CVHEC 2022 Mini Grant Applications Now Open
Applications for the next Central Valley Higher Education Consortium 2022 Mini-Grant cycle are now being accepted and will continue until funds are allocated.
Once funds are allocated, grantees have until May 30, 2023 to finalize expenditures.
The CVHEC Mini-Grants project, currently funded by the College Futures Foundation, provides awards from $5,000 to $7,500 each which faculty from member institutions have creatively used for individual projects that help achieve the consortium’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 grants may also incentivize basic needs and equity, race and social justice work.
Member institutions are encouraged to apply soon to allow enough time for project completion before the expenditure deadline.
The mini-grant application can be found at https://www.cvhec.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CVHEC-Mini-Grant-2022-Application.pdf.
For application details, contact CVHEC Operations Manager Angel Ramirez at angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu.
Previous CVHEC Mini-Grants success stories:
CV-HEC VLOG – August 2022: Dr. Mike Farr, CHSU Alumnus
This month’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” Blog features a guest vlog with Dr. Mike Farr, an alumnus of CVHEC-member California Health Science University when he was featured on GVWire’s “Unfiltered” weekly virtual talk show May 24 hosted by Darius Assemi, president of Granville Homes in Fresno.
Dr. Farr shared his experience as one of the first medical students in the CHSU leading to his career in two positions presently: as a retail pharmacist for Walgreen’s and as a clinical pharmacist for Integrated Prescription Management. He served as CSHU student body president and was conferred the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree with 62 graduates at CHSU’s first Graduation Ceremony May 19, 2018. Dr. Farr touts the value of having a medical school in the Central Valley.
(Note: the show was the second part that followed a debate featuring two Fresno County sheriff candidates in the June election).
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.
CVHEC Director’s Message (August 2022): Here’s to an Engaging Fall Semester 2022
Greetings to you all and welcome to the fall semester as students, faculty and staff return to in-person learning at our CVHEC campuses throughout the Central Valley.
As we all approach the 2022-23 academic year with renewed energy and enthusiasm, we are dedicating a portion of this edition of the CVHEC e-newsletter to the good work of the medical healthcare partners in the Consortium.
We are delighted to announce the establishment of the California Medicine Scholars Program (SJV-CMSP) hub in Fresno, one of four hubs in California authorized by the Senate Bill 40, authored by our very own Senator, Melissa Hurtado, (D-Sanger Hurtado). The budget bill, signed in June by Governor Gavin Newsom, includes $9,975,000 to establish a regional pipeline system for community college students who want to go to medical school.
Dr. Kenny Bahn of the UC San Francisco Medical School – Fresno headed a team to develop the application for funding and collaborated with CVHEC partners, California Health Sciences University and regional community colleges that will feed the medical pathways in the valley. Valley wide collaborative efforts will hopefully lead to more physicians and allied health professionals settling in the region.
In keeping with the medical theme, please see the video in our “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” Guest Blog featuring Dr. Mike Farr, an alumnus of CVHEC member California Health Science University, in an interview on GVWire’s “Unfiltered” virtual talk show. Dr. Farr was conferred the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree in CHSU’s first Graduation Ceremony in 2018 and touts the value of having a medical school in the Central Valley.
Please join us in welcoming to the CVHEC Board of Directors Dr. Brock McMurry, newly appointed interim superintendent/president of the West Kern Community College District (Taft College). He will be seated at our next quarterly meeting this fall along with two new members also recently appointed to their posts: Dr. Robert Pimentel, president of the historic Fresno City College (the oldest Community College in California) and Dr. Andre Stephens, president of Fresno Pacific College (see our May issue).
This fall, CVHEC will push forward with several exciting developments that will be featured in future issues including the resumption of in-person convenings to address issues of higher education relevant to our mission. Be on the lookout for our continuing work in Dual Enrollment and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). In collaboration with the three K16 Collaboratives in the Central Valley, CVHEC will also be pushing for improved transfer pathways and a valley wide dialogue on creating meaningful STEP and math pathways for our students.
Also this fall we unveil our renovated website which we hope will be easier to navigate and showcase the work of the Consortium throughout the valley.
The 2022-23 academic year stands to be another exciting and productive year. We hope you will stay engaged with us and join us for the in-person convenings we will hold as the pandemic wanes.
CVHEC Director’s Message (July 2022): Summer ‘recharge’ and a renewed appreciation
Greetings and welcome to our July CVHEC e-newsletter,
This month we share a brief issue and greeting as we find ourselves in the first summer since 2020 where the pandemic is not ruling our lives.
I hope you all enjoyed fabulous live commencement exercises on your campuses. We know students, family, professors, and staff have been looking forward coming together again to celebrate the accomplishments of our students in the Central Valley.
I’m sure many of you agree that one take-away from the pandemic experience – with life seemingly coming to halt the past two years amid shutdowns and event cancellations – is the renewed appreciation we find in everyday routines like pulling into the campus parking lot, crossing the beautiful landscapes of our 30 campuses across the valley, walking into classrooms and seeing those eager faces, reconvening with colleagues in the office and most significantly, sitting in an arena, stadium or any venue to bask in the joy of our students walking across the stage to receive their diploma, a celebration with their friends and families of the hard work and success by all in academia.
This summer we will continue to work on our regional initiatives like dual enrollment, creating a Central Valley transfer model and working on developing math pathways between our K12 partners and our CVHEC member institutions.
Until we usher in the fall 2022 semester together, I hope you will find some time to rest, recharge, enjoy time with your loved ones and maybe even a do little travel once again. We look forward to regrouping in August and kicking-off another impactful year.
Have a great summer!!!
CV-HEC BLOG: UC Enrollment Push Supported by CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project and New Mapper Software
(This issue’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” Blog features guest contributor Dr. James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education at the University of California-Merced where he is also director of the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning and a physics professor. He serves on the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project committee and here he blog-connects its work the past year to a recent article on UC enrollment expansion).
The California UC Board of Regents has declared its intent to expand enrollment by adding 20,000 new seats in the next few years as outlined in a UCLA Daily Bruin article published May 12 that also presents the relevant challenges associated with this goal.
This illuminating journalistic endeavor by higher education reporters Megan Tagami and Lisa Huiqin is timely for students in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s nine-county region as member institutions UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College have used the last two years to lay groundwork for a CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project that is designed to bring the college transfer experience into intersegmental alignment.
With this dedicated leadership and collaboration by consortium members and professionals, the Transfer Project is now being undertaken by other members of CVHEC’s 30 institutions of higher education for valley-wide implementation in 2023. And it comes complete with a free and public-facing software strategy students can use to master the curricular pathway to a four-year degree.
Setting the Stage
The Daily Bruin article illustrates that following an extensive decades-long push in California high schools to promote college-readiness and increase the number of UC-eligible students graduating each year, we are experiencing an increased demand for access to our UC campuses throughout the state.
Even more impressive, is the number of students eligible for transfer to UC from our California Community Colleges. Not only are more transfer-eligible students coming from community colleges, but these transfers also succeed in completing their UC degrees at higher rates than all other UC students.
In particular, Tagami and Huiqin cite the targeted efforts of UC Merced to increase the number of community college students from the Central Valley that successfully transfer to UC Merced. This effort emerged in 2018 as UC Merced committed anew to recruiting/retaining local community college transfers. UC Merced officials met with a focus group of Central Valley community college chancellors/presidents in the CVHEC region to clarify and address the challenges.
Forthright TAG/ADT conversations
During this meeting, the group discussed the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) project agreed to by some UC campuses as a transfer pathway for community college students to be accepted to the UC. This discussion quickly evolved into a compare and contrast of the UC-based TAG agreements and the California State University systemwide transfer pathways project called the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT).
Completion of ADT’s as an effective pathway for transfer to the CSU far outpaced the number of successful transfers to UC through the TAG agreements. This is credited in large part to the consistency of the CSU’s commitment/acceptance of the community college ADT’s, that when completed, fulfill the lower-division requirements for guaranteed transfer to CSU.
Simply put, if a student successfully completes the ADT pathway in a particular discipline/major, they have fulfilled the lower-division requirements and are accepted as a transfer (third-year) student in good-standing to the CSU.
Walking the talk
Fast forward to today … with its Transfer Project, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and UC Merced have been engaged in a collaborative, intersegmental process to review and assess the community college ADT’s with the intent to accept the completion of selected ADT’s in various disciplines as fulfilling the lower-division requirements for successful transfer to UC Merced.
This process brings together community college and UC Merced faculty in common discipline/majors to review/approve existing or slightly modified ADT’s for successful transfer to UC Merced. To date, seven of the CVHEC community college members are now engaged in the approval process with five more in line to begin the approval process in fall 2022 for implementation in 2023.
The culminating feature in the project’s process is the implementation of a public-facing, internet-based software application called Program Pathways Mapper with two key outcomes for transfer student success:
- This software merges an updated/accurate list of community college courses in approved ADT/curricular pathway with the corresponding upper-division coursework at UC Merced to show a complete four-year pathway to degree completion.
- The Program Pathways Mapper software makes all of this information available through public internet access to all students, parents and community college and high school faculty and counselors without a need for a institutional login
As a higher education professional for more than 25 years, I am extremely satisfied with the continuing collaboration that my colleagues from CVHEC have provided to this groundbreaking initiative: Tom Burke, Transfer Project coordinator for the consortium, and Stan Carrizosa — both are former chief executives at Central Valley community colleges who now serve as regional coordinators for CVHEC under the leadership of its executive director, Dr. Benjamin Duran (also a community college president-emeritus).
UC Merced/CVHEC Transfer Initiative + Program Pathways Mapper = student friendly/student empowerment/student success
As the UC system explores ways to accomplish its newly minted goal to increase enrollment, it would be well-served to study the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project.
This is a process-based project that requires little to no additional funding other than the time for faculty and staff to collaborate. And its Program Mapper is an inexpensive software solution.
The result, so far, is that high school and community college students can now open the Program Mapper on their smart phone and easily find their major of interest at their community college and an accurate/up-to-date list of all the courses necessary both lower division and upper division, to successfully transfer and graduate from UC Merced in those majors.
Bottom line translation: student-friendly outcomes and increased UC enrollment!
See previous CVHEC newsletter articles:
https://bit.ly/TransferProject-CVHEC0921
https://bit.ly/MapperTransferLaunch-CVHEC1021
https://bit.ly/BlogCVHEC1221-TransferBurke
CVHEC Director’s Message: Re-imagining the social and economic landscape of our region
Greetings and welcome to our June CVHEC e-newsletter,
Welcome to the end of the semester and to the first summer in two years when we are not shut down. As we emerge from the pandemic, faculty and staff at our Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member colleges and universities have been engaged in providing a great education to our students.
In this issue, please look at this month’s blog that , in light of a recent article regarding University of Californian, speaks to the Central Valley Program Pathways Mapper project that improves transfer of valley students to UC Merced as well as our three California State University campuses, Bakersfield, Fresno and Stanislaus.
We are also delighted to congratulate the Central San Joaquin Valley K16 Partnership (Fresno-Madera Collaborative & Tulare-Kings Collaborative) and the Kern Regional K16 Education Collaborative (Kern County Superintendent of Schools) on receiving $18.1 million in funding each from the state for a four-year effort to improve the educational and economic well-being of the Central Valley. Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin County are pursuing a similar grant opportunity and should hear in early fall. These K16 Collaboratives that will include our CVHEC member institutions can change the very social and economic landscape of our region.
Last year, the Fresno-based K16 Collaborative served as a model for the funding that would eventually be allotted to create similar collaboratives throughout the state.
One of the initiatives funded by Fresno K16 Collaborative was the CVHEC MA Upskilling project which provided funding to support high school English and math teachers in earning their master’s degrees to allow them to teach dual enrollment college courses on their high school campuses to high school students. Dual enrollment is one of the strategies CVHEC is supporting to help move students into and through higher education. By the end of December 2022, there will be 118 new high school teachers in Fresno County holding MA degrees to facilitate the delivery of dual enrollment in our region.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the issue. We wish you a restful and safe summer.
CV-HEC Photo Blog: Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit May 5-6, 2022
For this issue, our What The CV-HEC Is Happening feature is a “photo-blog” capturing scenes from the CVHEC Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit held May 5-6 presented under the theme “Post Pandemic World: Recovering with Equity and Inclusion in the Central Valley” in Fresno.
Dr. John D. Welty, Fresno State President-emeritus who left the CVHEC board nine years ago when he retired, returned to join founding board members Dr. Frank Gornick, West Hills Community College District chancellor-emeritus, and Dr. Benjamin Duran, Merced College president-emeritus and current CVHEC executive director, in recalling the early days of the consortium.
At the rare gathering of the presidents and chancellors of 30 Central Valley higher education institutions and other leaders, summit participants engaged in four panel presentations exploring challenges faced by colleges and universities during the pandemic with these topics:
- Looking at Recovery Through a Lens of Equity and Inclusion
- Dual Enrollment as an Equity Strategy for Valley High School Students
- Creating the Central Valley Transfer Model – A Pathway for Valley Students
- Broadband for All – Taking Broadband to the Next Mile in the Central Valley
A student panel once again provided the voices of those served by higher education professionals including several who “starred” in two CVHEC videos made in the past year:
- “Pursuing the Last Mile: Broadband in the Central Valley”
- “Blurring the Lines Between High School and College: Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley”
During the CVHEC Board of Director’s quarterly meeting held the day before the summit, the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine Fresno regional campus was seated as the 30th member institution of the consortium.
Following that board meeting, CVHEC presented a Cinco de Mayo Reception featuring Las Hermanas Medina (Sofia, Bela and Paulina) of Hanford and theme decorations by the Kings Cultural Center in Armona. (Special thanks to Dr. Juan Medina, KCC Director, and wife Chely)
CVHEC Director’s Message: Consortium Summit ’22 Wrap – Recapturing the Magic
CVHEC board members and May 6 summit participants enjoyed the music of Las Hermanas Medina at the Cinco de Mayo reception the day before more than 130 higher education leaders and advocates convened for the Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit in downtown Fresno.
Greetings and welcome to our May CVHEC e-newsletter,
As the spring semester ends, there is so much to talk about. For the first time in two years, students and their families are enjoying attendance at live commencement ceremonies at colleges and universities throughout the Central Valley – you can feel the magic in the air.
Also, in a very generous gesture, institutions are honoring those graduates in 2020 and 2021 who were deprived of their commencement events by the pandemic by providing opportunities for them to participate in this year’s ceremonies as well. We know the graduates would also want to thank the staff and faculty on their campuses for helping them achieve their educational goals. Congratulations to ALL graduates and to your respective support systems!
As we celebrate our graduates, we hope you enjoy our May issue of the CVHEC Newsletter. You will see this was an exciting month for us as well. On May 5 and 6, CVHEC held its spring Board of Directors meeting and our first CVHEC Legislative and Policy Summit since 2019 live in Fresno. Participants were appreciative of the opportunity to reconnect in-person with colleagues and make new connections.
At the board meeting, the CVHEC Board of Directors was happy to welcome the University of California, San Francisco – Fresno campus as the 30th member institution of the Consortium. CVHEC also invited six newly-appointed CEOs as members of the Board.
This summit marked the 20th Anniversary of CVHEC with over 150 participants celebrating two decades worth of success by our member institutions in increasing the college-going rate for Valley residents. Please view the Summit photo gallery blog for the visual story of this very successful Summit.
Highlights of the summit include a conversation with Dr. John Welty, President Emeritus of Fresno State and founder of CVHEC, in addition to a panel of students from the region sharing how they navigated the pandemic. The annual visit and legislative update by Congressman Jim Costa also added to the day.
These highlights, the information that was shared with attendees about the initiatives in the Central Valley to improve student success, and the ability to network in a live setting were invaluable and welcome.
Enjoy our newsletter and enjoy your summer.
See: PHOTO BLOG