Laney student Leah Vass wrote an excellent story about how she managed to combine her curiosity about what she could do in the Laney FabLab and a course in the Culinary Arts Department about confections into a new career. These, combined with training in the Graphic Arts Department led her to start a company making chocolates for social and corporate events.
In 2018, the Laney College Asian Pacific American Student Success (APASS) program worked with Laney College Dean of Enrollment Mildred Lewis, Ed.D. to create a multilingual Welcome Video to introduce students to Laney College to let students know they can call Laney College their home. Featuring over a dozen of diverse students representing the cultural richness of the campus and Oakland, making the video was a labor of love for the all-volunteer cast. Shot in just one day and edited over several weeks with students speaking Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and other languages, the welcome video has been shown at recruitment fairs, orientations and other community events. In fact, the video is the embedded in the Laney College homepage and is amongst the first impressions visitors have of Laney College.
We thought we'd share some impressions of the season of the Netflix series Last Chance U which featured our very own Laney Eagles.
An article on Screen Rant explores what happened to the players once the cameras were turned off. Read it here
And a piece on SF Gate describes the show as "a love letter to Oakland". From the article:
Feke Tutuila, a second year student athlete and secretary of Wayfinder, the Pacific Islander student club at Laney College, was an invited panelist on a CalMatters webinar in August with state chancellor Dr. Eloy Oakley. Feke, a member of the Laney College football team recently featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U, asked Oakley how he plans to improve language accessibility for students who do not speak English well. Oakley said the number one priority is to hire more faculty of color, including those who speak other languages.
Oakland, CA – Laney College’s APASS (Asian Pacific American Student Success) program was awarded a prestigious $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education AANAPISI (Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution) grant to support job training, job placement and career pathways for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and Asian American Pacific Islander students. While Laney College has received two previous AANAPISI grants, this is the first grant that specifically supports job training and placement for AAPI and ESOL students.
The Fall 2020 semester has begun at all four Peralta Colleges and we are excited to welcome students to classes again. Online learning can be challenging but there are many resources available for students from each of the colleges.
Student Services
Each college offers a wide variety of student services.
Here are links to each campus's student resources:
Berkeley City College
College of Alameda
Laney College
Merritt College
Season Five of the Netflix series Last Chance U. debuted on July 28, 2020 and features coverage of Head Football Coach John Beam and the Laney College Eagles Football team over the course of the Fall 2019 season. The series has received positive reviews and in a way has turned Coach Beam and student-athletes Dior Walker-Scott, RJ Stern, Nu'u Taugavau, and Rejzohn Wright into celebrities. Have you watched the series yet?
The free food giveaway programs at the Peralta Colleges we first announced in May and which now include all four colleges are certainly good news for students and the community. And now the program is in the news! Maaziq Madyun, a reporter for KRON TV Channel 4 recently stopped by the College of Alameda and filmed the following story, "East Bay grab-and-go lunch program helps fight food insecurity during pandemic," which was broadcast across the Bay area. The story is also available online here: https://gems.peralta.edu/all-four-colleges-now-offering-free-meals
We here in the Peralta community welcome Dr. Rudy Besikof as Laney College’s Interim President. He has been at the college since 2018, when he was hired as its Vice President of Instruction, the same position he previously held at Mt. San Jacinto College for more than two years prior to joining Laney. Prior to becoming a Chief Instructional Officer in 2016, he served for five years as a dean, first at Woodland Community College as its Dean of Instruction and Learning Resources, and later at Los Angeles Valley College as a Dean of Academic Affairs. Prior to becoming an administrator in 2011, Dr. Besikof taught English and English as a Second/Foreign Language in two and four-year colleges not only in California, but also in Colorado, Japan, and France.
The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees were extremely busy in July following the unexpected resignation of Chancellor Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud on July 16, 2020.
