Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Art of Palestine and Aswat Ensemble

art of palestineOn Friday, March 6, 2020 the Skyline College Art Gallery in collaboration with Zawaya hosted an opening reception for “The Art of Palestine” as well as a concert by the renowned local group Aswat Ensemble with guest performers Samira Kharoubi and Nisreen Hajaj and Palestinian wind instruments musician Hasan Minawei.

The reception featured delicious tastes of middle eastern cuisine, informational booths hosted by local non-profits and an exhibit of artwork, graphic design, musical instruments, textiles, and other cultural artifacts documenting the history of Palestine and the shared cultural heritage of the Palestinian people. 

A free concert followed the reception. Attendees clapped, sang and danced along with performers Aswat Ensemble and guests. Aswat is a highly regarded multi-ethnic and multi-racial music ensemble that reaches out to the diverse Bay Area community with folkloric, classical, and contemporary Arab music. 

We thank Zawaya for their support of the exhibition and concert and as well as the patrons who generously loaned artwork and objects from private collections. Through this lens, the exhibit memorializes the past and provides a framework from which to imagine a future for Palestine. 

Article by Paul Bridenbaugh | Photo by Najib Joe Hakim

Puente Mentor Mixer

puente mentor mixerOn the evening of February 24, 2020, Puente had its first Mentor Mixer of the year in the Skyline College Multicultural Center. Mentors and mentees from the Puente cohort met to engage in two fun activities, a fishbowl conversation exercise as well as a building challenge activity with connector joints (kindly loaned to Puente from STEM’s Maryam Khan and Marco Wehrfritz) where groups built a structure that would hold the maximum number of books.

The mixer allowed students to connect with a variety of mentors in an informal setting, converse about success strategies, as well as think more deeply about how to address challenges. Groups had fun with the building challenge and came up with great strategies they were able to share with each other in the fishbowl activity.

The event was a wonderful opportunity for students to talk to and work with mentors and to reinforce the concepts of interdependence learned in the COUN 100 class. 

Puente is so very grateful for its amazing mentors!

Article by Dino Garcia | Photo by Lucia Lachmayr

International Student Program (ISP) Hosts Campus Tour to Stanford University

isp standordOn March 5, 2020, the International Student Program (ISP) hosted a trip to Stanford University for a customized campus tour. The tour was offered exclusively to Skyline College international students and a total of 16 international students currently studying at Skyline College participated in the tour.

The group began the tour at Bechtel International Center which provides support services for international students at Stanford University. Along with an interesting history of Stanford University, the students were provided with a wide range of information on university admissions as well as on the programs that the university offers. In addition, the group was taken on a tour of the beautiful campus by a current student at Stanford University who shared valuable insights on the application process, classes, and student life as she walked them through the campus. The students thoroughly enjoyed the tour; they had numerous questions for the tour guide and took many pictures of the campus and its iconic buildings.

For many students, this was the first time they had visited Stanford University. They were impressed by the beauty and the breadth of the campus, both in size and class options, and with the opportunities that Stanford University provides to their students in the areas of housing, internships, jobs, and volunteering. We hope that those who participated in the tour will see Stanford University as an option in the future!

Article by Chikako Walker | Photo by Clair Yeo-Sugajski