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CVHEC Summit 2023 features CCC Chancellor Sonya Christian keynote Oct. 20

 

‘Homecoming’ for former CVHEC board member

now leading California Community Colleges

 

Dr. Sonya Christian, chancellor of the California Community Colleges, will return “home” Oct. 20 when she delivers the keynote for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2023 in Fresno.

With the theme “Student Success through Equity and Inclusion — Thriving in the Central Valley,” the summit will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at the Fresno Convention Center’s Ernest E. Valdez Exhibit Hall.

About 200 higher education officials and educators, legislators and partner representatives are expected to attend the summit sponsored by the College Futures Foundation.

The quarterly meeting of the CVHEC’s board of directors – the chancellors, presidents and campus directors of the consortium’s 28 member colleges and universities in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern – will precede the summit on Oct. 19.

CVHEC’s Welcoming & Networking Reception also will be the day before the summit at 5:30 p.m. at the Valdez Hall Breezeway, following the board meeting, providing an opportunity to connect with other attendees and the CVHEC Board of Directors in an informal relaxed setting.

The summit, which will also include a panel of students providing first-hand experiences in their higher education journey, will feature conversations on:

Chancellor Christian, whose keynote Friday will be at 9:15 a.m., made history as the first woman and first Asian-American, as well as a first-generation college graduate, named chancellor of the state’s community college system when she was appointed Feb. 23.

The chancellor served on the CVHEC board when she was president of consortium member Bakersfield College from 2013 to 2021 and more recently when she was chancellor of member Kern Community College District from 2021 to May until assuming the CCC top spot June 1.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, said the board looks forward to welcoming back its former colleague.

“The California Community Colleges Board of Governors made a wise choice by selecting a leader who has proven she understands California’s community colleges and will advocate on their behalf at the state and national level,” Dr. Durán said when Dr. Christian was appointed.

“Chancellor Christian understands the needs and challenges of community colleges in the rural areas of California and the students and communities they serve.”

The remainder of the summit on Friday includes a “Federal Legislative Update” by Congressman Jim Costa and Dr. Hans Johnson, of the Public Policy Institute of California, presenting “The Central Valley Landscape.”

“Central Valley Transfer Model: The Breakthrough” will be the topic of the day’s first panel presented by CVHEC’s Transfer Project team of Dr. James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education, UC Merced; Dr. Craig Hayward, dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College; and facilitated by team lead Stan Carrizosa, president-emeritus of College of the Sequoias who currently serves as a CVHEC regional coordinator.

In the past year, the Transfer Project team has delivered presentations on their progress throughout the state and nation as the CVHEC initiative, with its historic Mapper Project, has become a national model.

“The Central Valley Transfer Project includes streamlined processes for CC and CSU/UC faculty to collaborate like never before,” he added. “This has not only provided clear and easily accessible transfer pathways for students but builds a community of Higher Education instructors who care about and support each other’s success!”

The morning session ends with a panel on “Different Approaches to Equitable Dual Enrollment” including Dr. Lynn Cevallos, president of College Bridge, discussing the Math Bridge dual enrollment project now underway in two CVHEC initiatives (EIR and K-16).

Following lunch, the panel “Online Educational Resources / Zero Textbook Costs” with James Preston, president of West Hills College-Lemoore and a CVHEC board member.

This panel will discuss how CVHEC is in the process of creating its Zero Textbook Costs/Open Educational Resources Task Force to strategize about pursuing state funding available for this movement that has led to significant savings for students as well as improved materials quality.  This summer, the project received a $580,180.00 state grant through the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative Mini-Grant Award  to begin Phase 1.

Also featured will be a panel of Central Valley college students sharing their experiences with Math Bridge; dual enrollment (earned an AA); OER; and CVHEC’s Transfer Project.

(NOTE: Panelist names and final agenda will be announced in the next CVHEC newsletter issue).

Registration for the free event and Summit updates are available at https://cvhec.org/event/2023-cvhec-summit/ or email Angel Ramirez, operations manager, at centralvalleyhec@gmail.com.

 

MEDIA INQUIRIES

CVHEC: Tom Uribes, cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu (559.348.3278)

 

Registration:  CVHEC 2023 Higher Education Summit Registration, Fri, Oct 20, 2023 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite

  

ABOUT CVHEC

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a California non-profit made up of 28-instutitions of higher education in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern that is the size of some states. Through CVHEC, higher education professionals and academicians in the Central Valley address difficult and complex initiatives, scaling them up across the region for mutual effectiveness to serve our students and communities.  

CVHEC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (September 2023)

An ambitious fall 2023 semester!

 

Greetings Colleagues and Friends of CVHEC,

Welcome to the fall 2024 semester and the September edition of the CVHEC e-Newsletter. We hope the summer provided you with an opportunity to enjoy some personal time to recharge, reconnect with family and perhaps finally get some long-planned travel in.

WITH THIS EDITION of our newsletter, we announce phase one of the CVHEC Open Educational Resources  Improvement Project  introduced previously: the awarding to member West Hills Community College District of a $580,180 mini-grant from the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative.

 This funding will expand on West Hills College-Lemoore’s pioneer work with faculty and instructional administrators  developing OER/ZTC textbooks, courses and pathways that serve area institutions and their feeder high schools in a collaboration of CVHEC members in the WHCCD and State Center Community College District (Fresno, Madera, Clovis, Reedley colleges) leading to a full ZTC degree pathway in Elementary Education shared with project stakeholders that immediately serves the Fresno-Madera areas. CVHEC’s OER/ZTC efforts will be scaled throughout across the Central Valley.

AS NOTED IN previous newsletters, we are delighted by the appointment of our own Dr. Sonya Christian, former chancellor of the Kern Community College District, as the new leader of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the start of her tenure June 1.  Now, we are further delighted to announce that Chancellor Christian will join us as the keynote speaker to open our annual CVHEC Summit scheduled for Friday, Oct. 20.  See the save-the-date and registration information in this issue.  We hope you are planning on joining us for the summit.

AND FINALLY, WE are pleased to present in this issue’s “What in the CVHEC is Happening” blog  a special back-to-school message also by Dr. Spevak. He shares an email he received from a former student who attributes his success today to teachers like John, a former English teacher and vice-president emeritus of Merced College. It’s a timely message as so many educators return to the classroom for the fall semester and that ever-gratifying sense of making a difference in students’ lives. Cheers to teachers everywhere!

Enjoy our newsletter and may you all get off to a great start this fall.

UPDATE – CVHEC 2023 Summit re-scheduled for Oct. 20

(UPDATE MAY 26, 2023) – CVHEC SUMMIT RE-SCHEDULED:  The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Higher Education Summit 2023 originally set for May has been rescheduled for Oct.  20, 2023. The CVHEC Board of Directors, which will meet the day before the summit (Thursday, Oct. 19), confirmed the new summit dates at its spring quarterly meeting May 11.

As we get closer to the May 12, 2023 date we had set aside for our annual CVHEC Summit, it has come to our attention that a number of conflicts not apparent when we first identified that date have arisen.  After considerable reflection and mixed feelings, we have decided that it would be in the best interest of our CVHEC family and friends to postpone and re-schedule the annual summit to coincide with the fall CVHEC Board of Directors meeting in October 2023.

The quarterly CVHEC Board of Directors Summit remains scheduled for Thursday, May 11. The board of directors will confirm the October summit dates at this quarterly meeting.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and look forward to seeing you later this year. Thank you for your continued support and collegiality. Watch our monthly e-newsletter and social media platforms for updates.

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.

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

CVHEC Director’s Message: Turning the Corner

 Greetings colleagues,

I am happy to present our February CVHEC e-Newsletter amidst recent encouraging news showing our country may be turning the corner on this historic pandemic that has transformed the way we deliver instruction and services to our students in the region.

With that in mind, we are pleased to announce that this spring CVHEC will return to in-person convenings with two major events for the Valley’s education community, pandemic conditions permitting.

The first event March 17 will bring the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force together with regional and statewide partners.  See details in this issue.

For our second event, CVHEC leaders are excited about the return of our annual Legislative and Policy Summit in the late spring – details to follow in next month’s issue.  The Summit has been on “pandemic hiatus” since 2019 and many are anxious to come together in person to follow up on much progress that our Valley higher education community has been pursuing.

Additionally, CVHEC will hold other professional development and regional meetings in-person when campus COVID regulations allow.

Also in this issue, we announce a new round of mini-grants launching this spring throughout the Central Valley. For the last three years, CVHEC has been able to offer this funding to member colleges and universities in the Central Valley providing opportunities for faculty and staff to target areas on their campuses that have been identified by the Consortium as regional strategies and priorities. We invite our member institutions to utilize this opportunity for services that can help your students.

Finally, we are especially pleased to publish the fourth installment of our “What the CV-HEC is Happening Blog”  that features an entry by former CVHEC team member Virginia Madrid-Salazar, Esq. regarding dual enrollment from the personalized perspective of a parent of a high school student benefiting from taking college courses at his local high school. Dual enrollment is one of the equity strategies CVHEC is pursuing throughout the region and Virginia’s blog is a great warm-up for the CVDEEP Convening next month. I am proud to note that Virginia was instrumental in developing our CVDEEP Task Force while she was with us. We appreciate her taking some time from her busy law practice that she began last summer.

We hope you enjoy our newsletter for the month and we welcome your feedback

A NEW YEAR: Recharged for a Dynamic 2022

Hello friends and colleagues of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC)!

With 2022 well underway, we are pleased to share with you our first e-newsletter of the year.  We at CVHEC wish you a dynamic start to the spring 2022 semester with hopes of reaching some sort of a new normal that will lead us to working, meeting our students and convening in-person in the near future.

Though 2021 was a challenging and unprecedented year for us all, CVHEC members and partners were fully engaged in working to deliver productive educational programs for our students and valuable professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff in the region.  This  month’s newsletter provides a brief summary and reminder of the good work that was done in the Central Valley this past year.

Among these are our  Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program; announcement of our  CVHEC Equity, Race and Social Justice Taskforce; success stories about our dual enrollment efforts featuring some of our Central Valley students as well as innovative initiatives undertaken with our popular CVHEC Mini-Grant Program; our communications initiatives resulting in ongoing development of this e-newsletter including  a new blog feature, development of our public information officers/communications committee and a video on broadband disparity, one of three videos we are producing; our historic  CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project and the appointment of several new chief executives for member campuses.

This newsletter will also provide a preview of higher education efforts to come in the valley this year.

Be on the lookout for a continuation of the work around equity and inclusion in member institutions through our Equity Task Force, the pursuit of dual enrollment as an equity strategy in rural parts of the Valley and the Consortium providing assistance in creating K16 collaboratives in the north and south counties of the region.

CVHEC is also partnering with state and regional advocates to work to bring broadband to rural parts of the Central Valley to ensure that internet connectivity and bandwidth are no longer a barrier for our students and residents.

Also, the CVHEC Board of Directors is considering conditions that will allow for delivering our annual Legislative and Policy Summit in an in-person setting later in the spring, for the first time since 2019.

Needless to say, while the pandemic has put the squeeze on all of us the past two years, we are more determined than ever to conquer that challenge as we have so many others. To that end, we look forward to continued partnerships with you all in the coming year.

Contact Us

  • centralvalleyhec@gmail.com

  • 559.292.0576

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