The Equity Training Series (ETS) is an eight week professional development experience that features thought experts and cutting edge scholars in educational equity who work directly with a cohort of 25-30 Skyline College staff, faculty and administrators. This is a spring semester experience designed to equip participants with skills, strategies and tools in the areas of educational equity and cultural fluency.

Date	Topic	Presenter
January 18, 2019	Equity in Education	Dean Lasana O. Hotep
February 8, 2019	Critical Pedagogy	Dr. Michael Benitez Jr.
February 22, 2019	Undocumented Student Support	Dr. Genevieve Negron Gonzales
March 8, 2019	White Fragility in the Academy	Dr. Robin DiAngelo
April 12, 2019	Equity in STEM Education	Dr. Jeremiah Sims
April 26, 2019	Pin@y Student Success	Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
May 2, 2019	Disability in Higher Education	Isabel Dees
May 10, 2019	ETS Recognition Ceremony	ETS 2019 Cohort

 

Participant Outcomes                                                                                                                  

The goal of ETS is for all participants to incorporate concepts and theories from ETS either into current initiatives or projects on campus, development a new project, or into various office culture/work spaces.

Participant Experience                                                                                                                

All of these workshops are hosted on Friday afternoons from 12:00 PM- 3:00PM. Lunch will be provided. The first hour and a half will be the talk/workshop by the designated presenter. The second half of the session is the group discussion and planning on how to apply the new information to their work. The final session will consist of presentations sharing the planned application of the practices discussed during the training. For more information about ETS and to hear from previous participants, visit the Equity Training Series Website.

Application                                                                                                                                       

The due date for all ETS applications has been extended to Friday, December 14, 2019. If you are interested in participating, submit an electronic application. All participants will be notified if they have been accepted into the program before winter recess. Contact Katrina Pantig at pantigk@smccd.edu if you have any questions.­

Article by Katrina Pantig

On September 20^th, 2018, Skyline College hosted the Call to Consciousness College Lecture Series. This program was co-sponsored by the Center for Student Life and Leadership Development, the Associated Students of Skyline College (ASSC), and the Division of Student Equity and Support Programs (SESP). The program opened with welcoming remarks from Dean Lasana Hotep. He said to students, “Our goal as educators is not to provide you a syllabus, test, quizzes, assignments and grades. Our goal is to ignite a passion for lifelong learning in you. The world is a classroom and this opportunity outside of your formal class structure is to continue that journey about being excited about learning and being curious about the world.” Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud also provided remarks on behalf of the college and ASSC President, Michelle Chee, introduced Reverend angel Kyodo Williams to the stage.

Rev. angel is an author, spiritual leader, master trainer and founder of the Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley, California. Ordained as a Zen priest, Rev. angel is a Sensei¸ the second of only five black women recognized as teachers in the Japanese Zen lineage. Rev. angel talked about the value of finding and discovering one’s calling and purpose in life. She shared with the audience the different inflection points of her journey in learning and applying wisdom teachings. On a daily basis, we as human beings must make important decisions about our lives such as figuring out what to major in, what career path to take, which job to apply for, etc. Rev. angel challenged the audience to shift their thinking from focusing on WHAT we should be to think about HOW we should be in the society. She stated that there is no position or role that is useless or beneath anyone and that it’s more important to reflect on how we want to be or show up in that particular role. Rev. angel also shared that the call to consciousness is not an isolated event in our lives but in fact, we receive a call to consciousness consistently and daily and therefore we must make a decision to respond to those calls.

Rev. angel also talked about how our ancestors had to answer a call to consciousness in the face of injustice and discrimination. She said, “The Call to Consciousness has been there from the very moment at which someone stepped foot on this land and decided that they were discovering a place that other people had already been. The so-called dream of America was not designed for us in this room and yet you are here because people responded to a call of consciousness even when they were structures and systems that hindered the potential for people to be able to realize that dream.”

At the end of her talk, students participated in an engaging discussion with Rev. angel about how to find hope, motivation, and support on a daily basis while being confronted with major life challenges and struggles. Following the lecture, folks had an opportunity to meet Rev. angel and participate in a book signing for two of her books, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation and Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace.

Mustafa Popal, Professor of History said, “I think I have a firm understanding on equity and social justice. I have an ever-improving understanding of how to do the work of social justice and equity, but Dr. Angel Kyodo Williams provided clarity in how to find psyche-emotional peace with the complexity of the work we engage in. In social justice work there is always the conversation of ‘self-care’ that almost always translates to taking some time to yourself, but Rev. angel described a practice of “being”, which integrated ‘self-care’ into the work.”

Article by Katrina Pantig | Photo by Zaw Min Khant

To support local businesses and provide the campus community an opportunity to do some early holiday shopping, CIPHER is hosting its 4th Annual Vendors’ Fair and Open Mic titled “Holiday Bling” on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 from 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the Fireside Dining Room at Building 6.

Featured vendors include: Mixerfriendly, Crystal Clear, Greenwood Supply Company, the Ceramics Club of Skyline College and many others. Items range from head wear, clothing, jewelry, handmade crafts and custom posters and postcards. Proceeds from sales go toward educational scholarships for CIPHER and Rock the School Bells.

In addition to the Vendors’ Fair, CIPHER will also be hosting their Open Mic from 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. Students who are interested in performing, please meet in Building 6 for sign-ups.

To see some of the vendors’ merchandise, you can check them out at:

• Mixerfriendly: mixerfriendly.com
• Crystal Clear: crystalclearem.com
• Greenwood Supply Company: gwsupplyco.com

We hope you can stop by and do some holiday shopping while enjoying some great performances by our talented Skyline College campus community. For more information about Rock the School Bells and CIPHER, visit www.skylinecollege.edu/cipher or www.rocktheschoolbells.com.

If you have any questions about the event, please email Kim Davalos at davalosk@smccd.edu.

Article by Nathaniel Nevado

On October 15, 2018, the Division of Student Equity and Support Programs hosted “Real News, Fake News: Media in the Era of Trump,” a panel discussion featuring guest speakers, Kevin Powell and Rocky Rivera. The discussion was moderated by Jessica Hurless, Prof­essor of Communication Studies. The event opened with a message from Lasana Hotep, Dean of Student Equity and Support Programs to provide context about the multiple layers of the program and the value in engaging in this particular experience. He said, “There’s no such thing as neutral media. Everything has an agenda in the way it is expressed. There are narratives being told about why things are happening, narratives about particular groups of people, and narratives about why those groups are situated in society a certain way.” The goal of the program was to expose, educate, and equip students with vocabulary and context to help them understand the information they’re being overwhelmed with in our current social and political climate.

Rocky Rivera and Kevin Powell shared their career trajectories and what made them interested in journalism and social justice. They said because our society is generally miseducated about American history, it’s very easy to be misguided by media outlets that criminalize communities of color, women, low-income, undocumented, and other minority groups in the U.S.

Kevin Powell stated, “There’s no way we can answer the question of, what is real news and what is fake news if we don’t even have a working knowledge of where we are.” We also live in a modern era where access to technology and social media have influenced present day journalism. Rocky shared the potential of using social media to help enact social change and our individual responsibility to be informed citizen-journalists when we see injustice. She said, “10 or so years ago, we did not have this ability to broadcast on demand… #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter would have never happened if it wasn’t for social media. It’s so powerful because any one of us can document our experiences.”

The discussion with speakers was followed by a brief audience engagement segment and an announcement by the Director of the Learning Commons, Gabriela Nocito. She talked about the role the library plays in supporting students along with resources the library can provide to help students discern real news from fake news, which included an activity and display in the theater lobby.

After the program, the Associated Students of Skyline College hosted a voter registration table for the upcoming midterm elections. Participants also engaged in a book signing with Kevin Powell who recently published My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.

Jess Grainger, Instructor and College and Career Advisor said, “I thought the event was powerful, both for the bold topic they chose, as well as the remarkable speakers Skyline was able to bring in.  My students were impressed by their clear expertise, and were also excited to see some of their own future goals, aspirations, and dreams represented, in-the-flesh, by the distinguished likes of Mr. Kevin Powell, and ­Ms. Rocky Rivera.”­­

­Article by Katrina Pantig | Photo by Naomi Quizon

On Friday, October 26th, 2018, Skyline College’s Hybrid/Online Community of Practice hosted the @ONE CanInnovate Conference, a series of webinars for community college Canvas users. The online conference was a huge success with hundreds of faculty from the 114 community colleges in the state. Some of the topics presented during the webinars included sessions on building an equity-minded syllabus, adding video to a Canvas course, previewing the new Canvas grade book and incorporating creative learning in online spaces. In addition to the online streaming of the conference, a delicious breakfast and lunch were provided by Noah’s Bagels Catering.

Program Service Coordinator, Ame Maloney, attended two sessions in the morning and said, “What I enjoyed about this experience was the variety of voices and perspectives from across the campus in one room discussing ways to create engaging classroom spaces online.” After attending the afternoon session, adjunct faculty member, Christopher Collins stated, “This experience was extremely enjoyable! I attended the Surprise! Good Things Happen When Students Get Creative session and learned to facilitate an online classroom that incorporates course content with student-led creativity.” The remarks made by Ame and Christopher echo the experiences of the other participants.

Because of the overwhelming success of the conference, the Hybrid/Online Community of Practice plans on hosting the conference again in late October 2019. Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend! For faculty who were unable to attend the conference, the links below have materials from the conference.

General Info: https://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/caninnovate18/

Canvas Shell: https://ccconlineed.instructure.com/courses/2533/

Article by Hybrid/Online Community of Practice | Photo by Dr. Bianca Rowden-Quince