On Thursday, March 25, 2021, the Peralta Colleges Foundation held a virtual event and auction March Madness: Race Toward Building Careers. The incredibly successful event raised $30,000 to be used for student scholarships.
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is the only national, nonprofit association with a primary focus on information dissemination, professional development, and legislative and regulatory analysis related to federal student aid programs.
We are pleased to announce that Karen Seneferu has been selected to be a part of the YBCA 100, an annual list of honorees compiled by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco that celebrates the everyday heroes—artists, activists, and community leaders—for their extraordinary commitment to building sustainable, equitable, and regenerative communities. Karen is a member of the English Department faculty at Merritt College.
Educators from peer institutions across the Western Association of Schools and Colleges conducted virtual site visits of the Peralta Community College District and the four colleges last week, March 1-4. These peer reviews were conducted on behalf of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and were part of an accreditation process that included the Special Reports we submitted last November and the Institutional Self Evaluation Reports (ISERs) submitted in December 2020. The visits went well. We’re writing to share with you some preliminary good news that we received during the accreditation site visits last week.
Given Merritt’s history and cultural significance, and the fact that half-way into February, here are some thoughts about Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson—the second African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—was the driving force behind the creation of Black History Month.
Dear Peralta Community,I’ve been reading a book entitled, The Alchemist. It’s by Paulo Coelho, an author from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’s a really wonderful book. Here is a quote from the inside cover: "This enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a [fortune teller], a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.” |
Part of the Peralta Colleges' commitment to the full breath of it's community is efforts at the college and district level to provide targeted services for groups typically underserved by higher education.
Merritt College's Next UP program works to provide a smooth transition to college for current and former foster youth students, with the goal of creating an engaging, inclusive, and equitable community in which current and former foster youth can attain their educational, career, and personal goals. The program provides a “One-Stop-Shop” that offers personalized assistance with educational goals by offering holistic services such as academic counseling, personal support, book grants, transportation, tutoring, food, emergency housing, and referrals to community resources like transportation; tutoring; food; and emergency housing.
The Peralta District and Merritt College welcome Henry Mai as the new Merritt College Web Content Developer. We look forward to his work to modernize Merritt's web presence to better serve our community. A little introduction from Henry:
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is visiting (virtually) the Peralta Community College District on December 16 and 17 to follow up on our Colleges’ accreditation submittals, specifically the Special Reports submitted on November 1, 2020.
While the Colleges remain fully accredited during a probationary period announced by ACCJC in January 2020, we are pleased to report that the District and Colleges are making progress on removing that probationary status.
As you may recall, the probationary status was not about academics or education, but solely about finances and organizational matters.
The ACCJC required the Colleges to provide additional evidence of financial improvement. That is exactly what College of Alameda, Berkeley City, Laney and Merritt Colleges have done, and we believe the reported results are excellent.
We are confident the colleges have addressed the ACCJC concerns and have demonstrated each campus meets the requirements to be removed from probationary status.
Each of the four Colleges reported growing enrollments and services to students through online winter and spring intersession offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the campuses successfully conducted marketing and outreach campaigns to potential students seeking online instruction in California State University and University of California-transferable courses.
All of the four Colleges noted increases in their individual “Dual Enrollment Programs,” which offers high school students an early start on their career technical education and opportunities to earn units toward their college degree.
The Colleges partner with high schools in Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda to promote educational equity by offering empowering, transformative educational experiences to local high school students.
By increasing the Colleges’ offerings to high schools these new enrollments hopefully mean these students will have already begun their college experience by the time they graduate high school, giving them both a head start in college as well as saving them money.
