Skyline College hosted a first of its kind event on Monday, May 12, 2014 during which eligible students and community members who resided in San Mateo or San Francisco Counties accomplished the following in one day:

• Apply for CalFresh (Food Stamps)
• Submit verification documents
• Complete an eligibility interview
• Receive an eligibility determination
• Obtain an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card
• Select a pin number
• Receive a free bag of groceries

Iliana Rodriguez, San Mateo County Human Services Agency Director, provided a keynote address during which she highlighted the ingenuity of our community partners to host an event which increased access to food assistance in a way which had never been done before.

A certified nutritionist provided a demonstration on how to prepare “veggie tortilla roll-ups” repeatedly throughout the event and provided samples to participants. Regardless of eligibility status, each individual who attended the event walked away with a grocery bag filled with ingredients included in the “veggie tortilla wraps,” as well as the following items: tomatoes, romaine lettuce, black olives, whole wheat tortillas, cream cheese, green chilies, bell peppers, cucumber, green beans, mixed fruit, corn, corn flakes, spaghetti, rice, canned tuna, and pinto beans.

Skyline College Financial Aid Office, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, San Francisco Food Bank, San Mateo County Human Services Agency, and SparkPoint at Skyline College set up resource tables with information about their services for students and community members who attended the event.

A Skyline College photographer took pictures during the event to capture the excitement of individuals, who for the first time ever, had the ability to apply for and receive CalFresh benefits in the same day. Furthermore, under SparkPoint at Skyline College’s leadership, San Mateo and San Francisco County Human Services Agencies collaborated for the first time on an initiative which transcended typically intransigent county boarders and policies. SparkPoint at Skyline College hopes that the event’s success will serve as an impetus for future collaborations among agencies that perform similar functions in our community.

The abovementioned partners collectively assisted twenty-three individuals with completing CalFresh applications, and ten individuals walked away with EBT cards in hand. These ten individuals were able to leave campus with a debit card which they could use to purchase groceries for themselves and their families. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of these committed partners, students and community members were able to easily access a resource which is typically laden with red tape and exorbitant paperwork.

Article by Heather Smith  | Photos by Claudia Paz

Inside Skyline College is a newly developed website that serves as a resource for faculty, staff and administration of the college. This site takes the place of the former Faculty/Staff site and includes important resources such as how to order business cards online. The goal of the page was to shift internally-focused information from the public website into an easy to use portal format. Much of the information on the site contains quick links to easily access information of interest.

The site is still a work in progress, so feedback about what would be helpful for you and your department to see/be able to access from this portal is welcome. Please contact Cherie Colin at colinc@smccd.edu with any feedback.

Thank you to Liz Gaudet, Web Programmer Analyst who worked diligently in conceptualizing and implementing the site.

Article by Cherie Colin with help from Liz Gaudet

The Global Mentorship & Leadership Project is actively recruiting students to participate in its pilot mentorship program: Education Across the Miles-Liberia.

The Global Mentorship & Leadership Project is designed to expose Skyline College students to mentorship and leadership through the African Diaspora. This is done through face to face mentoring sessions with local professionals, networking events and interacting with students from around the world, via international video-conferences. Education Across the Miles– Liberia, focuses on young women. All young women in the program are mentored by members of the SF Links, a professional service organization that’s committed to improving the lives of underserved youth. Five Skyline College students have been selected to participate in the program, all of whom interact with nine students from Liberia on a monthly basis.

The Global Mentorship Leadership Project is an initiative developed in partnership between the African Diaspora Program at Skyline College, the African American Success Though Excellence & Persistence Learning Community (ASTEP), and Grand Bassa Community College in Liberia and the San Francisco Chapter of the Bay Area Links, Inc., (SF Links) an international professional service organization primarily composed of professional African American women.

To refer students to the Global Mentorship Project or for more information, please contact Pcyeta Stroud. Email: stroudp@smccd.edu

Article by Pcyeta Stroud

On Friday, May 14, 2014 the Institutional Planning Committee held its last meeting of the 2013/14 academic year. After the committee was updated on some ongoing planning items—IPC/CBC merger, status of Annual Program Plans and Comprehensive Program Reviews, the Student Climate Survey, and the Balanced Scorecard—the focus of the meeting was on the Student Success and Support Program (3SP) Plan and a proposed update to the SMCCCD planning cycle. For the 3SP plan, Vice President Blake informed the committee on the status and goals of the 3SP Task Force that has been put together to provide leadership in developing the plan and with Vice President Briones, provided an update on relevant budget policies and implications. On the SMCCCD planning cycle, Interim Dean Ulate facilitated a discussion based on one held by the District Strategic Planning Committee that focused on a revision to the district’s overall planning cycle. The committee discussed how the timing of when documents are revised and implemented should continue to be such that they inform and are integrated with one another, even when we move from a six-year to seven-year accreditation cycle. Overall, this has been a very busy and productive year for Skyline College’s IPC and we look forward to another great year with planning and budgeting merged into one committee. Have a wonderful summer!

Article by Dr. David Ulate

Friday, May 23, 2014

• 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., 2013 – 2014 Commencement, Skyline College

Monday, May 26, 2014

• 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Science in Action Lecture Series, Skyline College, Building 7, Room 7106

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

• 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Financial Aid Application Labs, Skyline College, Building 2, Room 2117-B

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

• 4:00 p.m. -6:00 p.m., Financial Aid Application Labs, Skyline College, Building 2, Room 2117-B

Thursday, May 29, 2014

• 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., Financial Aid Application Lab, Skyline College, Building 2, Room 2117-B
• 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., Bay Area Entrepreneur Center Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting, 458 San Mateo Avenue, San Bruno, CA, United States

For the latest information on events and activities happening at Skyline College, please view our calendar.

If you would like to include your college event or activity on the calendar, please submit the event, date, time and location to Cherie Colin via email at colinc@smccd.edu.

 

The second San Mateo Job Fair was held on Wednesday, May 7th at Skyline College in partnership with the Skyline College Career Services Center, California Employment Development Department, the San Mateo County Peninsula Works, Veterans Services, Menlo Park Job Train, and several local community and public organizations. The Job Fair drew the largest group of job seekers in the County’s series of regional job fairs, drawing as many as 570 job seekers! This community event provided a dynamic atmosphere for job seekers to connect with 35 local employers, including Kaiser Permanente, Electronic Arts, United Airlines, Hilton, and Starbucks. Job seekers also had the opportunity engage with local service agencies, including those available at Skyline College such as the Veterans Resource Center and SparkPoint. Over 100 job seekers participated in a resume critique session which was offered in four languages with volunteer career specialists in order to enhance each job seekers’ employability and provide constructive feedback on each individual’s employment strategy.

To all the staff, students, and community volunteers that helped to make this year’s event such a great success, the Career Services Team extends our deepest gratitude and appreciation!

San Mateo Job Fair Planning Team

 

 

Resume Critique Sessions

 

 

Recently the Transfer Center along with UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz took some time out of the day to celebrate students that have been accepted to both campuses on Monday, May 5 and Tuesday, May 6. According to the admissions counselors 45 students were admitted to UC Santa Cruz, and 82 students were admitted to UC Davis! We are very proud of these transfer students and we are happy to celebrate such a great accomplishment.

And on Thursday, May 15 the Transfer Center will be celebrating all students who have been accepted to a 4 year college/
university for Fall 2014 semester. If you know someone that has been accepted and is planning to transfer please share this link (http://skylinecollege.edu/transfercenter/admissionnotificationsurvey.php) to a survey. The Transfer Center is working hard to track student progress in order to see how we can continue to better our efforts to help all students make transfer to a 4 year college/ university a possibility.

Special thanks to Monica Galvan and her team at UC Santa Cruz, to Myra Escobar at UC Davis, and the staff in the Transfer Center for helping to make our Skyline College Students’ dreams of transfer a reality.

Article by Michele Haggar | Photos by Suzanne Poma

Friday, May 16th at 7 p.m. in the Skyline College Art Gallery
Ground Floor of Building 1.

Please join and celebrate the release of the 44th Issue of Talisman, Skyline College’s Literary Magazine. The event, held in the Skyline College Art Gallery, will include food and beverages, copies of the magazine, as well as feature readings from the Student Prose and Poetry Prize Winners and many other student writers from this issue of Talisman.

Talisman staff hopes to see you at this special event. If you have any questions please contact Rob Williams, Talisman Faculty Advisor williamsrob@smccd.edu

Friday afternoon, May 9, The CTTL hosted the dynamic “Guru” of Distance Education and Online technologies, Michelle Pakansky-Brock. The 3-hour workshop, entitled “Humanizing your Online Classroom,” treated Faculty and staff to an inspiring afternoon filled with engaging and thoughtful dialogue. Michelle relayed to CTTL staff and administration afterwards that she “was impressed with the level of commitment and support for innovation through technology at Skyline.”

Some faculty participants reported, “It was a very useful workshop, and something I hope we get to do more of.” Other attendees immediately applied what they learned and created short video
e-mails by using one of the new technology tools that Michelle demonstrated.

All who attended agreed the workshop inspired a renewed vigor and provided them with exciting new tools that will help them to engage students in their classes.

As a special treat, Michelle put together a page of resources just for Skyline College. It can be accessed here.

Copies of Michelle’s book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies, are available for loan from the CTTL. More information about Michelle and the work she is doing can be found at her Website: TeachingWithoutWalls.com

Article by Bridget Fischer

In preparation for the opening of the Infant Room in Fall 2014, the Skyline College Early Learning and Child Development Center (CDC) has partnered with the Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers Partners in Quality (PITC PQ) to provide specialized training and technical assistance for classified and student staff. Staff will receive 20 hours of training in the areas of Social Emotional Growth and Socialization, Group Care, Learning and Development, and Culture, Family, and Providers.

This partnership will enhance the current training and mentoring of staff and students at the CDC and provide expanded opportunities for students training to work with infants and toddlers. The CDC and PITC PQ are committed to caring for infants and toddlers in ways that are responsive to the differing cultures, lifestyles, preferences, abilities, learning styles and the needs of the children and families served.

The CDC provides high-quality early learning and child development experiences for children ages 0-5 years old. The program also provides Early Childhood Education students opportunities to observe, participate, and teach in a center-based program, provides their practicum experience and a career ladder for extending work-force skills and job training.

If you would like more information about the Early Learning and Child Development Center please contact the program at (650) 738-7070.

Article by Tina Watts | Pictures by Martina Center & Vicky Feng