay $25 for this in-depth Pre-Med Pathway Bootcamp,” said Dr. Kevin Steed, assistant professor of Biomedical Education who served as program director with Samuel Kadavakollu, PhD, chair of the Biomedical Education Department and associate professor at CHSU-COM.

“We appreciate CHSU’s and CVHEC’s commitment to keeping this program affordable for local students, many of whom would not have been able to participate if they had to pay thousands for a program of this caliber,” Dr. Steed said.

CHSU’s four-weekend bootcamp held in October was divided into three main categories with sessions that provided the aspiring pre-medical students an opportunity to prepare for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), learn about the medical school application process and experience the medical school environment.

In addition to classroom learning, pre-med students experienced HoloAnatomy using the Microsoft HoloLens; participated in a culinary workshop in the CHSU-COM Teaching Kitchen where they practiced cooking healthy recipes; and stepped into the shoes of a current medical student by participating in medical simulation scenarios in the CHSU Simulation Center with manikins and real Standardized Patients.

Graduates of the bootcamp were presented with certificates by John Graneto, DO, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Lisa Chun, DO, associate dean of Osteopathic Clinical Education and Simulation.

CHSU is now planning for its next Pre-Med Pathway Bootcamp in spring 2022.

The CVHEC Mini-Grants project, currently funded by the College Futures Foundation, provides awards up to $10,000 each which faculty from consortium member institutions have creatively used for individual projects that help achieve CVHEC’s strategy of increasing degree attainment rates.

Previous mini-grants have supported assistance and professional learning associated with Guided Pathways, Math Pathways, implementation of Corequisite English and math, course development and advancement of Pathways for Associate Degrees for Transfer.

The 2021 funding cycle also sought to additionally incentivize basic needs and equity, race and social justice work. Details about applications for the 2022 funding cycle will be announced in January.

For more information about CVHEC Mini-Grants, contact Angel Ramirez at angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu.

See CHSU press release.

Students prepared to apply to California Health Sciences University College of Osteopathic Medicine (CHSU-COM) at the Pre-Med Pathway Bootcamp with funding from the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Mini-Grant project.

Boot camp students participated in a culinary workshop in the CHSU-COM Teaching Kitchen where they practiced cooking healthy recipes.

Historic CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine White Coat Ceremonies

California Health Science University recorded institutional history when the CVHEC-member campus held White Coat Ceremonies for its 199 medical students in the College of Osteopathic Medicine  Classes of 2024 and 2025 Oct. 2.

Like many campuses, the CHSU inaugural class of 2024 ceremony last year was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our first and second-year medical students participated in a time-honored tradition of receiving their short white coat signifying the beginning of their medical education journey,” reported CHSU spokesperson Richelle Kleiser. “Students invited fully COVID-vaccinated family and friends to attend in-person on a limited basis; all other guests could view the ceremonies via online live stream.”

See full story and videos.

Brandman is formally UMass Global

The conversion of Brandman University to UMass Global is now complete.

In May, Brandman which has two campuses that are members of the CVHEC in Modesto and Visalia, formed a strategic partnership with the University of Massachusetts. In September, Broadman formally became University of Massachusetts Global, a non-profit affiliate of the University of Massachusetts system.

“As UMass Global, we remain the same university our students have known and loved for over fifty years here in the Central Valley,” said Richard Carnes, director of the Modesto campus who serves on the CVHEC board of directors with Sonia Gutierrez-Mendoza, director of the Visalia campus.

“Our focus on high-quality programs for active-duty military, veterans, working adults, and other nontraditional students with busy schedules will remain steadfast. I believe the new affiliation with the University of Massachusetts will strengthen our ability to see our students obtain their educational dreams.”

See UMass announcement
Inside Higher Education story

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

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