Merritt College Partners with Cultural Curators

Merritt College is partnering with two cultural curators to expand our reach into the community and attract students to our programs. The first collaboration is with Rod Campbell of Dope Only Marketing and will begin on July 1, 2023. This collaboration will enable us to recruit and retain a cohort of underserved, motivated high school students who are interested in beginning a Pre-Med/STEM pathway at the College. The objective is to have these students graduate from high school with college credit, and then have them spend one year at Merritt to meet their transfer requirements to a four-year institution in Pre-Med or STEM. The program will also focus on financial literacy so as to prepare students to make sound fiscal planning decisions once they enter the workforce. We will recruit additional students in the second year to fortify the enrollment pipeline, and we are utilizing Student Equity and Guided Pathways funds to support the effort.

The second partnership is with Tenina Stephens, a recording artist better known as “Suga T” and the sister of rap icon E-40. Ms. Stephens is the founder of Sprinkle Me Social Enterprises, an organization that focuses on life skills, personal transformation, and wellness. Our partnership will focus on attracting underserved students to enter and complete the Computer Information Systems / Cybersecurity Pathway at Merritt. At the end of their second year in the cohort, eligible students will also be able to participate in an apprenticeship in CIS and apply for living wage jobs in cybersecurity. Students may also pursue transfer by working toward the Infrastructure Security or Applications Security AS-T degrees. CAI grant and Omnibus funds will be used to fund this project. The plan is to start recruitment efforts beginning August 1, 2023

Merritt Summer Events

As we move into the summer session, I want remind everyone that we have some great upcoming events on campus. On Friday, June 16, the ASMC and Merritt’s Sankofa Program are jointly hosting a Juneteenth Event. The celebration will take place in the Newton-Seale Student Lounge from 1pm to 4pm, and is open to the entire community. I also encourage faculty, staff, and administrators to attend the upcoming Oakland Soul Soccer Match hosted at Merritt College. The Soul take on the San Francisco Glens on July 3rd at 2pm, and as a token of our appreciation the President’s Office will give away free tickets to the first twenty people who request them. Hope to see you there!

This article is taken from the President’s Report, written by Dr. David M. Johnson, Merritt College President, that was presented to the PCCD Board of Trustees during their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. To view the report as a pdf, click here.