February 2024

NFN News Center

ChicoSTART’s ‘growTECH FEST’ Powers Optimism for Northern California Tech Sector

California is justifiably proud of its reputation as a mecca for tech professionals and entrepreneurs, with roughly 1.5 million* jobs currently filled in the sector across the state. Meanwhile, the North-Far North is keeping pace in its own right, boasting a faster-than-average nine-percent percent-projected growth** for business and entrepreneurship.

Ensuring that there are qualified workers available to step into those jobs at an entry level is a priority for California’s community colleges. It’s also the reason that ChicoSTART, an entrepreneurial and tech hub in downtown Chico, was created. With the goal of keeping that pipeline filled with skilled workers who can support the Northern California entrepreneurship and tech ecosystem, it’s the go-to place for students eager to tour various companies, network with entrepreneurs and industry professionals, get tech assistance, and learn about internships and industry events. ChicoSTART serves all 22 counties in the North Far North region and has a relationship with all the Northern California colleges.

“All start-ups need interns and all interns need exposure,” says Eva Sheperd-Nicoll, executive director of ChicoSTART and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. “We work with California community colleges because they create the pathways to those industries and are all about support and growing business for the future.

“ChicoSTART provides resources for students and faculty by giving them access to accelerators.”

Delivering that access is the driving force behind growTECH FEST, a ChicoSTART initiative launched four years ago. Featuring companies representing banking, software, hardware, fintech, AI and consumer goods, growTECH Fest offers a smorgasbord of opportunity for students seeking to make connections with various industry professionals. Besides the industry speakers and entrepreneurial icons in attendance, there’s a student start-up portion where students can present their ideas at a roundtable, are asked the hard questions, and are given a chance to meet potential investors. Students come from different areas of study, including agriculture, natural sciences and engineering.

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Futures in Focus: Yuba College Partnership Brings CTE to Wheatland Union High School

Wheatland High School K-12 CTE Pathways

Wheatland Union High School students are doing more than just thinking ahead… they’re seeing the future.

A unique partnership between Wheatland Union High School and Yuba College is setting students up for CTE success. Thanks to articulated courses offered through its neighbor up the 65, Wheatland students are building career foundations in in-demand industries – from agriculture to business, education, healthcare and more – before they even graduate high school.

The Get Focused, Stay Focused curriculum implemented at WUHS allows students to take a foundational course as freshman to map out a 10-year career plan. It’s a novel approach that compels participants to engage their futures faster, according to Carol Keiser, Director of CTE & College Readiness and Business Teacher in the Wheatland Union High School District.

“Every freshman goes through this class where they’re essentially creating a 10-year plan for success,” Keiser explains. “They’re not just working on a four-year traditional education plan, but they’re really planning out their lives 10 years beyond high school, and then back planning from there.

“They can use that time purposefully to gain the skills that they need to start moving into careers that pay higher than minimum wage right out of high school.”

The Strong Workforce-funded CTE pathways are continuously developing as industry needs surge. Popular pathways amongst WUHS students include Animal Science, Agriculture, Patient Care, Game Design and Integration, Video Production, Education, and Public Safety. Many of the CTE pathways for WUHS hold dual enrollment opportunities at Yuba College to ensure a smooth transition for students after graduating high school.

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News

From Nontraditional to Essential:

The Adult Learner Revolution

Higher education will always play a role in adult learners ’lives. In the past, adult learners were considered nontraditional students better served by community colleges. And right now, though that population has great potential, their enrollment is still decreasing within our colleges. Recruitment is key to boosting enrollment, and higher education leaders are always looking for the low-hanging fruit. It is easier to recruit high school students than to make additional efforts to reach adult learners.

https://evolllution.com/from-nontraditional-to-essential-the-adult-learner-revolution

Managing Complexity (and chaos) in Times of Crisis

Dave Snowden of The Cynefin Company (formerly Cognitive Edge) is the creator of the Cynefin Framework and originated the design of SenseMaker®, the world’s first distributed ethnography tool. He is the lead author of Managingcomplexity (and chaos) in times of crisis: A field guide for decision-makers, a shared effort between the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, and the Cynefin Centre.

What we enjoy most about Dave's work is how clearly it applies to those of us working on complex social challenges (like increasing postsecondary attainment or improving economic mobility).

Most notably, tools like SenseMaker help keep context in strategy design and decision making.  It is difficult to make real and lasting change in social systems when the analytical tools we use seek to control or remove context.  Social system redesign is fundamentally a social process, and requires different approaches and tools that allow voice, perspective, and positionality to remain in the data.  

While Dave and his team at Cynefin have dozens of examples of how these tools and processes are being used throughout the world, we don’t have to look far to see how partnerships are putting this principles intopractice.

• KConnect in Kent County, MI (Grand Rapids) uses several approaches to center community voice in strategy development and execution. Already an exemplar for their work in education, KConnect is leading a significant effort to address their local housing crisis.  Learn more by watching Finding Home: America’s Housing Crisis in County County - a 30-minute documentary following their work.

• The Missouri College Access and Attainment Network convenes the Postsecondary Equity Network - a network of colleagues committed to creating a postsecondary education system that meets the needs of today’s increasingly diverse students.  While the network primarily consists of leaders and practitioners from 20 colleges and universities, several students are selected (and compensated) to participate as full members, guiding the learning and decision-making of the network.  

Chancellor’s Office

Five Barriers to Transfer for California Students: Why Coordination Is the Path Forward

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) is pleased to announce the release of our Transform Transfer website and infographic, which includes both an interactive website (www.transformtransfer.org), highlighting “Five Barriers to Transfer for California Students: Why Coordination Is the Path Forward,” as well as an Executive Summary (PDF) and Five Barriers to Transfer Resource Guide (PDF).

This work is intended to provide an interactive educational tool that “demystifies” the policy conversation around transfer, by displayiung the complexities of the current course articulation, degree similarity, and transfer processes in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. The purpose of this infographic is to make the real complexities more transparent so leaders and community members can better understand the kind of solutions needed.

Please consider this website and supporting materials as both a resource and a reference guide to key questions that policymakers still grapple with regarding transfer.

We appreciate the support of policymakers for student-centered transfer reforms and look forward to working with our intersegmental partners, the Legislature, and Governor’s Administration, community college faculty, and our most important stakeholder – our students –to fulfill the promise of a true transfer guarantee for all students.

Events

California Adult Education Program: National Briefing on High-Impact Practices Webinar

REGISTER TODAY!

Topic:   California Adult Education Program: National Briefing onHigh-Impact Practices

Date: Monday, February 26, 2024

Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 pm Pacific Time

In partnership with the Chancellor’s Office, the California Department of Education, and CAEP Leadership, an independent research team led by Dr. Barbara Endel was commissioned to collect evidence-based high impact practices from 12 of CAEP’s strongest programs. The intent was to document what is working well and how other programs in and outside of California can use the research for continuous improvement. The project resulted in a set of exciting findings from interviewing 12 CAEP exemplars in Fall 2023. These findings merit CO/CDE/CAEP to share what is working with a national audience interested in knowing what California is doing well.

REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR (if you have already registered for the series you do not need to register again):

https://cccconfer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U-vZDPWZTAyB5weza98yCA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation emailcontaining information about joining the webinar.