SCC Makerspace Expands, Reopening for First Time Since Pandemic
Creativity, community, and careers — for Sacramento City College students, the on-campus makerspace is the place to turn passions and skills into new opportunities:
“I’m at work right now, sitting outside the machine shop,” says Erin McDowell, SCC alum and Junior Manufacturing Engineer at Ascentec Engineering. “All of these machines operate on the same fundamental principles I learned in the makerspace, like 3D design and computer-aided manufacturing.
“I would not have this job had I not had access to those resources at the makerspace.”
STEP-UP Program Fulfills Promise of Positive Change at Shasta
Shasta College student Raymon Curtis has a lot in common with the Californian-native Redwood Trees that he grew up with in Mendocino County. They’re both rooted in resilience – tested by tough times, yet determined to stand tall in the face of adversity.
By the time Curtis joined the Shasta Technical Education Program-Unified Partnership, more commonly known as STEP-UP, he’d been through it all – homelessness, a few stints in jail, and finally, a court order from a compassionate judge. Today, his story stands as one of the program’s most shining successes, with the Fort Bragg native planting roots in his community as a proud father, prize employee and honor student.
“Because of the guidance [STEP-UP] provided me, I came to realize there was a tremendous amount of resources available at college,” Curtis reflects. “And if you’re resourceful and diligent, you can figure out which tree to bark up to get your needs met.”
On April 6, 2023, College of the Redwoods cohosted and coordinated a Career & Education Fair at McKinleyville High School in support of Humboldt County high school students. Co-sponsored by the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce, the North Far North Regional Consortium, and Mad River Rotary club, over 300 students and 100community volunteers staffing 50 booths participated. Industry and business support for this event was outstanding. A unique offer of this fair were the number of College of the Redwoods and Cal Poly Humboldt departments and programs that attended. From CR Career Education, Aquaculture, Computer Information Systems, Forestry/Natural Resources, Social Work/Addiction Studies, and CR Outreach/Admissions all hosted tables. In reflecting about the fair, Computer Information Systems professor Amy Murphy shared these comments:
"I wanted to thank you(and partnering MHS staff) for coordinating such an amazing, extremely well-organized, and well-attended outreach event - what a huge success!! The sheer number of entities tabling was seriously impressive. I think this is the largest CR outreach event I've ever attended! We truly appreciate the visibility it gave our CIS Dept. and all of our CE Programs! It's an amazing and efficient way to reach all juniors and seniors at once. We look forward to attending more of these events in the future. Thank you for everything!"
For more information about the Career & Education Fair, please contact College of the Redwoods Assistant Director of Employer Partnerships.
As part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, WestEd is launching a new Center for Economic Mobility. Please visit our website at https://economic-mobility.wested.org, sign up for a monthly newsletter featuring practical tools for systems change, and read on for more information.
Education is an important step toward good jobs, but educational systems are often designed in a way that reinforces gaps for students from under represented communities. By attending to structural barriers in institutional processes, creating stronger social networks, and offering career connections, educators can create stronger and more equitable pathways to economic mobility.
The Center strengthens linkages between K–12, adult education, postsecondary, workforce development, and employers to foster access to postsecondary education, job training, and credentials that translate to successful careers with income stability and meaningful growth.
Specifically, the Center works in the following areas:
1. With adult education systems to build pathways to college and living-wage jobs 2. With economic and workforce development entities to strengthen competitive and equitable economies 3. With postsecondary institutions to identify skills and occupational relevancy for all academic pathways 4. With intersegmental partnerships to link datasets and clarify how education aligns with the labor market
For example, WestEd is supporting community colleges to understand the economic returns of short-term course taking and strengthen access to education that will lead to living wages, such as articulation with adult and noncredit education, building stackable credentials, and supporting more adult learners to attain their academic and career goals.
Learn more about this project on the Center for Economic Mobility’s blogand sign up to receive monthly alerts about new tools and resources to support systems change.
Mansi Master, MPA ,Division3 Senior Operations Lead
Key findings from this statewide survey highlight students ’increasing need to balance and navigate complex lives, including the need to work and care for dependents. In addition, while the community college system is one of the most affordable systems in the world, current and prospective students still question whether they can afford college at this time, with nearly a third of the respondents indicating that they did not know if they could afford to attend college during this time and/or that they needed to prioritize work. What students indicated they needed from their colleges to attend college were more flexible options (more course offerings and options such as online), and financial and non-financial assistance (e.g., childcare)to help them better balance these competing priorities. In addition, there does seem to be a relationship between students’ perceived value of education and their decision whether to attend/enroll in the college, whereby the less valuable they perceived a college education, the less likely they were to enroll or plan to enroll in fall 2022. As students are trying to navigate and balance their priorities, colleges may want to think about how best to emphasize the value propositions for attending college. While the need for students to balance school, work, and personal obligations has always been present, the pandemic seems to have made this balancing act much more challenging. Moreover, these findings reinforce that the cost of attendance is more than money but also time for many students.
The attached report, Top 10 Strategies to Better Serve Californians: High-impact Practices to Bring Back Underrepresented Students to California’s Community Colleges, summarizes ten approaches to engaging and re-engaging with students to improve outcomes and enrollment as we continue to innovate in the post pandemic era. The highlighted strategies are based on the CEO Roundtable’s work to understand local models that are successfully re-engage and supporting the persistence and equitable success of our students.
We urge you to use the publication as a reference in your continued work and advocacy to advance student-centered approaches that improve student engagement, enrollment, persistence and success.
Please join the North Far North Regional Consortia and WestEd for a two-hour workshop focused on designing equitable CTE pathways. In the session, you will gain access to an equity analysis using the College/Career Measures Report and have an opportunity to review the data, consider the implications, discuss best practices to close equity gaps and create action steps. This workshop will help you to strengthen and develop practices that will improve student outcomes of your programs, and accelerate future applications for Regional K12 Strong Workforce Program funding.
When: May 25th (2:00-4:00 pm)
Who Should Attend: HS CTE Coordinators, Pathway Leads, Administrators, CTE Teachers and Counselors
Workshop Outcomes:
Gain access to an analysis of your LEAs CTE Completers through an equity lens
Co-create a common understanding of which students in your CTE pathways are reaching and retaining in your pathways
Review high-impact practices to engage disproportionately served students
Develop an action plan for the next steps to reach more equitable student outcomes
ETP Stakeholder Notification- Apprenticeship Program Application Window Announcement- State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023-24
Over the last three years, ETP staff have been working to implement improvements to the Apprenticeship Program. One such improvement was the successful inclusion last year of an annual application window. In preparation for the next SFY, this notification serves to announce the application window for ETP’s Apprenticeship Program.
The application window for ETP’s Apprenticeship Program Funding will open on Monday, May 1, 2023, at 9:00 AM, and will close on Friday, June 9, 2023, at 5:00 PM.
An informational session will be held on May 9, 2023, at 10:00 AM to provide information on changes for this year and address any questions you may have about the application.
A subsequent Stakeholder notification will be sent with instructions to attend this session.
Any questions regarding this notification can be directed to the following email address:
Invitation to Hospitality, Culinary, and Tourism Regional Advisory
Valley Vision is hosting an upcoming advisory on Hospitality, Culinary, and Tourism and we would like to extend an invitation to you. As you may know, the Hospitality ,Culinary, and Tourism sector continues to experience strong growth, and we believe that it is important to explore the changing climate facing HCT employers, career opportunities in the field, and the resulting takeaways for post-secondary education and training in this sector.
The advisory meeting will take place on Thursday, May 11th, 2023 (11:00 am –1:00 pm) and will be a hybrid event, with both in-person and virtual options available. The in-person convening will take place at the Central Kitchen at3101 Redding Ave, Sacramento, CA, and lunch will be served. We also inviteregistrants to participate in a limited availability, in-person tour of theCentral Kitchen at 10:00 am (first 20 interested participants).
The Central Kitchen is a unique culinary operation that delivers thousands of fresh meals daily to students at Sacramento area schools, with an emphasis on farm-to-fork quality and nutrition. The event will feature a keynote presentation, labor market and forecast analysis, and a broad industry panel discussion.
We believe that this advisory will be beneficial to you and your organization, and we encourage you to attend. Please use the link below to register for the event.
