The Skyline College Learning Communities hosted the annual Learning Communities Career Conversations Night in-person and via Zoom (hyflex) on Thursday, February 23^rd in Building 6. Students were invited to join us for a night of career conversations with professionals in a wide range of fields in four breakout rooms based on our guided pathways:

• Arts, Languages and Communication (ALC)
• Business, Entrepreneurship & Management (BEM)
• Science, Technology & Health (STH)
• Society & Education (SE)

Given the choice to come in-person (on a cold rainy night) or via zoom, over 100 students joined with the majority coming in-person and enjoyed the evening together with career panelists followed by dinner and mingling at the conclusion of the 80-minute career conversations. Students selected which room they would join based on their academic major or interest area and were able to review information about the panelists’ including their LinkedIn profiles provided beforehand via the RSVP form and also provided at the check-in table or main Zoom room. You can learn more about the different speakers by visiting: Career Conversations Night Breakout Room Handout.

Each breakout room discussion featured 5 or 6 professional speakers (many of which were Skyline College graduates!) and was facilitated by two Skyline College faculty or staff who artfully weaved together a list of previously provided questions with the opportunity for students to ask their own questions live and via Zoom. The Arts, Languages and Communication breakout room was facilitated Derek Allenby, ALC Job Placement Coordinator and Jessica Hurless, Communications Professor and Guided Pathways Co-Coordinator. The Business, Entrepreneurship and Management breakout room was Facilitated by Dr. Nate Nevado, Counselor and CIPHER Learning Community Coordinator and Shinna Kim, Counseling Intern. The Science, Technology & Health breakout room was facilitated by Brittney Sneed, STH Job Placement Coordinator and Bryan Swartout, STEM Center Program Services Coordinator. The Society & Education breakout room was facilitated by Alexa Moore, SE Job Placement Coordinator and ECE/COOP Instructor and Michelle Amaral, ECE Program Services Coordinator.

We were delighted to partner with Career Counseling to create a space for the launch of the Career Counseling Explorers program, with tabling and support from Kenny Gonzales, Career Counselor and Judith Martinez, Director of Student Support. The Explorers Program is designed to support students who are undeclared, undecided or exploring and can help with self-discovery and exploration through counseling and events like this. Students who are exploring are invited to seek support in this area by visiting and completing this short interest form. 

Student attendee feedback was overwhelmingly positive with a chance to provide feedback through a short post-event online form. Students shared some of the following comments with the planning team.

I loved the experiences and stories the panelist shared and hearing about their achievements, accomplishments and struggles in their field.

Although I came late, it was a good experience nonetheless to get some insight on what an art career could look like. General tips and advice is more than I can ask for without having to pay. Overall, good experience.

It was a really well planned out and organized event and I really think it was a very productive breakout room discussion. I learned more about the significance of a portfolio and how to handle/organize one in a way that employers will view me as someone to hire. The panelists were all very respectable individuals, and I could tell they were all genuinely passionate and happy about what they do especially when they were answering questions from the audience. One specific thing that stuck to me was probably Talia Taylor’s take on A.I art and how it is currently affecting the art community and how we as artists can counter that. Sandy Frank’s vast experience in graphic design was also incredibly insightful for me since graphic design is my declared major. Overall, all the panelist provided valuable information and insight that I think will definitely help develop me into the artist I want to be.

Very insightful and great communication within panelists conversations

I really enjoyed the closeness of the event and the way interaction was promoted so heavily.

It was very good and very nice to hear what the speaker experience, like how their mentor helped them and that it could be anyone

I enjoyed the variety of people on the panel. Their different perspectives and backgrounds made for an engaging session and supported a good amount of majors in that area.

I thought it was lovely and formal. Got to ask a few personal questions relating to my career field as a concept artist.

They are super cool

I felt like I was not alone, the panelist and everyone else had gone through the same situation as I. Not too old not the only one who constantly changing majors we are all lost and we just need guidance and advice to the panelist and they had given that to everyone and I in the room.

I really enjoyed this event and the questions to the panelists.

Today’s event was really helpful. Thanks to this event I get different perspectives from professionals that work in fields that I am consider exploring.

They are a lot of creative and open-minded ideas in California

It was amazing m and I am grateful for being able to attend

Experience is calm & tame. The lunch dinner portion helps network with the panelists after the session.

Hyflex events (in-person or via Zoom) are an important way to help support our students’ needs and can be especially useful with inclement weather as was the case on February 23^rd. The planning team wants to give a special thank you to our new staff member, Joshua Porter, who successfully managed simultaneous hyflex instances in five different spaces with a calmness and specialized skillset that helped put and keep the event on the right track throughout the evening. Kudos to Josh and his student assistant Grace!

This event was generously financially supported by the Strategic Partnerships & Workforce Development Division, a Career Counseling President’s Innovation Fund & the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Program. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this evening a success!

Please visit the Skyline College Learning Communities Facebook page to view all of the photos from the event: Career Conversations Night photo album.

Article and Photos by: Marisa Thigpen

Skyline College Library celebrated Black History Month with a bang!  In effort to uplift Black culture, we shared wall displays of various Green Book, book covers throughout the library, featured Black Resistance and all about love physical book collections, as well as host the first ever “Mic DROP! Poetry SLAM!!!” event.  

“Mic DROP! Poetry SLAM!!!” was a community lead hybrid event, made possible by the Library Outreach PIF grant, which featured two of our very own Skyline College students Aaron Perez and Jean Paul Dualan and faculty member Arnette Villela-Smith.   

Intermixed with powerful video performances of spoken word artists from around the world, Aaron performed a thought-provoking spoken word poem titled “Fear” that questions God about man’s shortcomings and inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s song titled “FEAR.”  Professor Villela-Smith, instructor for Ethnic Studies, shared a recording of her poem “What kind of knowledge is valid.” Also, one of our community members shared a video of her three-year-old son rapping.  Our attendees and performers enjoyed themselves and wanted more.   

The library would like to thank Pacific Dining for providing food and drink inspired by Black culture — including the Zobo tea; the Bookstore for their donation of the coffee and tea beverage station; and ASSC, BSU, and MCPR for their help in promoting the poetry slam event.  All these collaborative efforts helped make the poetry slam a huge success. 

Article by: Megdi Abebe

The Civic Engagement Initiative

The Skyline College Civic Engagement Initiative cultivates a sense of social responsibility through

service, advocacy, and the building of civic knowledge to empower self, society, and our global community.

Food for Thought provides a weeklong opportunity to better understand how individual, local, national, and global choices and actions interconnect; and how each of us can recognize and take responsibility for our own choices and actions and thus disrupt global inequities.

Tuesday, March 13^th @ 3:30 p.m.

Wasted: The Story of Food Waste

Join the Critical Global Citizen Education community screening of Wasted: The Story of Food Waste. In this documentary produced by Anthony Bourdain, “Wasted!” takes you around the world showing the 1.3 billion tons of food that gets thrown out each year and the people fighting hardest to prevent it. Renowned chefs discuss the economic and environmental costs of global food waste and explore innovations and solutions that involve educating consumers and food suppliers.

JOIN ON ZOOM @ bit.ly/CGCE2023

Wednesday, March 14^th @ 3:30 p.m.

Panel Discussion – Intercultural Center, Building 4

This CGCE Panel discussion will include a discussion of issues and inequities related to food production. The PIF funded event will include welcomes from current Skyline College President, Melissa Moreno and Vice President of Instruction, Vinicio Lopez. The panel will be moderated by Pia Walawalkar, Librarian. Panelists include:

Steven Mayers: Oral historian, author, Professor of English, and editor of Solito, Solita: CROSSING BORDERS WITH YOUTH REFUGEES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA

Nooshan Shekarabi: Poet, political contributor, and Professor of Political Science. Her books include the Seasons series – Twenty-Two Poems From My Heart: Volume One and Twenty-Eight Poems of the Naked Soul: Volume II.

Gabriel Thompson: journalist and author who  has investigated how fast food chains received billions of dollars in forgivable loans while failing to protect their workers, an asylum seeker on hunger strike inside a detention center; and what it’s like to feed a nation during a pandemic while being denied any sort of federal relief. Gabriel is editor of Chasing the Harvest:  Migrant Workers in California Agriculture

Lucia Lachmayr: Skyline College Professor and Puente Coordinator

Oscar Ramos: Educator and narrator who wants to free his students from a life in the fields, the fate that once awaited him as a child.

Available in person and online – refreshments at in person event.

Monday, March 20^th @ 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

EMPTY BOWLS – Fireside Dining Room, Building 6

Empty Bowls a worldwide movement by artists to lessen food insecurity, cultivates social responsibility through creative service and encourages participants to

JOIN US for:

• Soup Dinner
  • Student Performances – Featuring entertainment from Skyline College Dance, Drama, and Music
  • Campus & Community Organizations dedicated to lessening food insecurity

Take home a handcrafted ceramic bowl! TICKETS @ bit.ly/EMPTYBOWLS2023

Bowls $15
Soup FREE

Open to All
All Ticket Sales used to Lessen Food Insecurity at Skyline College

Article by: Chris Burwell-Woo

On Thursday February 23, 2023, coinciding with the Learning Communities Career Conversation Night, the Counseling Department launched the Explorers Program. The Explorers Program is aimed at providing support to students who are undecided or undeclared and help them with their meta-major, major, and/or career choices. Students in the Explorer Program will meet with a career counselor to create an action plan and determine the level of support needed to accomplish their goals. The Explorers Program can help students with (1) self-discovery and identifying their strengths, interests, and values; (2) career exploration through aligning their passions with their major and career choices; (3) creating a career action plan that provides a sense of direction, motivation, social capital and a clear focus. If you know of a student that is undecided or undeclared in their major or career and would benefit from the Explorer Program, please complete this short form. 

Article by: Kenny Gonzalez

All members of the Skyline College community are invited to explore critical global citizenship during the month of March through an exhibit, film screenings and panel discussion. 

February 13, 2023 – March 31, 2023: Traveling Exhibit: The Newest Americans. On display at Skyline College Library, Building 5, 2nd floor beginning February 13. 

Monday, March 13, 2023, 4:30pm.: Community Film Screening: Wasted: The Story of Food Waste (virtual)

Zoom: https://smccd.zoom.us/j/82541700536

In this documentary, renowned chefs discuss the economic and environmental costs of global food waste, exploring solutions involving educating consumers.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023, 3:30pm.: Community Film Screening: Bitter Seeds (virtual)

Bitter Seeds: This documentary exposes the tragic impact of the American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, Monsanto on rural farming communities in India. This is the third film in Micha Peled’s Globalization Trilogy, following the award-winning Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town and China Blue.

Zoom: https://smccd.zoom.us/j/89653028777

Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 3:30pm.: Panel Discussion (Hyflux). Let us know if you will join in person or via Zoom by filling out this registration form today. 

In person: Intercultural Center Lounge, Building 4, 1^st floor.

Zoom: https://smccd.zoom.us/j/87315078015

How are individual, local, national, and global interconnected and co-produced, and how can each of us recognize and take responsibility for our choices and actions? Panelists include activists, writers, artists, journalists and Skyline College faculty. Refreshments will be provided.

Faculty can incorporate the film screenings and panel discussion into their Spring course assignments, with ready to use assignment and reflection prompts available under teaching guides here: Spring 2023 events page.

Find more information on the CGCE project homepage, please visit https://skylinecollege.edu/cgce/events.php or contact Professor Pia Walawalkar, Equity and Outreach Librarian walawalkars@smccd.edu or Professor Rob Williams williamsrob@smccd.edu.

We look forward to seeing you!

Article by: Jessica Silver-Sharp