BCC:  Helping Our Community Through the Holidays

Just before the holiday break, Berkeley City College collaborated with the Berkeley Food Network in providing food to students for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We gave away free frozen chickens, pumpkin puree, beans, stuffing, canned fruit, rice, and other goodies! Many of the students who came to pick up food expressed their gratitude for helping them have a meal during the November holiday break. What a wonderful way to put a smile on someone’s face!

Berkeley City College Holiday Celebration

Join us for a fun celebration with activities. Friday, December 17th, 2021 from 4-5pm

• Ugly Sweater Contest - Whose the ugliest of them all?
• Virtual Background Competition
• Holiday Themed
• Basket Prizes for Winners of Activities

Virtually at: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/99617458118

In-Person: Room 451

Berkeley City College Students Win California Film Awards!

The PCCD Peralta Gems provided a congratulatory article about two BCC students, Mareen Poitras and Gail Feldman, who were winner of two California Film Awards for 2021. The following are excerpts from the article:

Congratulations to the BCC students Mareen Poitras and Gail Feldman, the winners of two California Film awards for 2021! Mareen Poitras, a Video Production student, was recognized by The California Film Institute with the DocPitch Audience Award. Gail Feldman, a Multimedia Arts student, received the 2021 Berkeley Film Foundation grant. Congratulations to Mareen Poitras, the director of “Finding the Money”, and Gail Feldman, director of “Orchestra from Oil Drums”

Link to “Finding the Money”’s pitch on DocPitch

Link to 2022 Berkeley Film Foundation awardees

Mareen Poitras received the 2021 DocPitch Audience Award from The California Film Institute for her documentary called “Finding the Money”, a film that raises topics such as national debts, tax returns and the controversial new economic theory dubbed Modern Monetary Theory, also known as MMT. Mareen studied Video Production at BCC in 2017. While a student at Peralta, she started thinking and developing her film idea by doing some research in economic topics.

Asked about what message she leaves for those students who would like to enter the film industry, she says “I have applied for many grants. The DocPitch is the first one I got. They are incredibly difficult to get. I mean it is just really high competition. You need to have passion for your project. A lot of passion, perseverance, determination because you are going to get a lot of frustrations. A lot of denials. But there are a lot of opportunities to get involved in the industry. I would just say start whenever you can and just get involved”

Two months later, after Mareen received her grant, it was Gail Feldman’s turn to receive the Berkeley Film Foundation 2021 Award for her documentary “Orchestra from Oil Drums”. “Orchestra from Oil Drums” is a film about the story of San Francisco’s first Caribbean steel drum band founded by young West Indian immigrants in 1973. Gail’s interest in the story of the Caribbean steel drum band came from her passion for steel drum. Gail plays the instrument, and she mentioned her interest in filming steel drum musicians to her music teacher at BCC.

“I was taking a documentary filmmaking class in the Multimedia Arts Program at Berkeley City College (BCC) and wanted to do a film about steel drum musicians in the Bay Area. I play the steel drum and mentioned my interest to my music teacher. He told me this great story that I wasn’t aware of about the Caribbean Revelers (he was a member of the original band)”, shares Gail. We are proud to have such amazing talent representing the very best of Berkeley City College.

For the full article, please go to PCCD Peralta Gems.

Berkeley City College Reaching Out to Students Through Text

Change happens continually, therefore it is important for us to adapt to those changes. You see it happening – students are checking their texts for communication instead of picking up a call or reading an email. To encourage student registration for the Spring 2022 semester, Berkeley City College reached out to priority student groups (CalWorks, SAS, EOPS, Veterans, Umoja, and FYE) as well as general students to remind them of their registration date. Students have told us that they appreciated the gentle reminder to register for their spring classes!

BCC West – If you Build It, They Will Come

Berkeley City College held a BCC West Campus Forum on November 22 to present an update on the status of 2118 Milvia Street.

Over 60 were in attendance as our Project Management Team; Kitchell, Design Architects; Ratcliff, and VPAS; Sean Brooks, provided an overview of the schedule and preliminary design.

BCC also held a series of Builder User Group Meetings the week of 11/29/21 to build enthusiasm for the project and the opportunity for the user groups to provide impressions. We will be back to our community again in the Spring with further updates and engagement forums.

Berkeley City College:  Getting Our Community Vaccinated

Berkeley City College has partnered with the City of Berkeley and Carbon Health to provide vaccination shots to children in the atrium on the following days: 12/1, 12/7, 12/14, 12/21, 1/11, and 1/18 between 11am – 6pm. On 12/1 the clinic opened to any age so adults on site were also able to get booster shots. We are proud to be part of the effort to ensure the safety of our community. In addition, all the free BCC swag that we put out was appreciated by the community who came by and picked them up!

President Garcia Joins National Network of Presidents for Latinx Student Success

Excelencia in Education, the nation’s premier authority in efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education announced that Berkeley City College President Angélica Garcia has joined Presidents for Latino Student Success (P4LSS) and the Excelencia in Action network. Joining this network connects Berkeley City College and President Garcia to a national network of 134 leaders and university presidents committed to accelerating Latinx student success in higher education.  Together, the P4LSS network of institutions collectively serves one in three Latino graduates across the U.S. “I am excited to collaborate with Excelencia and P4LSS to leverage our collective expertise, build partnerships and bring our current efforts to the national level,” shared President Garcia, adding “I recognize the transformational and liberatory nature of a degree. It’s something I’ve experienced personally.” To learn more about Presidents for Latinos Student Success or Excelencia in Education, please visit www.edexcelencia.org/leadership/presidents-latino-student-success

BCC Social Work and Human Services CE Program Highlighted at Guided Pathways 2.0 Institute

Dean Lisa Cook and HUSV Faculty Melina Winterton presented “Mapping Certificates into Transfer Pathways” at this year’s Guided Pathways Institute. They were specifically invited as so few CCCs have successfully mapped career education certificates to AD-T programs. They shared how BCC followed best practices to expand the dialogue about what comes after the community college credential, ensured that CTE programs lead to family supporting jobs/careers, and recognized that arts & sciences degrees from community colleges have limited value in the workforce unless clearly connected to baccalaureate programs. Lisa and Melina emphasized the importance of Administration and Faculty alliances and the value of meticulous planning, visioning, and community relationship development to launch successful CE-to-ADT programming. The sessions were highly attended, with over 40 participants.

BCC Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion (DE4EC) Project Launch

We are excited to share that Berkeley City College has been awarded a grant of $300,000 by the College Futures Foundation to support identifying, adopting and institutionalizing core elements of Dual Enrollment for Equitable Completion (DE4EC) that are aligned to Guided Pathways.

We are transforming our dual enrollment structures and systems to ensure the success of our Black, Indigenous (and) People of Color (BIPOC), low-income, and first-generation scholars as they transition through high school and into post-secondary pathways.

BCC’s commitment to implementing dual enrollment guided pathway structures through a student-centered equity framework is evident in our collaborative launch events this November and December. Faculty, classified professionals, administrators, and high school partners are working collectively to continue dreaming up the vision and plan for this work.

BCC Integrated HyFlex Task Force for Pilot Project

BCC is committed to providing an equitable and effective teaching and learning pedagogy that is relevant to today’s (post- COVID – 19 pandemic) need of the students. Nationwide, the HyFlex teaching and learning modality is gaining much traction for discussion and many of the higher education institutions in California have adopted this modality. In essence, HyFlex combines two different learning modalities to support student learning (e.g. face-to-face, online, both). HyFlex teaching and learning modality provides some benefits to the students such as raising their self-awareness, providing flexible access to learning, and cost effectiveness. We would like to ensure; however, that we know that this pedagogy is appropriate and effective for community-college students, especially at BCC.

In order for us to answer these questions and engage in a comprehensive research and development process, BCC embarked upon establishing a BCC Integrated HyFlex Task Force. This group was endorsed by the BCC Academic Senate as well as Roundtable for Budgeting and Planning on November 5, 2021. Per Dr. Jackson’s request, Dr. Cora Leighton and VPI Hay presented BCC’s plan at the November 19th Participatory Governance Council meeting.

The Task Force will consist of 1-2 members from the following participatory governance and other groups:

This integrated Task Force will conduct research and development about the HyFlex pedagogy to inform a well-planned pilot program that will lead to making a decision about whether such teaching and learning would support our students. The implementation timeline and activities are summarized below:

BCC is in the process of clarifying the Student Attendance Accounting from the State Chancellor’s Office, relative to this modality, as well as accurately capturing the FTES accordingly. This collaborative work includes engaging colleagues across the PCCD Technology department, the PCCD Academic and Student Affairs Division, as well as relevant bargaining units throughout the exploration of this project.

Vaccination for Berkeley’s Kids

Beginning in December and continuing through January, Berkeley City College will be the center for kids’ vaccination and other community members who attend school or college, and live or work in the City of Berkeley. Starting December 1st, BCC hosted 200 future BCC Scholars between the ages of 5-12 receive their first and second vaccinations. Our future BCC Scholars were treated to BCC branded notebooks, high five highlighters, and BCC Jelly Beans. BCC will continue to make the atrium a safe, welcoming and fun environment for our future scholars as they receive their vaccinations. Throughout the rest of December and January BCC will serve approximately 300 patients at each clinic in collaboration with the City of Berkeley and Carbon Health. Future vaccination clinic dates: Dec 7th, Dec 14th, Dec 21st, Jan 11th and Jan 18th.

Umoja Scholars Back to BCC In Person Community Event

After one and half years of virtual community gatherings, the Umoja Scholars program met in person at Sideshow Oakland on Stanford and Market. In an outdoor space, Umoja scholars gathered to share poems and hear spoken word poets perform. For many of these students, it was the first time meeting their peers since joining the college and Umoja Scholars program. One of the Umoja Scholars brought two special guests, her twin daughters, to share with them the community that has given her hope, energy and motivation to reach her oal of degree and transfer. The owner of Sideshow donated $200.00 in food and drink to the event so each student was treated to a meal and a drink.

This article is taken from the President’s Report, written by Dr. Angélica Garcia, Berkeley City College President, that was presented to the PCCD Board of Trustees during their regular meeting on Tuesday, December 14, 2021. To view as a pdf click here