President's Update November 14, 22
This morning I called Irene Day to wish her a happy 103rd birthday. Her grandson Michael Sekulic contacted me a few weeks back and provided me with the following information:
“Irene was raised with her two brothers by a single mother. There wasn’t much for the family to live on, and Irene did not attend high school because it was her responsibility to help her mother at home. At age 17, she returned to night school to receive her GED, after which she completed an associate degree in Cosmetology from Gavilan College. With this training, she took off to Australia and Europe to teach Cosmetology theory alongside other professionals, including Paul Mitchell and Vidal Sassoon.
Years later, she transferred to San Jose State University and graduated with an honors bachelor’s degree in Education. She decided to continue her education at the University of San Francisco, where she received her master’s and Ph.D. in Education with honors. Incredibly, throughout Irene’s pursuit of education, she was raising twin daughters and running a business she had started called Charm Cottage in Carmel. She also taught at Gavilan as a cosmetology instructor. As a teacher, she provided her students with the inspiration, skills, and opportunities to succeed as she did. She is my grandmother — a woman who is feisty, strong, and makes the best chicken enchiladas — and she is a trailblazer.”
Irene is a reminder of our mission to actively engage, empower and enrich students of all backgrounds and abilities to build their full academic, social, and economic potential.
Dual Enrollment
Dual enrollment is an area where our college has significant growth potential. Currently, Gavilan College enrolls approximately 400 high school students. Most of these enrollments come from our on-campus Gilroy Early College Academy (GECA) and our High Step program, which offers transfer-level courses on select high school campuses after school hours. In 2015, Assembly Bill (AB) 288 established the College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) partnership, allowing community college districts to partner with K–12 districts in offering college classes exclusively to high school students on high school campuses during their regular school day as part of their school schedule. The goal of CCAP is to increase college access to students who may be underrepresented in higher education. Unfortunately for Gavilan, we have not since established any CCAP partnerships and have missed out on increasing dual enrollments. The good news is that we are in the process of launching our first CCAP Dual Enrollment agreement with Hollister High School. Lelannie Mann, our Interim Director of Community Education and Career Pathways, is working with Hollister High School on an agreement to begin teaching two college classes this spring semester. We are treating this first agreement as a “pilot” that will allow us to establish processes and prepare to scale up CCAP agreements with all school districts within our service area. We are currently in the process of vetting this agreement with our faculty union and our Academic Senate. We are excited about this opportunity but want to be inclusive and deliberate as we establish these agreements.
Veteran’s Day
Thanks to our Veterans Resource Center for hosting: “Remember our Fallen Veterans Memorial Exhibit” at our Gilroy campus. I also want to express gratitude to all our Veteran students, Joshua Johnson (pictured below), all our employees, and their family members who have served our country. Thank you for your sacrifices and commitment to preserving our freedoms.
Chancellor’s Student Engagement, Enrollment and Success CEO Roundtable
I’m honored to be one of nine presidents/chancellors who were asked to serve on the Chancellor’s CEO Roundtable. At our first meeting, we discussed initiatives that work well at our colleges and shared challenges. While some of my colleagues on this roundtable are still trying to mitigate enrollment declines, I was proud to report that our college enrollments are bouncing back.
SER’s Farmworker Jobs Program
Last week we received a visit from Emma Treviño, SER’s Vice President of Program Operations. She came all the way from Texas to meet with us to discuss their farmworker assistance program and introduce us to their staff assigned to serve Santa Clara County. The US Department of Labor has awarded SER the National Farmworker Jobs Program. This program assists farm workers and their dependents in acquiring the necessary skills to advance in their jobs or obtain employment in new industries. Their services include paying students’ tuition, books, transportation, and childcare. They met with our El Centro and Continuing Education teams and will continue working directly with our programs to provide additional student support.
Club Day
This day is meant for students and staff to meet the clubs on campus and for the programs on campus to expand their outreach to the students. Last Wednesday we had around 100 people attend this event at our Student Center. Both Gavilan and GECA students attended. Good job ASGC!!
Google Career Certification Program
Thanks to cyber security instructor Mario Ramos who represented Gavilan College at the SBC LULAC/Google Career Certification Program open house.
Transfer Fair
Join me in a huge round of applause for Grace Cardinalli! After more than two years, due to COVID, Grace organized and delivered a very successful in-person Transfer Fair last Thursday. There were representatives from 24 universities, including UC, CSU and new online universities. Representatives provided information on admission requirements, major preparation, housing, financial aid, scholarships, and answered questions. In attendance were also two branches of the military, with local representatives. I want to thank the faculty members who walked over their classes to the Transfer Fair. We had more than 150 students attend this event! #GavilanIsBack!
