Dr. Kim E. Armstrong Named Clovis Community College President

Dr. Kim E. Armstrong was named president of Clovis Community College by the State Center Community College District (SCCCD) Board of Trustees Nov. 1.

President-select Armstrong will take office Jan. 3, 2023 when she will also join the CVHEC Board of Directors. She replaces the President Lori Bennett, whose retirement is effective Jan. 4.

“The Board of Trustees are grateful to the search committee whose commitment to the District’s values of academic excellence, diversity, equity, and inclusion was evident throughout the process,” said Board President Nasreen Johnson.

SCCCD Chancellor Dr. Carole Goldsmith said, “Dr. Armstrong is widely regarded as an effective and collaborative higher education leader, and I look forward to working with her in this new role as the third President of Clovis Community College. I am confident she will continue to accelerate the college’s mission to Create Opportunities – One Student at a Time.”

The presidential search began earlier this year when the current President, Dr. Lori Bennett, announced her retirement effective January 4, 2023.

Dr. Armstrong currently serves as the Vice Chancellor for Student, Equity, and Community Affairs at Arkansas State University Three Rivers.

She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Howard University in Physiological/Neuropsychology and has Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization certifications.

The Arkansas Community College Student Success Center and Achieving the Dream selected her to be one of only 50 nationally certified Student Success/Guided Pathways Coaches and one of only 8 selected to serve as an Arkansas Holistic Student Support Coach.

Dr. Armstrong serves on the Arkansas Community Colleges Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Taskforce. Her DEI initiatives received several state and regional recognitions.

She serves on two Arkansas United Way Boards. In Illinois, she served as Co-Campaign Chair for the United Way where she led efforts to raise $8.4M.

Under her leadership, both Black Hawk College and Arkansas State University Three Rivers were cited by regional accreditors for their student success, inclusion, and community engagement culture.

Clovis Community College enrolls approximately 13,000 students annually and offers curriculum for students seeking transfer to a four-year college or university, short-term Career Technical Education, or basic skills education. Clovis Community College is a college of the State Center Community College District.

 

See the CCC press release.

CCC media contact:  Stephanie Babb at stephanie.babb@cloviscollege.edu.  

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)

 

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (November 2022)

The Valley’s Presidents and Chancellors to Convene at Dec. 8 CVHEC Board Meeting

Hello CVHEC Friends and Colleagues,

As we approach the end of the fall semester and prepare for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday season, we are happy to share the November issue of the CVHEC Newsletter.

The CVHEC Board of Directors will convene for the fall Board of Directors meeting December 8, at the California Health Sciences University (CHSU) in Clovis.  The meeting will give CHSU an opportunity to show off their new medical school campus.  The meeting will also provide an opportunity to invite a number of new presidents who have assumed their positions since the last board meeting.

The board will be introduced to new CVHEC staff member, Elaine Cash, a former area superintendent who has taken on the role of Grants & Programs coordinator and introduced in our last issue. The Board will also hear a report on the work of the K-16 collaboratives in Kern County and in the central region that includes Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare counties.

Additionally, we will be delighted to announce two state planning grant awards.  The WE WILL! collaborative in the North Valley region and the Eastern Sierra Region K16 Collaborative were each awarded a $250,000 planning grant that will result in the establishment of two more K-16 collaboratives in the Central Valley — a total of 4 collaboratives across our membership!
In this issue you will also read the blog contribution from Chet Frantzich, English teacher at Buchanan High School in the Clovis Unified School District.  Chet, one of the teachers who participated in the Master’s degree Upskilling funded by the Fresno/Madera K16 Collaborative, shares his experiences in the program and how his earning a master’s degree has impacted his students and him personally.

I hope you enjoy this edition and feel free to share it with friends and colleagues.

Here is wishing you all a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving Holiday!!

 

 

 

 

MEMBER NEWS: FCC Pres. Pimentel Delivers His First State-of-the-Campus Address  

Fresno City College President Robert Pimentel, who in July became the first Latino president of the state’s oldest community college, delivered his first State-of-the-Campus Address at the FCC President’s Breakfast Sept. 30.

Dr. Pimentel, a member of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Board of Directors, outlined his college goals and strategic initiatives for the coming year.

Other CVHEC members reporting President’s Breakfasts in October are:

  • Madera Community College on Oct. 21 when President Ángel Reyna delivers the first State-of-the-Campus address for the state’s newest community college;
  • The Clovis Community College President’s Breakfast Oct. 25 when President Lori Bennet will present her final State-of-the-Campus address before she retires in January after nearly seven years at the college’s helm and nearly 30 years in higher education.

Kern Master’s Upskilling Program – Now Recruiting!

The Kern Masters Upskilling team met in Bakersfield recently to announce start up of the recruitment phase at a Kern County Superintendents meeting: Ángel Ramírez, CVHEC; Jessica Gladney, National University; Nathan Lynes, Fresno Pacific University; Dr. Manjula Joseph, Fresno Pacific University; and Dr. Gary Gramenz, Fresno Pacific University.

Master’s Applications Available for Kern County Math/English HS Teachers

(This article was updated Nov. 4 with additional info session dates. Also see Fresno Pacific press release).

A recruitment campaign is underway for Kern high school math and English teachers to enroll in a new program leading to a Master’s degree that qualifies them to teach dual enrollment courses. Information sessions are underway in October and November.

The Kern Dual Enrollment Teacher Up-skilling Pathway for English and Mathematics – a partnership of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative — is part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the Kern Collaborative in June to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce.

The Kern Teacher Up-skilling component, which CVHEC first implemented in Fresno County last year with similar state funding, received $1,738,975 to produce, over three years, up to 100 qualified dual enrollment teachers to teach English and Math. The grad degree also qualifies teachers to work as adjunct instructors in a community college.

Fresno Pacific University will offer a master’s degree in Mathematics education while National University offers a Master’s degree program in English. Each cohort student may also be paired with a math or English professor mentor from a local community college district.

The next virtual information session for the FPU math component is set for Oct. 25 at 4:30 p.m. Additional sessions will be held Nov. 1, 8, 15, and 29. Register for the Math Education Information Meeting Zoom link at: https://bit.ly/3PSPesc.

The virtual NU English information sessions are set for Oct. 27, Nov. 10 and Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. with registration available at www.tinyurl.com/MAENGLISHNU.

The program will help provide more opportunities for Kern high school students to enroll in dual enrollment courses – college courses for high school students — on their respective campuses that in turn increases college success rates, said Dr. Benjamín T. Durán, CVHEC executive director.

“Dual enrollment continues to increase in the region but one of the deterrents of dual enrollment opportunities is the lack of high school teachers who have a Master’s degree to teach these gateway English and Math courses,” Durán said.

“Schools in the Kern K-16 Collaborative service area deserve to have the capacity to partner with their local community colleges so their students can use dual enrollment classes as one strategy for completion of their degrees in a timely manner,” he added. “This Master’s Upskilling Program is a major step in equipping our hard-working secondary teachers with this great academic opportunity that ultimately benefits their students.”

 

For the Fresno Pacific University math program, two cohorts of 20 to 25 teachers each will begin in the spring and fall 2023 semesters. Courses will run five semesters total with two 3-unit courses per semester. Synchronous class meetings will be held on Tuesdays from 5:15-9 p.m. with two hours of asynchronous reading and assignments per class.

They will cover a range of mathematics topics such as advanced algebra, geometry and calculus. The program includes courses like Teaching Math for Social Justice and Data Science. Students will read the research in math education and complete a series of three comprehensive exam papers embedded in the coursework.

“The majority of tuition costs are covered by the generous funding from Kern’s Regional K16 Education Collaborative,  CVHEC and the AIMS Education Foundation,” said Dr. Manjula Joseph, FPU’s program director. “Rich and rigorous content, equity and technology training will better prepare you to serve your students.”

The math application deadline is Dec. 9, 2022.

 

 

Select to download.

The National University program is for English Single Subject credential holders who are interested in pursuing a Master’s degree in English with a specialization in Rhetoric.

The program will take 12-months or less to complete with classes beginning January, March and June 2023: ten courses; (45 quarter units); fully online, asynchronous instruction; one course per month format; cohort-based model with 16 students per cohort.

English cohort students receive a $14,000 each from Kern’s Regional K16 Education Collaborative and CVHEC and a 15 percent ($2,990) employee tuition reduction per student from the Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) partnership with National University.

The English application deadline is Dec. 12, 2022.

 

For more information about the English cohort and information sessions, contact Program Coordinator Jessica Gladney at jgladney@nu.edu.

For more information about the math cohort and information sessions, contact Dr. Manjula Joseph at manjula.joseph@fresno.edu or 559.453.2096; or Nathan Lyness,

Graduate Outreach and Recruit Rep, Customer Care Coordinator at nathan.lyness@fresno.edu or 559.453.7183.

 

See program details

 

For media inquiries, contact:

CVHEC – Tom Uribes at 559.348.3278 (tom@uribes.com)

FPU – Wayne Steffen at 559.453.3677 (wayne.steffen@fresno.edu)

NU – David Hicks at 619-481-7802 (dhicks2@nu.edu).

 

MINI GRANT SUCCESS STORY: CHSU ‘Pre-Med Bootcamp’ Recognized

Read more

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (October 2022)

Kern High School Teachers: Join Us!

Hello CVHEC Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to our October e-newsletter with news in higher education around the Central Valley.

In this edition, we announce the launch of the cohort recruitment campaign for our new Kern Master’s Degree Upskilling Project funded by the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative.  The project mirrors the Upskilling Project that CVHEC undertook in Fresno and Madera counties two years ago as a pilot project with funding from the Fresno K-16 Collaborative

National University and Fresno Pacific University will deliver Master’s degrees, subsidized by the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative, in English and mathematics to high school teachers in Kern County holding BA degrees in the two subject areas and interested in teaching college level dual enrollment classes on their high school campuses.  They are now accepting applications to reach our goal of 100 high school teachers earning Master’s degrees in Kern County by 2025.  Please pass the word if you know of high school teachers who might be interested.

Also, we “introduce” Elaine Cash, who as of Oct. 1, has taken on the role as CVHEC’s Grants & Programs coordinator.  Many of you know Elaine not just as a longtime, dedicated and accomplished educator in our region, but also in her service the past few years as a CVHEC K-12 Liaison who brought her years of experience and expertise in K-12 education to work with our higher education leaders.

The strategies of the Consortium benefit greatly by bringing in our K-12 partners to improve the student success pathways for our region’s students so we are delighted that Elaine will expand her role on our team in this new capacity to support the growth and sustainability of the consortium and our work.

This issue’s “What the CV-HEC Blog” provides commentary on Assembly Bill 1705, a piece of legislation aimed at ensuring the final elimination of developmental education in community colleges and developing corequisite support courses to replace them.

You will also read about one example of a successful CVHEC mini-grant and how a member-institution, the California Health Science University, earned recognition for a program in which the mini-grant helped students gain the opportunity to begin pursuing careers in health and medicine.

Enjoy the newsletter and please share it with friends and colleagues.

CCA Dual Enrollment National Focus Group Features Central Valley Students

A nation-wide communications campaign conducted by Complete College America (CCA) to recruit more Latinx students and other students of color into dual/concurrent enrollment student programs across the United States includes four Central Valley students who participated in CCA’s Dual Enrollment Student Focus Group Sept. 19 via Zoom.

The projected release of the virtual presentation is early 2023, said Dr. Brandon Protas, a strategic director for CCA.

Complete College America is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is focused on significantly increasing college completion rates with a focus on racial equity through an alliance of higher education leaders and organizations – such as partner CVHEC.

Dr. Benjamín T. Durán, CVHEC executive director, serves as one of 48 CCA leads nation-wide who provide oversight and coordination for local initiatives as well as CCA-sponsored projects. Leads act as strategic thought partners and leaders and promote the efforts and importance of CCA, Dr. Protas said.

The alliance sought the student recommendations after seeing CVHEC’s dual enrollment awareness campaign the past year that culminated in a five-minute video, newsletter stories and student panels at two convenings earlier this year. In addition to those students from the consortium’s nine-county Central Valley region, for this national project CVHEC also recruited valley students who attend a college outside the region.

Dr. Protas said the national project sought racially homogenous focus groups of students over 18 who participated in dual/concurrent enrollment in the past four years.

“The aim is to understand what impact DE/CE classes had on students of color, as well as on their motivation to go to college and to earn a certificate or degree and their experiences as a student of color,” Dr. Protas said.

“Information gathered from this national focus group will help create plug-and-play communications assets that can be used for intentional recruitment of dual/concurrent enrollment students who are underrepresented in these programs,” he said. “These would be branded through Complete College America and made available throughout the CCA Alliance to help recruit future high school students into DE/CE programs across the United States.”

The conversations were facilitated by Dr. Stepheny Hinkle Beauchamp, who CCA retained to conduct them through a race-conscious lens, Protas said. Her doctoral research is in dual enrollment rates for Latinos in Colorado.

The CVHEC students participating in the nation focus group are:

 

  • MARISSA GUTIÉRREZ, a graduate of Firebaugh High School who took dual enrollment through West Hills College-Firebaugh Center, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Fresno State. She is now enrolled at University of Northern Colorado earning a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling while working full time for a local elementary school in Greeley, CO.

 

  • VERÓNICA MÉNDEZ GARCÍA graduated from Madera High School where she enrolled in dual enrollment courses through Madera Community College before earning a Bachelor of Arts at Fresno Pacific University in spring 2022. She also served as student body president (2021-22) and was featured in a CVHEC video regarding broadband disparity. She is now pursuing a master’s at California Baptist University online.

 

  • AMIRA MALDONADO earned an Associate of Arts degree (plant science) through Reedley College’s Wonderful Prep program while at Sanger High School and is now in her second undergrad year at University of California, Davis (human development- sports medicine).

 

  • JOSÉ ACOSTA, a Sanger High School alumnus, took dual enrollment courses through Reedley College’s Wonderful Prep program and is in his second undergrad year at UC Davis (Animal Science).

 

The students have been enthusiastic in sharing their respective success stories, said Tom Uribes, CVHEC communications/media coordinator who coordinated the local student effort with Saundra McGlothlin, CVHEC regional coordinator and dual enrollment lead.

“We identified students who took just a few dual enrollment classes and found themselves motivated to pursue a higher education and we had some who went all out taking enough courses to earn an associate degree a week or two before they formally graduated from high school,” Uribes said. “All have been very articulate in sharing their respective stories either in our video, newsletter stories or serving on the panels.”

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (September 2022)

New semester, renewed dialogues

Hello CVHEC Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to the September 2022 newsletter!  By now, our member institutions are well into the fall semester.

In this edition we are happy to begin a dialogue in the Central Valley that will launch a regional Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) movement in our region to assist our students navigate the increasing costs of higher education.  CVHEC, with the assistance of some of our community college leaders, will launch a Central Valley ZTC Task Force.

To learn more about ZTC, see our task force story and our What in the CV-HEC is Happening blog by West Hills College Lemoore President James Preston, a CVHEC board member whose college is a state leader in the OERevolution.

We also update you on a couple of initiatives that have made our CVHEC member institutions leaders in the state:

  • Our Program Pathways Mapper team working to create a model transfer approach that can be replicated in the rest of the state, has been invited to present at the statewide California Community College League of California conference in November.
  • We are also happy to announce that a group of Central Valley dual enrollment students have been invited by Complete College America (CCA) to participate in a national focus group on the benefits of well-delivered dual enrollment opportunities.  We are very proud that our students’ voice will be heard nationally.

We hope these topics and others in our newsletter will be resourceful for you and your colleagues.

We wish our member institutions — and the students they serve — a successful and safe fall semester.  Let’s hope that we have put the pandemic behind us as we continue to be cautious and stay healthy and safe.

Contact Us

  • cvhecinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu

  • 559.278.0576

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