Solidarity in Mental Health Summit - Neurodiversity and Mental Wellness

By Yu Wathan Aung, BCC P2P Mental Health Ambassador

The BCC Wellness Center hosts a Mental Health Summit annually, and this year, it was held in collaboration with the Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Ambassadors team for the first time. It took place on 24th March, Friday at the Student Lounge on the fifth floor of Berkeley City College. The keynote speaker was Nina G, who is a comedian and a professional speaker. She is also the author of Stutterer Interrupted and Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History. The theme of the summit was conceived by our brilliant colleague, Aylin Navarrete. We chose to focus exclusively on Neurodiversity to celebrate the diversity in the human brains all around us. We wanted to shine a light on the broad spectrum of neurodiversity, such as ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, etc. This summit was designed in line with our mission to show solidarity in Mental Health and call on our community to join us in waking up, standing up, and lifting the needs of our most marginalized groups.

The MC for the summit was our fantastic colleague, Lola Pratt. Her energetic yet poised stage presence ensured a smooth flow of the facilitation of the event. The program began with our keynote speaker, Nina G, highlighting the idea of “neurodiversity” from “Disability to Neurodivergent”. Nina emphasized that “Disability is a social construct” which was echoed strongly by the participants. Our participants also got a chance to participate in Nina’s famous “Dyslexia dance”. The dance was aimed at letting the participants experience what it was like to be in the shoes of a dyslexic person to navigate their everyday life. Nina’s life story showcased how much more effort she needed to put in as a dyslexic person to carry out the same task as a neurotypical person.

We also had a panel discussion that involved neurodiverse folks with lived experiences. Some panelists were from agencies whose work assists neurodiverse folks in their daily needs. It was definitely eye-opening to hear from the perspectives of our neurodiverse folks. The struggles they faced and the stories they shared on how they overcame them were immensely inspiring. This discussion definitely highlighted the lacking nature of our system when it comes to being inclusive of our neurodiverse peers. Our system needs to change to better accommodate and include all neurodiverse peers. Agency panelists that are working on challenging the system shared their work on how they are trying to create these necessary changes. It was motivational to learn what they do to create these changes one at a time.

We are grateful to the organizing team for making this summit a success. We would also like to sincerely express our gratitude to Melina Winterton and Janine Greer for their guidance and wisdom in the execution of the summit. Lastly, we cannot be any more thankful and appreciative of all our enthusiastic participants who spent their Friday morning with us. We hope you took away something special from the summit. We promise never to stop speaking up and continue doing what we do to create a better world with love, as mentioned by our MC Lola in her closing remarks.

Event photos and videos can be viewed on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p2p_bcc/

ASBCC Members Take Part in SSCCC Conference

Four ASBCC members traveled to Long Beach for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges Conference (SSCCC) from March 31 through April 2. ASBCC President Mazin Saeed and Senators Kristiyan Klichev, Pierce Byrne, and Li Wan attended workshops covering running successful meetings with the post-Covid Brown Act requirements, understanding and navigating California’s budget processes, and previewing SSCCC’s three-year strategic plan, and more. This year’s keynote speaker was California Community College Interim Chancellor Dr. Daisy Gonzales, whose speech focused on marketing and outreach to students.

President Saeed took part in voting on the Spring resolutions and elections during the General Assembly, with consultation from the ASBCC Senate. This will be the last year President Saeed and Senator Wan will be serving on the ASBCC. Senator Klichev is running for ASBCC President and Senator Byrne is running for VP of Administration. The election will begin on Tuesday, April 11 at 8am and runs through Wednesday, April 12 just before midnight.

“Attending the various conference workshops allowed me to gain lots of information that I can’t wait to put into practice in my work at Berkeley City College. From student outreach strategies to fundraising ideas, the conference was packed with valuable insights,” said Senator Klichev. “Moreover, networking with other students in my field who are passionate about making a positive impact in the CC system made this conference that much more memorable.”

BCC Students Awarded Phi Theta Kappa All-California Honors

Congratulations to Berkeley City College students Nia Roberson-French and Ian Strieter for their recognition as Phi Theta Kappa All-California Winners. This year, 112 students were chosen from across the California Community College system in recognition for their grades, leadership, and community service.

To see the full list of award winners, visit here. To learn more about the BCC Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society chapter and how to get involved, visit here.

President Angélica Garcia Speaks at Annual AACC Conference

Berkeley City College President Dr. Angélica Garcia co-presented at a session titled “Fierce Women CEOs: Be One, Know One, Support One” during the annual American Association of Community College conference held in Denver, Colorado during April 1-4. President Garcia was joined by  Dr. Tawny Dotson, President of Yuba College, Dr. Tina King, President of San Diego College of Continuing Education, and Dr. Claudia Habib, President of Porterville College in a discussion that highlighted how to become a female CEO and how to support a female CEO through a transparent conversation about redefining the social construction of the CEO role.

Dr. Garcia’s portion of the session was highlighted in an article in the AACC publication, Community College Daily – an excerpt from that report reads:

“The panel of presidents, all from California colleges, each outlined how they were helping to redefine who a CEO is. Angelica Garcia, president of Berkeley City College, brought her wife and children to the session, partly to make a point that presidents are people, too, and they have to balance family life and other obligations. And she wanted her daughters to see her lead this conversation about women leaders.

‘Sometimes by our very nature we are dismantling the social construct of what is a CEO,’ Garcia said of women were who already presidents. [sic] ‘The more we step into those roles, the more we start to chip away at what a CEO should look like.’

But even when women lead colleges — and national surveys show there are more women community college CEOs than men — they face unique challenges. For example, in California, the average tenure of a community college president is five years — 5.3 years for men, and 3.7 years for women, Garcia said.

‘There’s something happening with female-identified CEOs not sitting in the seats long enough,’ she said, explaining that leaders who serve longer are more effective in bringing change.”

You can read the entire article here.

“Cali Vibes, Cultura y Música“ Coming to BCC

This year, Freight and Salvage is partnering with Berkeley City College to provide unique programming for 3 FREE musical and educational engagements on April 13, April 27, and May 11 during college hours in the BCC Atrium. Berkeley community members are welcome to join!

Featured artists in this series include Chicano music legend Mark Guerrero, veteran musician/educator Miguel Govea, recording artist La Doña, bilingual rapper/producer/beatmaker LiL MC, Filipinx playwright Lauren Garcia, and hip-hop artist Ruby Ibarra.

Freight & Salvage is a Berkeley-based non-profit community arts organization dedicated to promoting appreciation and understanding of traditional music from around the world via concerts in their venue and education programs onsite, online, and in the community.

The lineup of events is funded by Conocimiento Los Caminos, BCC’s inaugural DHSI (Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions) Grant from the US Department of Education. This collaboration between Freight & Salvage and BCC’s Conocimiento Los Caminos (CLC) project will support CLC’s goal to offer culturally affirming career development programming for our Latinx and underrepresented student communities.

Activist Art by Former BCC Student Featured at Vincent Price Art Museum

Artist and former BCC Student Kimberly Cross’s work is on display as part of the “What Would You Say? - Activist Graphics from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art” exhibit at the Vincent Price Art Museum at the East Los Angeles College campus in Monterey Park.

The show features posters from Cross’s 2003 project Another Poster for Peace (APAR) created in response to the Iraq War. Cross started by distributing stickers at local protests and grew the project, creating posters in collaboration with over 30 design and activist luminaries. The posters, hosted on Another Poster for Peace’s website, turned into the first viral digital, copyright-free distribution hub resulting in over 1 million downloads in 2003-04.

A select number of posters APAR posters are featured at the exhibit alongside design legends including Emory Douglas, Rupert Garcia, Wes Wilson, and Shepard Fairey.

Cross is the art director of Cakewalk Creative, a San Francisco-based branding studio that’s worked with a number of major companies including Noah’s Bagels and McRoskey Mattress Co. She attended BCC in 2017-18 and studied web programming and social media in classes instructed by Multimedia Art Chair Justin Hoffman and Professor Josh Dickinson. “I was looking to boost my professional skills. As a branding professional who got her degree in 1995, I felt like I was falling behind the times,” said Cross. “BCC classes helped me understand digital media and keep up with client needs. I’m hoping some of the work I started in Justin and Josh’s Social Media class may join Another Poster for Peace in a museum collection one day.”

The exhibit is running now through June 24. You can find out more here.

Welcoming New Hires at BCC

Berkeley City College is thrilled to have a new Assistant Chief of Engineering at BCC, Mr. Felix Smith, who has been with the Peralta Community College District (“PCCD”) since 2008 and at BCC since February 2023. Mr. Smith has a storied and progressive background beginning his PCCD career as an hourly custodian, progressed to Permanent Custodian, then Senior Store Keeper, and then placement as Head Custodian. Mr. Smith is not one to rest on his own laurels, so he embarked upon an engineering apprenticeship program in partnership with the District which has culminated with him being placed in his current role of Assistant Chief of Engineering.

Mr. Smith is locally trained and certified by attending 4 years of engineering school with Local 39 focusing on areas of electricity, air conditioning, refrigeration, boiler maintenance, and other systems training. When Felix is not perusing the Bay Area searching for the latest engineering industry update, he is traveling the world and building classic cars.

BCC is also pleased to announce Ms. Jenny Nghieu as the new hourly Account Clerk II in BCC’s Business Office. Ms. Nghieu will be supporting Bursar, Guang Chen, and supporting operations in the Business & Administrative Services office. Prior to joining BCC, Jenny was a staff accountant for over four years at TL Squared Accounting Firm, where she garnered experience in accounts payable, payroll, monthly billing, and prepared financial reports for monthly close.

Ms. Nghieu has long been associated with PCCD, starting at Laney College as a student worker in the Counseling department and earning an AA degree from College of Alameda and Laney in Accounting and Business Administration. She transferred to San Francisco State University and earned a bachelor’s degree Management. The Business and Administrative Services office is excited to welcome Jenny to our team!

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, April 11, 2023. To view it as a pdf, click here.