Tag Archive for: California Community Colleges

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (May 2023): Extraordinary times!

Winding down an extraordinary

academic year in the Central Valley 

Greetings colleagues,

As we welcome you to the May issue of our newsletter, we take this opportunity to thank, congratulate and salute all the CVHEC educators who have dedicated themselves to sending off another group of Central Valley students into the next phase of their academic and or professional lives.  This annual commencement season is truly a magical time of the year and reminds us all why we chose careers in higher education.

In this issue we present more about Math Bridge, the math pathways initiative launched May 18 by bringing together representatives of six regional community colleges and their partner feeder high schools. At this kickoff held in downtown Fresno, these dedicated and determined professionals began the process to jointly create college level dual enrollment math courses targeted at underrepresented student populations that will allow them to complete a college math course before graduating from high school.  This innovative project is unique because of the intersegmental collaboration between high school and community college math faculty members working together to ensure their students’ success.

You will also have an opportunity to visit the CVHEC board meeting held May 11 in Fresno.  Board members heard a joint presentation by Dr. James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education at UC Merced, and Dr.  Lynn Cevallos, president and founder of College Bridge.  They addressed the evolution and overlap of two CVHEC endeavors, the Central Valley Transfer Project and the Math Bridge initiative, that helps clear pathways for students getting into and through community college and onto the university of their choice.

We also bid farewell to two dear colleagues although one will remain well in sight, Dr. Sonya Christian who served on our board as chancellor of the Kern Community College District but now moves up to chancellor of the California Community College system. And joining us one last time at the meeting was the esteemed Dr. Ellen Junn, Stanislaus State president whose retirement is effective next month. We know you join the board in thanking them for their service to higher education in general and the consortium in particular. And you may read about our newest board additions in the story and photo gallery about the board meeting.

Please enjoy this issue as well as the conclusion of this extraordinary semester.

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (April 2023): Blurring the lines!

‘Committed to the deeper work — blurring the line between high school and college

Greetings colleagues,

This April edition of our CVHEC e-newsletter ushers in the final month of a busy spring semester for many of our CVHEC member colleges and universities not to mention our own relentless team.

In spite of wrestling with all the challenges in just the second year of a post-pandemic world, faculty, staff and CVHEC partners have been working diligently on regional strategies that will shed light on the good work our Central Valley colleges and universities are doing collectively for the well-being of our students.

First, we alert you that the 2023 CVHEC Annual Summit originally set for May is being rescheduled to October.

This will give us the opportunity to deliver a more impactful and compressive summit that, in addition to bringing higher education leaders and policy-makers together, showcases the great work being done in the region.  Please be on the lookout for updates.

One of the things we continue to express is that passing the college math gateway courses can make the difference for a student between college completion or not.  In this month’s newsletter, please read about some of efforts going on throughout the region that aim to eliminate this barrier.

Specifically, we are pleased to announce our new state-funded Dual Enrollment Math Bridge Program in collaboration with the Central San Joaquin Valley K-16 Partnership.  This comes on the heels of our first venture with College Bridge announced in January that is in full swing with the recruitment of high schools and that was featured in valley news media (see related story in this issue).  CVHEC and its partners are committed to undertake this deeper work that can effectively blur the lines between high schools and its colleges in the Central Valley

In this issue’s What the CV-HEC is Happening Blog, Dr. Manjula Joseph from Fresno Pacific University speaks about some of the experiences these high school teachers are having while earning a Master’s degree that will not only qualify them to teach dual enrollment math courses at their high schools, but also make them even better teachers by humanizing mathematics.

Thanks again for taking some of your valuable time to peruse our e-newsletter.

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (March 2023): Spring forward!

Spring forward to our CVHEC summit, Math Bridge Kick-off and Kern Mentors!

 

Welcome to this month’s CVHEC e-Newsletter.  As we move into the spring of 2023 with a little more daylight on our hands, we are happy to share some timely items following our last issue.

First, as we in the Central Valley continue to bask in the pride and excitement of our own Dr. Sonya Christian, chancellor of the Kern Community College District, being chosen by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to lead the California Community College System, we are delighted to feature her in this issue’s “What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog.”

The Chancellor-select reflects on her time working in the valley with her fellow presidents and chancellors on the CVHEC Board of Directors and the strides we have made as a united voice for higher education in our nine-county region [or Kern Co if that is what the blog focuses on]. Please enjoy her guest blog in this month’s issue and, once again, congratulations Sonya!

Registration for the CVHEC Annual Summit is now open!

Please plan on joining us May 12 for this great event as well as our special CVHEC Welcome Reception the day before at Arte Americas. The summit – always historic in that it brings together the higher education leadership in our nine-county region – provides the opportunity to showcase the great work that is taking place in our Central Valley colleges and universities to provide meaningful pathways for our students seeking a higher education.

In furtherance of our mission to increase access to college for students, we are pleased to announce the Central Valley Math Bridge Kick-off May 18 in downtown Fresno with our partners College Bridge and the Rand Corporation. With this the formal launch, we are excited to shine a light on the great work that can come out of small colleges in the Central Valley that we will share with the rest of the state and eventually nationally as this project creates a model for meaningful dual enrollment math pathways and expansion that can be replicated in other regions of California.

This same spirit carries forth in the South Valley where our Kern Master’s Upskilling Project is now recruiting community college professors to serve as mentors for high school teachers enrolled in the project to earn master’s degrees in math or English. In collaboration with the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative,  we are working to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce by providing 100 South Valley high school teachers the opportunity to earn a master’s degree that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English or math courses at local high schools.

We encourage Kern area community college math and English professors to join us in this innovative project.

And finally, as we close out March next week, let us acknowledge Women’s History Month by expressing our appreciation to the incredible women leaders who serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors as the presidents or chancellors of the colleges and universities in our region, led by board chairwoman Dr. Kristin Clark, chancellor the West Hills Community College District.

As you read through this issue, we hope you find inspiration in the many great higher education advancements taking place in the Central Valley. Thanks for being a partner and a friend of CVHEC.

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (February 2023): CVHEC Summit 2023

Spotlight on Unique Approaches To

Transfer and Dual Enrollment in Central California

Greetings …

February ushered in what promises to be a very productive and exciting spring and that is well illustrated here in the final week of the month with the historic appointment of our esteemed colleague and CVHEC board member, Dr. Sonya Christian, as the 11th chancellor of the California Community College System.

From all of us at CVHEC: congratulations Chancellor-Select Christian! See our story in this issue.
 
Also, in this month’s e-newsletter, we are happy to announce a SAVE THE DATE for the annual CVHEC Education Policy and Legislative Summit May 12 in Fresno with our quarterly CVHEC Board of Directors meeting the day before.  

The annual summit provides an opportunity to showcase the impactful work being accomplished by our member colleges and universities in the Central Valley to our partners, friends and legislators who serve our region.  Please plan on joining us later this spring to learn more about this work, including the unique approaches to transfer and dual enrollment in the valley — just to mention a couple of topics that will be covered.  Registration info will be forthcoming in March.

In the South Valley, we are pleased to present the addition to the CVHEC family of two respected Kern County higher education professionals who will serve as faculty mentor coordinators for our Kern Master’s Upskilling Project: Drs. Vikash Likhan and Liz Rozell.

The Kern project, which assists high school teachers earn an MA in math or English qualifying them to teach dual enrollment, includes a mentoring component that joins high school teachers with community college professors. Drs. Likhan and Rozell will work with our project lead, Tom Burke (KCCD chancellor-emeritus), to identify and recruit South Valley community college professors to serve as mentors.

If you are interested in serving our students in this way, or know potential candidates, I invite and encourage you to connect with our team.

There is much more in this month’s edition.  Please read on and enjoy.

 

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (January 2023): Kicking Off the New Year with Successful Initiatives

We are happy to welcome you to the 2023 spring semester and our first e-newsletter of the year.  As you will see in this issue, the new year promises to pick up right where we left off when we went into the winter break.

You will read about the successes of our Central Valley Transfer Project which has developed a unique approach with its Program Pathways Mapper to improve the number of Central Valley community college students transferring to the University of California, Merced, and the valley’s California State Universities.

This entry is timely in light of a recent article announcing the UC system’s effort to expand outreach to 65 California community colleges and the release of the report by a joint task force between UC and the community college system recommending that UC increase the percentage of community college transfers who apply, are admitted to and enroll at UC. The UC also has a systemwide goal to enroll one California community college transfer student for every two California resident freshmen.

The Transfer Project provides a historic collaboration between our three segments of higher education to improve this process for students with first round surveys (studies ?) showing a direct correlation between students using the Program Mapper and important student success metrics.

We are also happy to congratulate our CVHEC partner, College Bridge.  Six rural community colleges in California’s Central Valley will partner with 21 high schools to promote equity in mathematics via dual enrollment courses for Black or Latino students thanks to a $4 million US Department of Education grant awarded to College Bridge. This united effort will highlight the good work a group of small rural colleges can do when partnering with their dedicated high school partners.

In this month’s guest blog, Ginny Sandu, a teacher at Sunnyside High School talks about her journey to earn a Master’s degree through our MA Upskilling Program last year, funded by the Fresno-Madera K16 Collaborative. The program increased the number of high school teachers holding Master’s degrees in English and Mathematics in the Fresno-Madera service area qualifying them to teach dual enrollment at their high school campus.  Armed with her new post-grad degree, Ginny was able to begin teaching dual enrollment courses last fall —   exactly what the project was designed to do.

Enjoy Ginny’s story and the rest of the newsletter.  Please take moment to meet our dedicated staff of higher education professionals in this issue’s CVHEC Website renovation presenting our staff page. We are all looking forward to a great 2023!

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (December 2022): Happy Holidays!

Best wishes for 2023 from the CVHEC staff: Tom Burke, Saundra McGlothlin, Ángel Ramírez, Dr. Benjamín Durán, Pricila Villanueva, Stan Carrizosa, John Spevak and Tom Uribes. (Not pictured: Elaine Cash and Marcus Johnson).

A Season to Celebrate our Triumphs

Holiday Greetings to All,

We, the team at the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday season as we come to the end of a historic fall semester at all our partner institutions and prepare to usher in a new year.

The 2021-22 academic year saw our Central Valley colleges and universities emerge from the post-pandemic blues and welcome our students and staff back to our campuses. It was a long two years. Congratulations to each and every one of you who dedicate your professional career to relentlessly serving our students regardless of the challenges we face.

This is truly a season to celebrate our triumphs!

In this final issue of 2022 – our Silver Edition – you will see highlights of the good work that took place in the region, in spite of the constraints imposed by COVID.  Enjoy reviewing this glimpse back at the last 12 months as well as a recap of the winter CVHEC Board of Directors meeting held earlier this month.

One of the highlights of our board meeting was a collective farewell to friend and colleague Dr. Lori Bennet who is retiring as Clovis Community College president Jan. 3 after a long and successful career serving community college students.  Congratulations Dr. Bennett, we wish you a long and well-deserved retirement.

To all, please enjoy the holidays and plan on joining us again in January for our first newsletter of 2023.

MEMBER NEWS: SCCCD Trustee Ikeda Honored with ACCT Ensign Award  

Deborah Ikeda, vice president of the State Center Community College District Board of Trustees and retired founding president of Clovis Community College, was honored recently by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT).

Ms. Ikeda also serves as chair and trustee of the California Health Science University Board of Trustees, also a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member with along with SCCCD.

Trustee Ikeda, who served on the CVHEC Board of Directors during her CCC presidency , was presented ACCT’s M. Dale Ensign Trustee Leadership Award recognizing outstanding community college trustees, equity programs, chief executive officers, faculty members and professional board staff members from throughout the nation.

Presented Oct. 28 at its 2022 ACCT Association Awards, ACCT’s awards recognize the tremendous contributions made by community colleges and their leaders to meet the needs of their communities.

“Community colleges are uniquely committed to making high-quality higher education accessible to all people, serving as gateways to meaningful careers and even higher education for many,” said James Cooksey, 2021-22 ACCT Chair and Moberly Area Community College Trustee. “This year’s regional awardees represent the most outstanding people and programs across this great nation.”

 See:

• The full ACCT press release.

•  Trustee Ikeda bio.

• CHSU press release.

CVHEC Member News: CLP Guidance Pathways

Four CVHEC Members Highlighted in Career Ladders Project
Look at Guided Pathways Redesign Challenges

The Career Ladders Project recently highlighted four CVHEC member organizations in stories illustrating how 15 California community colleges are redesigning their Guided Pathways programs and structures prompting college leaders across the state to share the stories to help clarify opportunities, spur conversation and motivate Guided Pathways redesign teams.

Founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors in 2002, Career Ladders Project is a nonprofit that operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

The project promotes equity-minded community college redesign by collaborating with colleges and their partners to discover, develop, and disseminate effective practices. CLP policy work, research, and direct efforts with colleges lead to system change—and enable more students to attain certificates, degrees, transfers, and career advancement.

The Guided Pathways stories are presented in one-page narratives — grouped into topics — produced by Career Ladders Project with funding from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

The four CVHEC members highlighted are:

Bakersfield College

• Integrating Student Supports in Guided Pathways Redesign

• Aligning Redesign Across Campus

• Using Data in Guided Pathways Redesign

Madera Community College

• Centering Students in GP Design

West Hills College Lemoore

• Aligning Redesign Across Campus

• Supporting Students from a Distance

Reedley College

Managing Guided Pathways redesign and Engaging the College

 

See the CLP Redesign stories overview.

CVHEC turns college age!

CVHEC’s 18th year symbolizes continued strength
speaking in a single voice for Central Valley students

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) turns “college age” this month with its 18th anniversary today, August 5.

And despite enduring perhaps its most uncertain year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the consortium of 28 colleges and universities from Kern to San Joaquin County has persevered, providing a support mechanism for the valley’s institution presidents and chancellors.

The occasion symbolizes the consortium’s strength and value of speaking in a single voice for the benefit of Central Valley students.

CVHEC spent the early years setting its foundation and building strategies to help reach a dual goal of improving Central California’s college-going culture while bridging the nine-county region’s higher education institutions into a collaborative, collective voice advocating for policies to achieve that first goal.

The concept of a Central Valley collaboration was first envisioned by Fresno State President-Emeritus John D. Welty in the late 1990s.

In 2000, funding was secured with a $110,000 grant from The James Irvine Foundation so the consortium could develop a comprehensive action plan to increase the number of Valley high school students entering college as well as community college students transferring to four-year schools. In 2001, the Consortium was awarded a two-year $850,000 grant also by The James Irvine Foundation.  Incorporation papers were approved Aug. 5, 2002.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”Dr. John D. Welty” link=””color=”#33ACFF” class=”” size=”18″]“CVHEC made it possible for institutions to begin cooperating and to seek solutions to issues surrounding the college-going rates…”[/perfectpullquote]

Welty was CVHEC’s first board president who worked closely with then-UC Merced Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey and area community college officials to create the consortium, including then-Merced Community College President Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, who is now CVHEC’s executive director.

“The notion of a collaborative intersegmental higher education organization with an active board of directors composed of member institutions’ presidents and chancellors was unthought of at the time,” said Duran who bestowed president-emeritus of Merced Community College in 2012 and was brought out of retirement to lead CVHEC in 2016.

“Under President Welty’s leadership, the consortium developed into an organization made up of equals where the president of a small 3,000 student community college holds the same stature and respect as that of a president or chancellor of a large 29,000 student university,” Duran said.  “This unique culture allows regional leaders to speak with a single voice about higher education issues and challenges facing the nine-county region of CVHEC.”

Welty recalls both the frustration that led to the formation of the novel idea and the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of like-minded higher ed leaders from San Joaquin to Kern County embracing the concept.

“In the late 1990’s it was clear that the California Master Plan for Higher Education was not serving Central California very well,” Dr. Welty said in a recent interview for the 18th anniversary milestone. “College-going rates were among the lowest in the state. There was a lack of professional programs which was leading to shortages in health care professionals along with several other areas.”

In its first 15 years, CVHEC’s focus was to bring together postsecondary institutions to improve the college-going rate especially for underserved students and to make transfer among institutions easier.

“The task was not easy because there was not a culture of collaboration at the time,” Welty said. “CVHEC made it possible for institutions to begin cooperating and to seek solutions to issues surrounding the college going rates along with other critical issues facing post-secondary institutions.”

Today, CVHEC has become a higher education organization well-respected nationally and throughout California as it works to equitably increase certificate and degree attainment rates with its success supported by the College Futures Foundation in California and The Lumina Foundation nationally. The Consortium also has partnered with advocacy and policy groups like the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas, Austin, Complete College America, California Acceleration Project and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“The consortium has become known for assisting Central Valley colleges and universities to become state leaders in the implementation of legislation and executive orders leading to the elimination of developmental courses in English and mathematics while implementing co-requisite support courses that changed the lives of many students for the best,” Duran said.

“Now, in the midst of this historic pandemic, a new powerful role is emerging for the consortium: providing an ongoing dialogue between member institutions to face the challenges of converting to a virtual platform for the delivery of instruction and student services,” said Dr. Stu Van Horn, West Hills Community College District chancellor and current CVHEC Board of Directors president.

“As CVHEC enters its 18th year in the Central Valley, students and communities in the region will continue to benefit from the work of the consortium and its board of directors,” he said.

Welty concurs.

“It has been very gratifying to see the progress that has been made in postsecondary institutions during the past eighteen years,” said the former president who retired in 2013 following a 20-year tenure as Fresno State’s 7th president. Welty oversaw his institution’s centennial celebration the year before.

“In addition to additional community colleges, UC Merced was founded and the California Health Sciences University has launched a medical school,” Welty added. “Congratulations to all of the post-secondary leaders in Central California who have demonstrated that collaboration among all sectors can make a difference.”

Dr.  John D. Welty, Fresno State President-Emeritus who founded and steered CVHEC to incorporation on Aug. 5, 2002, was presented a painted portrait upon his retirement in 2013.  The portrait, which hangs in the Henry Madden Library on campus alongside paintings of the university’s past presidents, was created by artist Joel Beery, a Fresno State graphic designer and alumnus.

 

• August 5, 2020 • CVHEC Digital Newsletter August 2020 issue.

Welcome Madera Community College!

The state’s 116th community college
celebrates accreditation, CCC  approval

Madera Community College made its official debut July 21 with a ribbon-cutting celebration after the California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted unan­imously the day before to recognize MCC as the 116th campus of the state’s community college system.

In June, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges granted accreditation to what until then was known as the Madera and Oakhurst Community College Centers affiliated with Reedley College of the State Center Community College District.

With the new designation, the  Madera Community College (4,780 enrollment) is no longer a satellite campus and will now receive funding for additional programs and staffing.  Over 80 percent of Madera Community’s students are from historically underrepresented populations and the school has been recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”President Ángel Reyna” link=”” color=”#33ACFF” class=”” size=”18″]“As a new college we want to be an institution that is student- and community-centered, and provides equitable outcomes for each of our students.”[/perfectpullquote]

President Ángel Reyna takes a place on the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium board of directors, joining 27 other Central Valley presidents and chancellors.

“This accomplishment is something that our community has been waiting for a long time and much needed,” Reyna said in a CCC Board of Governors article.

“It has been a collective and collaborative effort, and we look forward to the continued work to better serve our students as a college,” he said. “As a new college we want to be an institution that is student- and community-centered, and provides equitable outcomes for each of our students. To that end, we commit towards transforming ourselves into an anti-racist institution while producing the future workforce our community needs.”
 
See the July 21 ribbon-cutting video.
 
News coverage of Madera Community College:

Board of Governors Recognizes Madera Community College as the 116th Community College in California — California Community Colleges (07/20/20)
Madera Center becomes California’s newest community college — Fresno Bee (07/21/20)
The Central Valley’s Madera Community College becomes California’s newest community college — Ed Source (07/20/20)

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