MEMBER NEWS: North Valley, East Sierra CVHEC members partner for K-16 Collaboratives

State Planning Grants Could Lead to Expansion of CVHEC’s Dual Enrollment Initiatives

Two more Central Valley regions – North San Joaquin and Eastern Sierra – have each been awarded $250,000 state planning grants for the establishment of Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Programs as part of the statewide drive to strengthen the K-16 education-to-career pipeline. Both collaborative efforts are headed by Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member institutions.

The Department of General Services announced Nov. 9 that the state is awarding the planning grants to the two Central Valley regions as well as the Bay Area and the Central Coast for a total of $1 million. The one-year planning grants will help establish the collaboratives in those areas which will eventually seek additional funding to provide more streamlined, equitable pathways that can help local students transition from high school to college or career training and into the workforce.

In the Northern San Joaquin Region, the University of California, Merced is the lead agency for the newly formed North Valley tri-county Workforce and Education (WE Will!) Regional Collaborative that includes four other fellow CVHEC-members: Merced College, Modesto Junior College, San Joaquin Delta College and California State University, Stanislaus.

They are working in collaboration with partners from Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties through the WE Will! Collaborative.

For the Eastern Sierra Region, CVHEC-member Columbia College is heading up the K-16 collaborative planning along with several school districts, colleges and employer groups.

These partners will use the planning year to establish their collaborative and to apply together for up to $18 million in state funds available to the region for a three-year “cradle-to-career” pathway project.

These allocations amount to a total of four such collaboratives involving CVHEC members that will help bolster dual enrollment initiatives like the consortium’s successful Master’s Upskilling Program that has already been implemented in the mid valley region through the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative and in the south valley area through the Kern K-16 Collaborative.

The program recruits and helps fund tuition for high school math and English teachers to earn a Master’s so they can teach dual enrollment courses in those subjects on the high school campus.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CHVEC executive director, said the south and mid valley efforts have laid a solid foundation for the program to succeed when scaled and replicated in the North Valley and Eastern Sierra regions to better serve all Central Valley students.

“As we continue to equitably expand dual enrollment efforts in the Valley, we know one of the barriers for high school teachers to teach these classes is the lack of a master’s degree,” said Duran, president-emeritus of Merced College who was named to lead CVHEC in 2016. “With the new formation of both the WE Will! Regional Collaborative and the Eastern Sierra collaborative with this latest state funding, we will be able to expand our efforts throughout the Valley to increase dual enrollment opportunities for our students.”

In its announcement Nov. 7, UC Merced said the WE Will! Regional Collaborative – which was formed “to address streamlining and accelerating students preparing to enter the priority industry fields that would better serve our region, students and families” — will use the year to assess, design and create a work plan for the phase two application in the fall of 2023, which will be over $18 million.

“UC Merced is committed to helping break workforce barriers,” said Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz who serves on the CVHEC Board of Directors that is made up of the presidents and chancellors of its 30 consortium members from San Joaquin to Kern counties.

“The WE Will! Collaborative between our campus and surrounding counties will be an essential pipeline to build a more equitable future for all students and provide the resources they need to reach their career goals,” the UCM chancellor said.

Dr. Ellen Junn, Stanislaus State president and CVHEC board member, said, “As the California State University serving this region, Stan State is committed to preparing our graduates to address and meet the needs of our regional workforce. We are dedicated to working collaboratively to aggressively pursue equity and diversity in degree and credential attainment as we work to ensure the best possible preparation for student success in the workforce.”

WE Will! provides collaboration between all education partners and the workforce to design ways for students to experience connected learning experiences, acceleration opportunities and successful transition into locally available careers.

“We know employers don’t stop at the county border when they are expanding,” said San Joaquin Delta President Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson, also a CVHEC board member. “We are looking forward to collaborating with our workforce partners and educational partners to get beyond the ‘border’ and plan for the region. Together we can provide a workforce for the needs of today and the future.”

The Eastern Sierra project will also include UC Merced and Stanislaus State as well as K-12, postsecondary, and industry partners, including the superintendents of schools in each participating county, several K-12 districts; and workforce investment boards, including Mother Lode Job Training. Those counties are Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, Mariposa, Alpine, Inyo and Mono.

“This is the first step toward a very exciting opportunity for our rural counties,” said Dr. Lena Tran, Columbia College president who is also on the CVHEC Board.

“We are very honored to serve as the lead for a project that will be designed specifically by and for our rural mountain communities. This planning year gives us a chance to build our collaborative and find what works for our students, our schools, and our employers.”

Earlier this year, the state awarded full implementation grants to the Central San Joaquin Valley and Kern County, as well as the North State, Redwood Coast, Orange County, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Border and Inland Empire regions totaling approximately $163 million.

The state grant was awarded through the 2021 Budget Act, which allocated $250 million to the Department of General Services and is being administered through the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

 

See the UC Merced press release (includes a full list of WE WILL partners) and Columbia College press release.

For CVHEC media inquiries contact Tom Uribes: tom@uribes.com (559.348.3278)

For UC Merced media inquiries, contact PIO Desiree Lopez: dlopez298@ucmerced.edu (209.746.5137)

 

Presenting our renovated CVHEC Website: Meet our Board of Directors

The chancellors, presidents and superintendents of 30 institutions of higher education in the Central Valley nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield sit on the CVHEC Board of Directors. They meet quarterly in pursuit of CVHEC’s core mission to increase valley college-going rates and degree/certification attainment, providing a unified voice for their more than 250,000 students served jointly. See the board of directors section in our newly renovated website: https://cvhec.org/about-cvhec/ 

 

This fall, we unveil phase one of our renovated Central Valley Higher Education Consortium website which we hope will be easier to navigate as we showcase the work of the Consortium throughout the valley.

We will be featuring a different piece of our website as we continue to build it out in hopes of showcasing it as a resource for our members, colleagues and partners.

This month, we feature the professionals and experts who are carrying out the CVHEC mission. On the “About CVHEC” page, you can meet our CVHEC Board of Directors – the presidents and chancellors of our 30 members of higher education in the Central Valley’s nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield as well as the core staff that includes several former educational leaders who  now served as CVHEC regional coordinators/liasions,

Also, see our CVHEC News web page that is being finalized this fall featuring our newsletter stories and press releases where news media can connect with us as well as the members of our CVHEC PIO/Communicators Committee, consisting of the communications professionals handling media relations at each of the 30 campuses.

Our new calendar will keep you up-to-date on CVHEC and other higher education events on our radar. For considerations and modifications to our calendar please email 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]

MEMBER NEWS: CCO honors  8 CVHEC members with ‘Champions’ Awards

Campaign for College Opportunity honors 

8 CVHEC members with ‘Champions’ Awards

Eight CVHEC member institutions were honored as 2021 Champions of Higher Education and Equity Champions for Excellence in Transfer by the Campaign for College Opportunity.

Honored at CCO’s annual Champions of Higher Education for Excellence in Transfer virtual awards ceremony Nov. 16 were Bakersfield College; Clovis Community College; California State University, Bakersfield; College of the Sequoias; Fresno City College; Fresno State; Modesto Junior College; and Reedley College.

These colleges and universities are leading the state in: conferring the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT); enrolling ADT earners on guaranteed pathways to a bachelor’s degree; and intentionally working to support Latinx and Black students on their path to a degree, said Michele Siqueiros, CCO president.

For a breakdown of specific awards, see the CCO announcement and video.

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

 

Dual Enrollment Success Stories: Celeste Galvan of McFarland

Celeste Galván of McFarland and her family celebrated her two degrees earned by the age of 19 thanks to dual enrollment courses through Bakersfield College before Fresno State. Here they pose with her at her high school graduation in 2018. She is now enrolled in CSU Bakersfield’s teacher credential program. All three campuses are CVHEC members.

 

CVHEC Dual Enrollment Spotlight: Celeste Galván of McFarland

From one end of the valley to the other, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium continues to spotlight student dual enrollment success stories.

Like Nataly Frias featured in our first story in September, Celeste Galván of McFarland earned an associate degree at age 17 before she even graduated high school, marching alongside thousands of other Bakersfield College students at the commencement ceremony in Memorial Stadium in 2018.

Celeste Galván graduated from Fresno State in December 2020.

Then just two years later, after transferring to Fresno State, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in Liberal Studies in May and now, at age 19, she is enrolled in the credential program at California State University, Bakersfield while serving an teacher internship at a nearby elementary school. All three institutions are CVHEC members.

In high school, Celeste participated in a Bakersfield College pilot program at the Wonderful College Prep Academy in nearby Delano that provided students with the opportunity to complete an associate of science in agriculture business from BC by the time they graduated from high school.

Before her senior year, Celeste’s family moved to Bakersfield and she chose to stay with her grandmother in McFarland to finish her BC degree work with the Wonderful Academy.

A typical day for Celeste would start at 4 a.m. to get ready for practice with the cross country team, where she took second place at the CIF Central Section Championships in Woodward Park in 2015. After classes, she would stay at the school library as late as 8 or 9 p.m. to finish her college and high school classwork since she didn’t have access to wifi at her grandmother’s house.

Celeste rode that Renegade/Bulldog/Roadrunner spirit through Bakersfield College, Fresno State and back to CSUB.

ROMEO AGBALOG — President of the KCCD Board of Trustees

Romeo Agbalog, president of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, wrote in a Bakersfied.com op-ed in January that the success of Celeste and other students prepared Bakersfield College to scale up its model by launching the Early College program in 2019, with the vision of providing a pathway for every high school student in   Kern County to earn between 12 and 60 units of college credit before graduation.

“Every incoming freshman at McFarland High School is enrolled in college-level courses alongside their regular classwork, developing the tools for college and career readiness. Today, over 23,000 students have completed a total of approximately 90,000 college credits at 36 high schools across the county” said Agbalog who also noted the program is successful in closing equity gaps.

“Early College has had a 93 percent student success rate across all high school campuses in the last academic year, consistently exceeding BC’s own institution-set standard for student success by 15 to 20 percent,” he wrote. “Most importantly, more than 85 percent of students from rural areas who were in an associate degree completion pathway went to college after high school.”

See Trustee President Agbalog’s column.

Background: 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has been playing an increasing role in furthering Dual Enrollment as an equity-driven strategy to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates, which is the essence of the CVHEC mission, including

the creation of a task force in 2019, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

With over 60 education leaders from the CVHEC region, CVHEC’s Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is identifying and establishing the best elements of a sustainable strategy for dual enrollment that is intentional and aligns with Guided Pathways.

Made up of representatives from Central Valley K-12 districts, colleges, and universities, the task force developed a collaborative regional accord on an equitable delivery of dual enrollment, culminating in a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium white paper in July 2020, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley.”

This consensus framework document is designed to assist the nine-county region in the advancement of dual enrollment by reviewing where it has been, identifying the bright spots, identifying challenges and working together to develop solutions.

CVHEC efforts focus on policy implementation and delivery of support to faculty and administrators working on these efforts. The work focuses on regional strategic scaling of Guided Pathways; math pathways; corequisite support (AB 705 and EO 110 implementation); California College Guidance Initiative; and dual enrollment as strategies for equity and degree attainment.

CVHEC will continue to highlight stories about dual enrollment students like Celeste and Nataly in its e-newsletter, and social media platforms. Also, a showcase video conveying the value of dual enrollment for all students through the stories of individual valley students is currently in production and due to be released later this fall semester.

 

 

Charting Better Maps to Degrees

Historic UC Merced transfer initiative with Bakersfield, Merced Colleges launches Nov. 4

A hybrid convening at the University of California, Merced Nov. 4, “Charting Better Maps to Degrees,” will launch the historic UC Merced Transfer Pathways initiative between three Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member campuses and demonstrate how the new Program Pathways Mapper can revolutionize positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students.

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz will be joined by Bakersfield President Sonya Christian, Merced College President Chris Vitelli and CVHEC Executive Director Benjamin T. Duran. Also speaking will be Dr. Craig Hayward, dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College and  Wayne Skipper, president of Concentric Sky.

The pilot transfer project and the hybrid in-person/virtual event are 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.

During the event, which will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Merced Conference Center, the grant team will unveil the UC prototype of the Program Pathways Mapper that will make online, interactive transfer maps freely available for current and prospective students.

The convening also will be digitally mediated allowing both virtual and in-person attendees to interact and participate together while providing a higher education bridge across the valley floor.

“UC Merced was created in the Valley to help serve the Valley and we are dedicated to fulfilling that mission,” said Chancellor Muñoz, who will welcome the participants at 9 a.m. followed by the community college presidents and Duran. “This project to simplify transfer pathways means that more young people from our region will recognize a UC education as an achievable goal, and will help students, educators and families chart a course to that goal.”

Duran will discuss CVHEC’s support for the regional roll-out of the Program Pathways Mapper for colleges and universities in the Central Valley. CVHEC consists of 29 colleges in the nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield with the presidents/chancellors of each member institution serving as the board of directors.

He said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” said Duran a former Merced College president. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

Work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between CVHEC’s CSU member campuses at Bakersfield, Fresno and Stanislaus, he said, with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers in other regions of the valley.

Members and prospective members of the Program Pathways Mapper community are invited to attend the free event that will include breakfast and lunch. Space is limited but registration is available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/program-pathways-mapper-convening-tickets-168987649609.

For additional information and updates, including details on speakers and breakout sessions, see www.foundationccc.org/ChartingBetterMapstoDegrees.

Additional event questions may be directed to Lori Ortiz,  executive secretary for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College at lori.ortiz@bakersfieldcollege.edu.

Pilot CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project improves process for students  

Rollout of Program Mapper software app for transfers set for Nov. 4

A pilot program developed between the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and three member institutions — UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College — is showing promise for outstanding results that can enhance a community college student’s transfer experience including a new web-based software application, Program Mapper.

This new initiative, the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project, was presented to the CVHEC Board of Directors, made up the presidents and chancellors of CVHEC’s 29-member institutions, at its quarterly meeting Sept. 3.

Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of the Kern Community College District, has been recruited to serve as the Transfer Project coordinator, Dr. Ben Duran, CVHEC executive director, also announced to the board.   

The specific aim of the initial pilot project is to increase the number of successful and timely transfers from the Central Valley member community colleges in CVHEC’s nine-county region to UCM, reports Stan Carrizosa, southern regional coordinator for the consortium.

And work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between Bakersfield College and CSU Bakersfield with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers to the region’s other California State University campuses at Fresno and Stanislaus as well, Carrizosa reported. Project resource teams are currently being solicited from each community college with the goal to eventually begin replicating the faculty convenings and admissions/articulation alignments developed through the pilot.

“All of CVHEC’s 17 community college members have accepted our invitation to participate in the process developed by the colleges in the pilot project with the tentative timeline for completion projected for the end of the spring semester and summer,” added Carrizosa, a former superintendent/president with College of the Sequoias. “This tentative timeline would position all final transfer admission pathways to be approved by UC Merced for full implementation beginning in the fall semester, 2023.”

Duran said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” Duran reported to the board. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

This new initiative builds on the 10-year effort by the state’s community colleges to expedite a successful transfer by implementing the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) agreement, specific lower-division course sequences for approval by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and CSU campuses, to fulfill the 60-unit transfer requirements for various majors offered throughout the colleges in the CSU system.

Specifically for this pilot, UCM faculty were invited to review the CSU-approved ADT’s developed previously, and which are becoming more widely known by Central Valley community college students. They were asked to consider approval of selected ADTs to fulfill the lower division transfer requirements for these same discipline majors at UCM.

“To date, the work of the pilot project colleges is progressing nicely,” Carrizosa reported. “These intersegmental teams have reviewed and approved up to 15 different ADT discipline majors. They adjusted and aligned course syllabi where needed — to be approved by UCM faculty — to fulfill the lower division requirements for successful transfer admissions to UCM.”

In addition to the review and approval of the various ADT discipline majors, Carrizosa said the teams are also identifying the specific upper division courses required for students once admitted to UCM and aligning these with the ADT to show a four-year sequence to be called the “UCM transfer admission pathways for students.”

Once completed and approved, the courses are being uploaded into the new web-based software application Program Mapper.

“This application enables students to select the community college they are attending and identify the ADT they may be interested in being enrolled in,” Carrizosa said. “From there, Program Mapper will automatically display the required community college courses for their ADT and the required upper division courses for that major at UC Merced in the format of a four-year Transfer Admission Plan (TAP).”

Plans are underway to unveil the Transfer Project and Program Mapper application at a special event Nov. 4 at UC Merced. (Event details of the Program Mapper and launch will be forthcoming in the October CVHEC e-newsletter).

Funding for the Transfer Project is provided in part by the Fresno K-16 Collaborative with support from California Governor Newsome’s office and by the College Futures Foundation.

Dual Enrollment Success Stories: Nataly Frias

Nataly Frias and family: parents Anthony and Sabrina, both CSU Stanislaus alumni, are counselors at Modesto Jr. College and Merced College respectively. Older brother Anthony Frias, II, also took dual enrollment courses and graduated from MC in the spring with Nataly. Younger brother Isaiah, a Turlock High junior, turned 16 this month and is also taking dual enrollment courses at Merced College.

Dual Enrollment: success stories underscore equity-driven strategy
to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates

The Covid-19 pandemic of the past 18 months cast a shadow over joyous occasions like graduation events for Class of 2020 and 2021 high school and college students everywhere, but one narrative emerged repeatedly in the Central Valley that provided a spark of optimism for our region’s college attainment rates: dual enrollment success stories.

One of those stories is 18-year-old Nataly Frias, who, during her pandemic senior year at Turlock High School (2020-21), had taken enough Merced College courses online to earn two associate degrees in May, even before receiving her THS diploma in June.

Like other students around the country over the years, California students such as Nataly have taken college-level courses while still completing their high school degree thanks to various options such as concurrent or dual enrollment.

“Recent legislation has opened the gates for far more students to take advantage of dual enrollment,” said Saundra McGlothlin, CVHEC’s central regional coordinator and dual enrollment lead “The CVHEC region is committed to stay engaged in developing solutions to overcoming persistent barriers to equity.”

Born to teen parents who themselves worked hard and returned to college (Stanislaus State alums Anthony and Sabrina Frias who are now counselors at Modesto Jr. College and Merced College respectively), Nataly is now enrolled at Fresno State for a bachelor’s degree in Psychology but with her sights set on the Nursing Program.

“Just do it,” Nataly said in a media account about her success and the challenge of dual enrollment courses. “It’s a lot of hard work but you’ll feel so accomplished.”

The pandemic actually had a silver-lining in that she had more time during the quarantine to focus on schoolwork.

“I probably wouldn’t have graduated as early without the pandemic because it really helped give me so much time where I was only focused on my online courses,” said Nataly who said she comes from a “dual enrollment family.”

Her older brother Anthony also took dual enrollment courses when he attended Turlock High and graduated from Merced College with Nataly last spring but is now enrolled at Modesto Jr. College where he plays football. And younger brother Isaiah, a Turlock High junior, is currently  taking dual enrollment courses thorough Merced College.

McGlothlin, who retired in 2017 as the vice president of Student Services for West Hills Community College – Coalinga, noted that not all students follow Nataly’s accelerated path of earning an associate degree while in high school. Many take just a few dual enrollment courses that help them get some college credit under their belt while providing a glimpse of the higher education academic curriculum.

“Most of dual enrollment students complete 12-24 units,” said McGlothlin. “This means — in addition to meeting graduation requirements — less money spent when working towards a degree in college, usually a semester or two free.”

See Nataly’s story in local news media accounts:

https://www.turlockjournal.com/news/education/turlock-high-senior-uses-pandemic-downtime-earn-college-degree/

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/05/21/turlock-teen-graduates-high-school-college/

 

Background: 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has been playing an increasing role in furthering Dual Enrollment as an equity-driven strategy to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates, which is the essence of the CVHEC mission, including

the creation of a task force in 2019, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

With over 60 education leaders from the CVHEC region, CVHEC’s Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is identifying and establishing the best elements of a sustainable strategy for dual enrollment that is intentional and aligns with Guided Pathways.

Made up of representatives from Central Valley K-12 districts, colleges, and universities, the task force developed a collaborative regional accord on an equitable delivery of dual enrollment, culminating in a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium white paper in July 2020, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley.”

This consensus framework document is designed to assist the nine-county region in the advancement of dual enrollment by reviewing where it has been, identifying the bright spots, identifying challenges and working together to develop solutions.

CVHEC efforts focus on policy implementation and delivery of support to faculty and administrators working on these efforts. The work focuses on regional strategic scaling of Guided Pathways; math pathways; corequisite support (AB 705 and EO 110 implementation); California College Guidance Initiative; and dual enrollment as strategies for equity and degree attainment.

CVHEC will continue to highlight success stories like Nataly’s in its e-newsletter, and social media platforms. Also, a showcase video conveying the value of dual enrollment for all students through the stories of individual valley students is currently in production and due to be released later this fall semester.

 

 

Stan State, Merced College celebrate improved transfer program

Stan State, Merced College celebrate improved transfer program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanislaus State and Merced College signed a historical agreement on Friday, Feb. 21, at the Merced College amphitheater. The agreement — which will ease the transfer process for Merced College students who plan to attend California State University, Stanislaus — symbolizes a renewed support of educational success between the two institutions.

The “Warriors on the Way” celebration began as Chris Vitelli, president of Merced College, took the stage to welcome students, faculty, and community members in attendance.

“This is a very exciting opportunity and event for both of our institutions,” he began. “This will provide the streamlined support and wrap-around services for our students that want to transfer to our largest receiving institution, Stanislaus.”

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Vitelli and Ellen Junn, president of CSU Stanislaus, permanently acknowledging the agreement. The partnership will allow Merced College students guaranteed priority admission to Stan State when they complete their Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) at Merced College and meet all application deadlines.

“This is an agreement that can be seen as a renewal of our commitment to work together and further cements the relationship that began when Merced College was established 58 years ago,” Junn said.

As Merced College provides Stanislaus State with the greatest student admission, it is only seen fit for the two institutions of higher education to work together to provide better resources for their students.

The program will not only make the transfer process run smoother, but will also provide the Central Valley with more educated residents as the years roll out. As the population grows in both Merced and Stanislaus Counties, a greater transfer and graduation population can be predicted for both schools.

“We recognize the tremendous partnership between two institutions that believe in the future of many of the students that are here, and the hundreds of thousands in this community that will benefit from the relationship that we have been forging over the last several years,” Vitelli continued.

The MOU calls for a counselor at each campus, guaranteed up to 32 hours per week, that will be available to the disposal of its transfer students. This role will be beneficial as students are made aware of the different opportunities that are available to them at the Stan State campus.

Briana Sanchez, a Merced College student graduating in the fall, stood at the podium as she emphasized how important the Warriors on the Way program currently is for her.

“I am a first generation college graduate,” Sanchez began. “I had to learn my own steps. Learning everything on my own wasn’t easy. Many people told me I shouldn’t apply to transfer out of Merced College because it wasn’t going to happen for me.”

Thanks to determination and the Warriors on the Way program, Sanchez says she is now able to see her dreams within reach. Sanchez will be graduating with her ADT in communications, social and behavioral psychology, and administrative and office professional.

“Thanks to Merced College and Stanislaus, I am now a Warrior on the Way,” Sanchez concluded.

 

 

The original post can be found at https://mercedcountytimes.com/stan-state-merced-college-celebrate-improved-transfer-program/

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