This past Tuesday and Wednesday, Skyline College community members attended two sessions to demystify accreditation and the upcoming site visit. The first featured a broader view of accreditation from Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) Senior Vice President Stephanie Droker, and the second highlighted what to expect during the actual site visit, with panelists who served on site visit teams at other colleges. The upcoming site visit is a follow-up to Skyline College’s self-evaluation (the ISER) of how well we fulfill our mission and meet the accreditation standards. The ACCJC standards are considered best practices in operating a two-year college and aligned with federal regulations. The team that will visit Skyline College consists of nine (down from the original ten) administrators and faculty from member institutions of the ACCJC.

Senior VP Stephanie Droker assured the audience that accreditation has evolved, which was echoed by panelists’ recent experiences. A major shift is in how the site visit team is trained. As opposed to seeking out problematic areas, they are on campus primarily to validate what we stated in our institutional self-evaluation report (ISER). How? They’ll do so through meeting with leaders on campus, perhaps asking for further clarification and evidence. They won’t impose their own practices on Skyline College, but rather will evaluate the College based on how well it fulfills its mission. Meetings with college leaders are intended to be dialogues, not interrogations. As Senior VP Droker emphasized, accreditation is a peer driven process.

Skyline College’s site visit is only two weeks away, from September 30 to October 3, 2019. Even if you are not asked to meet with site visit team members, you have an opportunity to share your views with them at one of the forums. Please attend and spread the word!

• Tuesday, October 1, 2019 | 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
  Building 6, Rooms 6-202, 6-204, 6-206
• Wednesday, October 2, 2019 | 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
  Building 1, Theater

On a last note, special thanks to Interim President Jannett Jackson, Vice President of Administrative Services Eloisa Briones and Vice President of Instruction Jennifer Taylor Mendoza for sharing their accreditation experiences.

For more information, please see the accreditation site visit web page.

Article by Karen Wong | Photo by Brittney Sneed

Students from Skyline College’s Forensics Team attended The Northern California Forensics Association Speech and Debate Camp at Solano Community College in early September. At the day-long event, students attended workshops and lectures given by esteemed speech and debate coaches from different event categories such as Parliamentary debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and Individual Events.

Specific topics covered in workshops ranged from how to build an affirmative case, platform speech composition, constructing and refuting topicality, and how to “flow” a debate. The day culminated with students competing in sample rounds as a way to put into practice what they learned over the day. The team left excited and ready for more!

Students will be competing in the first district tournament at the end of September held at San Francisco State University.

Article by Lindsey Ayotte | Photo by Benjamen Gao

The first Lunch and Learn talk of the 2019/20 academic year started out with Dr. Jing Folsom talking about an overview of the Biotechnology Manufacturing Program at Skyline College. Dr. Nick Kapp then spoke about how the Biotechnology Manufacturing Program classes can be used to gain useful skills for pursuing further education and careers in the biotechnology field.

These valuable talks provide students with an opportunity to hear about and work on their career goals while eating lunch, and take place throughout the academic year. Information and dates can be found on the website. Students will also be introduced to resources available to them, including job and internship placement provided by Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development.

The most exciting part of the day was when Dr. Ying-Tsu Loh presented the BioSCope project that Skyline College is collaborating with Bay Area Biotechnology Education Community (BABEC). Together the Skyline College Biotechnology Manufacturing Program and BABEC are making scientific materials more affordable to local high schools by manufacturing them in our classrooms. Skyline College students are gaining work-based experience through this project while also practicing communication and coordination in this collaboration.

Dr. Loh also announced a job opening where students may apply for the Bioscope On-Site Operations Coordinator position. More details of the position can be found here. The Skyline College student who gets hired in this position will get paid to learn how to work in a biotechnology contract manufacturing environment. Apply today!

If you need help applying, please see Else Jimenez or Jing Folsom, or contact them at their respective emails: jimenezsamayoae@smccd.edu and folsomj@smccd.edu.

Funding for the position is through the State Chancellor’s Office Regional Joint Venture. Food was provided by a grant from Genentech.

Article by Jing Folsom and Elsa Jiminez-Samayoa | Photo by Nick Kapp

The Internship Job Shadow Program welcomed 11 new interns this fall semester! This promising group of Skyline College students range in a variety of both aspirations and career interests. These interns will be working both on and off campus in personally selected programs during the fall semester.

Students will be participating in the following programs this semester: San Bruno Chamber of Commerce; GP Aspiring Artists Foundation; Skyline College Bookstore; Global Learning Programs & Services; Student Equity and Support Programs Division; Center for Student Life and Leadership Development; Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations (MCPR); Cosmetology; and Strategic Partnerships & Workforce Development – thank you to all of our Job Shadow Partners for their commitment to our student success!

Throughout the semester, student interns will learn, expand, and fine-tune their career readiness with variety of technical and soft skills such as marketing and outreach, business communications, client relations, use of design software, office organization and customer service.  All student interns will get the opportunity to experience innovative events at Skyline College and throughout the community.

Each semester the BAEC recruits a new cohort of hard working, self-starters to join the Internship Job Shadow Program. For more information on the Internship Job Shadow Program or to serve as a job shadow site, please contact baec@smccd.edu.

Article by Jasmine Pon & Pcyeta Stroud | Photo by Samantha Panganiban

On Wednesday September 11, 2019, Biotechnology instructors met with Dr. Pat McKay at Genentech to learn more about a protein purification machine that they donated to Skyline College’s Biotechnology program. Dr. McKay is a long-term adjunct professor of chemistry at Skyline College. He works as a researcher for Genentech during the day and teaches chemistry at night. While his job discovering new lifesaving drugs is important, Dr. McKay is also dedicated to his students here at Skyline College, helping develop a new generation of chemists. Dr. McKay is a perfect example of how Skyline College attracts local industry to enhance our students’ education.

The Biotechnology program appreciates using the AKTAexplorer in order to demonstrate the large scale purification of proteins. The Skyline Research club will be the first using the machine in order to purify GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) to use as a demonstration at the Bay Area Science Festival that will be held in November at the Giants Stadium.

Article and Photo by Nick Kapp

This September, community members of San Mateo County explored the Emerald Isle during the fifth San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD) Community Travel Program.

The SMCCCD Community Travel Program is a curated, small-group travel experience for adults. With the Community Travel Program, members of our community have the opportunity to travel around the world with an SMCCCD representative and local tour manager as they enjoy local food, special attractions, and guided sightseeing.

The 2019 Ireland tour started in Dublin, with visits to places such as the Guinness Storehouse and Trinity College. After Dublin, the group made its way to the quaint seaside villages of Kinsale and Cobh in the south—two winners of the national “Tiny Tidy Towns” contest. They then ventured up a portion of the “Wild Atlantic Way,” experiencing the innumerable shades of green, rugged cliffs, ancient stone walls and crashing Atlantic waves of the west coast. They stayed in the city of Galway, where in many places Irish Gaelic and ‘trad music’ (traditional Irish music) can be heard in pubs and on the lively pedestrian streets. Finally, the group ended in Belfast in Northern Ireland, visiting the Giant’s Causeway and various sites of historical importance.

The Community Travel Program was created as a way for the District to connect with the larger community of San Mateo County, as well as to help our students live and learn in other countries. For many college students, study abroad is a special goal of their undergraduate years; however, financially, the experience is often out of reach. With the Community Travel Program, $500 (tax-deductible) of each participant’s registration fee goes directly into the SMCCCD Foundation for Study Abroad Scholarship Fund, helping to make transformative global opportunities more accessible for our students.

Upcoming Community Travel Programs will include India (February 2020), France (June 2020), and Japan (October 2020).

The Community Travel Program is part of the SMCCCD Study Abroad Program—a district-wide study abroad program housed in the Global Learning Programs and Services Division at Skyline College. For more information about SMCCCD Study Abroad and Community Travel Program opportunities, please visit the SMCCCD Study Abroad website or contact Zaid Ghori at ghoriz@smccd.edu or Stephanie Wells at wellss@smccd.edu.

Article and Photo by Stephanie Wells

On September 4, 2019, the Bay Area Entrepreneur Center (BAEC) welcomed a delegation of esteemed public officials and entrepreneurs from the Republic of South Korea, to discuss the unique programs and initiatives at Skyline College and throughout the District. The delegation was received by BAEC staff, the Business Education & Professional Programs Division, the Global Learning Programs & Services Division, and Enterprise Operations at both Cañada College and College of San Mateo.

The meeting featured an engaging discussion about the spirit of entrepreneurship and the importance of access to hands-on resources for students and members of the college community. The group also listened to presentations that highlighted robust international student offerings and opportunities for future partnerships. BAEC was one stop on their visit, as part of the U.S. State Department’s premiere International Visitor Leadership Program, where the distinguished group set out to learn more about the future of the U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement. BAEC appreciates the opportunity to participate in international relations as visits such as this furthers our commitment to empower and transform a global community of learners.

Article by Pcyeta Stroud | Photo by Sam Panganiban