On Wednesday, September 29, Merritt College had the privilege of hosting a critical discussion on the topic, “What does the fight for LGBTQ+ rights have to do with Racial Justice?”
The conversation was led by Ms. Ronit Matabuena-Lev, who is a health educator, the founder of Bird and Bee Education (an organization dedicated to empowering young people to practice self-care for their physical, emotional, social, and sexual well-being), and a former classroom teacher.
Merritt College Planning Summit 2021
On Friday, September 17, Merritt held its annual Fall Planning Summit. Faculty, staff and administrators came together to engage in dialogue regarding the Educational Master Plan and the Accreditation Follow-Up Report. Planning Summit participants had critical conversations around what it means to “put students first,” and how to move beyond platitudes so that we can get to the work of meaningful equity-building.
Merritt College, which was a leader in moving away from assessment tests that wrongly placed students of color in remedial classes, and Barstow College, which has enhanced its student success rates through numerous support services, are the winners of the 2021 John W. Rice Equity and Student Success awards.
Congratulations to Berkeley City College student Davon Crawford, the winner of the 2021 CalWORKs award! Davon is a mother of four children and is studying to become a nurse. Her inspirational story and strong application helped her to win the award at a statewide level on February 25th. In March of 2021, Davon was invited by the CalWORKs Associate Board to perform as the keynote speaker on the student panel.
Two College of Alameda Automotive Technology (Atech) students, Yumeus (Missy) Taylor and Jorge Sandoval, were awarded Ozzie Day Scholarships this spring. As you can see from the photos below, both of them maintained social distancing protocols when they got their checks! All in-person Atech labs this semester have been running with full Covid protocols.
Congratulations to the hardworking journalists at The Peralta Citizen. Their efforts to keep our community informed from a student perspective have not gone unnoticed. The Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) recognized The Citizen during their statewide conference on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Among their many recognitions, The Citizen staff took home two meritorious awards in the Enterprise News Story/Series category, two honorable mentions for Profile Feature Story and placed fourth in the Video Journalism category.
