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:

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

Higher education leaders and legislators will convene to revisit policy and legislative action that will have a great impact on higher education at the annual CVHEC Policy and Legislative Summit

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/25/18 

Contact:Angel Ramirez, Communications Manager

(559) 698-4665 or angelr@csufresno.edu

Higher education leaders and legislators will convene to revisit policy and legislative action that will have a great impact on higher education at the annual CVHEC Policy and Legislative Summit

(Fresno, CA – October 26, 2018) – The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) will hold its annual Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit on Friday, October 26, 2018 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Fresno. The nine-county regional consortium from San Joaquin to Kern counties brings education leaders, legislators and policy advocates together to address the central valley’s higher education needs. The strength of the consortium is drawn from working collectively to encourage policy and legislation to support post-secondary goals. This year Assembly members Dr. Joaquin Arambula (District 31) and Adam Gray (District 21) will share a discussion with UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland on collective challenges faced in higher education.

“The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium is a critically important and unique group because of its unified voice that brings together all of the higher education institutions in the Central Valley,” said Ellen N. Junn, President of California State University, Stanislaus. “The members come together for the sole purpose of enhancing student success and access to high quality baccalaureate degrees and beyond for everyone across the Central Valley. Educational attainment is especially precious for the economic vitality of the Central Valley and indeed the entire state, and CVHEC joins with our region’s state elected officials to make that promise a reality.”

Joining the valley’s higher education leaders will be partners from the Public Policy Institute of California, California Futures Foundation, Community College League of California and The Campaign for College Opportunity. Participants will also hear from Valley students who will share personal experiences as a result of the transformative policies.

“Jointly, CVHEC member institutions are working to implement student success initiatives brought about through blockbuster legislation and policy that has drawn the attention of state leadership. CVHEC member institutions in the Central Valley nine county region are working collaboratively to make strides that will lead the rest of California,” said Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, CVHEC Executive Director. “This year, CVHEC member institutions have chosen to emphasize that ALL MEANS ALL in the Central Valley. The strategies showcased this year are designed to close equity achievement gaps.”

The summit will showcase the work the consortium of central valley institutions has committed efforts toward for the collective goal of increasing persistence and certificate and degree completions. Over 130 intersegmental education leaders from throughout the Central Valley are expected to attend. For more information about the summit, please visit: http://cvhec.org/cvhec2018summit/.

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About Central Valley Higher Education Consortium

Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a 501(c)3 incorporated non-profit organization

comprised of 27 accredited public and private colleges, universities, and community college district

members. CVHEC was founded in 2000 by then Fresno State President John D. Welty along with 18

college and university leaders. Jointly, the consortium serves over 250,000 students in California’s Central Valley, a nine-county region. Its focus is to increase the region’s higher education attainment rate. www.cvhec.org

Contact Us

  • cvhecinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu

  • 559.278.0576

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