Embracing Growth Through Diversity

Pam Sornson, JD on October 25, 2020

For too long, too many people ignored the world’s various forms of inequity because they didn’t believe those notions, behaviors, and policies adversely affected their lives. Unfortunately, their belief is in error, as research on the subject reveals how any form of inequality adversely affects the entire community in which it exists (including the global community). As this reality becomes more apparent, local communities are making changes to resolve their inequity challenges and mitigate the damages they cause.

 

Historical Inequity is Everywhere

The social and economic gaps between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ have never been wider, as more people express pessimism about resolving the fundamental inequities that exist in their communities. Race, religion, caste systems, ability challenges, and ethnicities are all used as tools to limit access to social and economic resources by those people who are deemed ‘less than.’ In some cases, skin color is the only differentiator; in others, where differences in skin color aren’t as obvious, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and historic rivalries continue to dictate who gets what portion of a society’s collective resources.

Usually, it is a limited class of governors that determines who reaps the highest proportion of a community’s bounty in most instances. Too often, that determination rewards those who are most like those governors than those who actually generated the resources. By always favoring their same-class cohorts, not only do their neighbors and friends fare better than they would without the boost, but the determining class also retains its power to maintain that status quo. The consequence is a society run by a single, narrow category of people that excludes those with differences from both decision-making opportunities and the resources those opportunities provide. The outcome is a community populated by diverse interests and abilities ruled from a single, narrow, and limiting perspective. And that perspective negatively affects every person within that community.

 

 

Embrace Diversity = Embrace Vision and Resource

Perhaps the saddest consequence of a lack of diversity in community determination and participation is the loss of the immense resource within diverse populations. When many or most facets of a community are excluded in favor of one or two small groups, everyone, including those in the one or two, loses out on the benefits and values that are ignored.

Why does this matter? It matters because cultures that embrace and include their full complement of diverse elements do better socially and economically than those that don’t.

 

 

Social Benefits of Inclusive Diversity

Research is revealing how positive social connections between culturally divergent people enhance the lives and work of them all.

A 2018 Danish study looked at how social interactions among internationally based team members improved not just the individual’s personal sense of well-being but also their collective sense of community well-being too. The study analyzed the interactions among 30+ teams in a company with 7,200 workers representing 118 nationalities. Through observations and discussions, researchers noted that highly diverse groups (those with multiple nationalities represented) interacted more often, enjoyed a higher sense of social cohesion, and improved their sense of well-being at work. These social gains were recorded separately from the economic impact generated by the enhanced teamwork capacities.

Ultimately, the scientists concluded that enhanced connections between diverse team members created a ‘virtuous circle’ of mutual assistance and team coherence across the enterprise.

Other researchers found evidence that increased exposure to people of different backgrounds and cultures also enhances one’s personal sense of well-being. Interaction with people outside one’s unique cultural bubble tends to both open one’s understanding and perspective about the larger world and reduce the innate prejudice and fear that ignorance and unfamiliarity can cause.

Being open to new ideas and possibilities offered by a diverse community also opens doors to innovation, as cultural standards are shared and adopted.

The studies suggest that people who live in diverse communities and share ideas, experiences, and opportunities are more socially connected and happier than those who do not.

 

Economic Benefits of Inclusive Diversity

Research also strongly supports the position that businesses do better when they actively engage in including diverse populations within their workforces.

The broader workforce base also creates a more qualified workforce since candidates aren’t limited by irrelevant cultural factors (race, religion, etc.)

As noted above, that diverse workforce also works better than a non-diverse staff because they encourage each other’s creativity and imagination.

Not insignificantly, the diverse workforce also attracts – and the business is better informed by – a broader, more diverse consumer base. Diverse perspectives and needs generate equally diverse commercial responses and opportunities. Studies show that companies can increase their market share simply by diversifying their workforce.

Both economically and socially, the science indicates that engaging every diverse element within a community raises the overall community sense of well-being and prosperity.

 

 

Overarching Benefits of Inclusion of Diverse Cultures

Additionally, other community factors improve when an entire community, including its diverse populations, contributes to the overall well-being of its whole. According to Deloitte, inclusivity also:

reduces the societal costs of social services;

improves overall mental and physical health in all members;

improves the employment outcomes of individual workers, and

increases corporate productivity.

In sum, it no longer makes any sense to exclude any community members from social or economic opportunities based on irrelevant cultural factors. Instead, research indicates that including every person and all that they represent into all facets of community life only enhances the community’s overall social and economic well-being as a whole.

 

Community Colleges Enhance their Focus on Diversity and Inclusivity

Fortunately, America’s community colleges are already deeply engaged in righting the past’s wrongs and building pathways to a brighter future for everyone. For many years, they have invested their assets in attracting and educating the broadest possible population of students. The endeavor is immense because their typical student population is also often the most diverse, encompassing learners facing a wide variety of challenges and barriers.

Almost half (42%) are the first in their families to attend a college of any kind.

Some have language barriers.

Others must manage work and family obligations on top of their school work (13% are single parents).

More than 10% have disabilities that interfere with their learning capacity, mobility, or opportunity to engage.

Many, if not most, have economic concerns that interfere with their ability to pay for their education.

Despite these challenges, the nation’s community colleges continue to build their internal resources to support these students’ efforts to succeed. The professionals at PCC’s Cross-Cultural Center (CCC) work to ensure that all students experience an inclusive and welcoming culture as they enter and move through their college experience. With help from counselors and faculty from across the campus, the CCC helps every learner overcome their personal hurdles as they pursue the education path that best suits their needs.

PCC also focuses on helping its students find the work they want after graduation. The efforts of its Robert G. Freeman Career Center (RGF) are designed to ensure that they have the skillsets needed to fill available positions in the industries of their choice. Its Work-based Learning initiative provides internship opportunities to hone classroom learning and prepare learners for the actual work of their career. And all the effort provided by the The Freeman Center is tailored to match the needs of each individual student, regardless of race, religion, or other culturally distinct traits.

 

Pasadena City College is proud of its efforts to ensure all of its students achieve and succeed in the jobs and careers that they choose, and is looking forward to continuing this track for years to come.

 

 

CTE Explained

Pam Sornson, JD on October 25, 2020

Although technically it stands for “Career and Technical Education,” the acronym ‘CTE” could also stand for ‘Commit to Excellence’ as community colleges cut through the mixed messaging of this highly valuable education track. A quick history of the philosophy and development of technical (versus academic) education reveals how most of the world we live in was built by the masters of these ‘middle skills.’

 

The Early Years

The unique circumstances of the 20th Century launched the theory that a ‘university education’ was deemed both the best possible education AND became accessible to the masses. Before that, people who gained any kind of ‘higher education’ were typically of an elite class and had a decidedly religious perspective – America’s first universities focused on developing a ‘learned clergy.’ They included a seminary as well as a classroom for their students.

The vast majority of the population didn’t have social access or a spiritual bent in the first place. And most often, attending ‘college’ was not an option, anyway, when the family needed that extra laborer in the field. Instead, the ‘education’ received by ‘non-elite’ people came in the form of the work they did to survive – farming, carpentry, smithing, etc. This work provided the foundational assets needed to build communities, businesses, and communities and facilitated the broader labor force that generated the aggregate industrial successes of the 19th Century. The more fortunate workers were also sometimes able to sign on with trades masters as apprentices, where they learned the intricacies and artforms inherent in the mainly manual work. These apprenticeship arrangements transformed over time into ‘vocational training’ and provided the impetus for the ‘career and technical education’ track as an alternate option to the four-year university.

 

 

Vocational Training as a Public Investment

In 1917, the U.S. federal government passed the National Vocational Education Act, which provided the first federal funding to the States for trade, industrial, agriculture, and home-making education programs. Over time, the Act and the volume of investments rose, adding more subjects to the vocational training roster:

Funds for teaching and marketing occupations were added in 1936.

Agricultural investments grew in 1946, adding support for the Future Farmers of America (for white Americans) and the New Farmers of America (for black Americans).

In 1956, funds for practical nursing and fishery operations were added.

 

As the subjects covered by federal vocational funding grew, the financing and support grew for the students, teachers, and schools that participated in the lessons.

In 1963, vocational training expanded its eligible student base by adding “persons of all ages in all communities.”

That year, the federal government also changed its allocation strategy to provide funding to individual states based on their student population numbers, which now also included academically and economically disadvantaged students as well as disabled students.

In 1968, Congress amended the legislation to include ‘post-secondary’ learners, and in 1976, women and girls were (finally) mandated to have equal access to vocational training opportunities.

 

Perhaps the most significant CTE and vocational training changes came in 1984 when Congress aggregated the collective vocational legislation initiatives into the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act. Since its inception, the government has amended the ‘Perkins’ Act four times (II, III, IV, and V) to embrace ever-widening elements of America’s educational landscape.

In 1990, the name of the Act (version II) was amended by adding ‘Applied Technology Education’ to its title. That amendment also included secondary and post-secondary alignment, academic integration with CTE programs, and business partnerships as added values to the CTE experience. It also noted that accountability was a critical element of the success of any CTE program.

The Act doubled down on its integration and alignment focus in 1998 (version III) by allowing states to control 85% of its funding for state-based initiatives, and

In 2006, the Act’s name changed again (version IV) to reflect its current focus, the “Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.” The revision added new available subject matters, re-envisioned its perspective on CTE in general, and supplied $1.3 billion to support Basic State Grants and ‘Tech Prep Education’ funding. (Tech Prep funding was discontinued in 2011.)

 

In 2018, Congress renamed it again, and it is now the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). The new version reiterates all the values of the past while adding significant parameters for the future:

It requires ‘data-driven decision-making’ based on appropriate assessments and accountabilities;

It enhances supports to special populations, and

It encourages innovation in the CTE strata of educational opportunities.

Perkins V became operable in this 20-21 academic year.

 

 

Addressing the ‘CTE’ Stigma

Despite these investments and insightful developments in CTE strategies, CTE courses and programs continue to lack the respect enjoyed by four-year colleges and universities. In most part, that ‘stigma’ grew out of the mid-20th Century’s elitist mentality that asserted only a four-year degree could provide the best opportunity to find the best-paying job. Schools offering two-year and technical programs were considered second class and second choice. They were looked on favorably only by students who would be content earning less than their four-year university-bound cohorts.

One reason for the misconception that a ‘college degree’ was more valuable than a CTE program is the fact that the 1944 GI Bill essentially said so. Returning World War II heroes were able to successfully ‘reenter society’ after first receiving a four-year academic degree. The free college opportunity would level the playing field between elitists (that 5% of the then-population that would certainly go to college) and the majority of the returning soldiers (the 95% who would not attend college otherwise).

The promotion of an academic education over a technical one persisted as governments across the country asserted its superiority. By the 1980s, society had absorbed the shift in the occupational perception of professions being more valuable occupations for everyone over technical, managerial, and clerical work.

That shift was based on economic theory, however, not pragmatism: academic work paid better than technical work, so everyone should pursue a profession even if it doesn’t fit their predisposition or aptitude. So young people were encouraged to attend the higher-level college regardless of their innate abilities, talents, or skills, and even if they didn’t want to participate in the first place.

Unfortunately, that perception (and its consequence of millions of reluctant or ill-suited college attendees) has skewed America’s educational system for decades:

Even with all the accommodations available to ease the four-year university process, upwards of 40% of all undergraduates drop out of college, and 30% of first-year college students leave before the end of their sophomore year.

More than 30% of those undergraduates are also the first in their families to attend university, meaning they have no family history or culture supporting college success.

In 2019, less than half of America’s 25-to-35-year-olds had acquired any credentials beyond high school. So even if they had tried college, they didn’t finish, nor did they complete any other type of post-high school education.

And even while the push towards four-year schools maintained high popularity, millions of highly paid trade jobs remained unfilled.

The overall consequence is that America is now overflowing with young people seeking a better future (but without the resources they need to achieve it), and thousands of trade positions that can’t be filled. The new response to that challenge: offer additional training and skills-attainment opportunities across a wider swath of occupations so that more people can attend a school that suits them and find work in a job or occupation they enjoy.

 

 

Opening a New World for Workers

Since 2010, California has been pursuing that very goal by investing heavily in the CTE and advanced technical training programs in its community colleges. Data reveals why those investments are both smart and prescient:

Because they typically cost less than a four-year school, community colleges are more cost-effective and can attract a broader student base.

Because the commitment to achieve a certificate or associate degree requires fewer time and economic resources to obtain, community colleges also attract older learners, those with lower incomes, or are the first in their family to attend college. For many, community college is their only opportunity to pursue any form of advanced education or skills training program.

The ‘middle skills’ training offered through most community college programs leads to significant and well-paying jobs, allowing more students to attain the lifestyle they want without taking on the excess cost of pursuing a four-year university degree.

Those programs are also (usually) more flexible than the academic tracks, allowing the schools to adapt to accommodate the changing needs of local and regional industries.

The rising interest and investments into community colleges as workforce pipelines are seeing success. Between the 02-03 and the 12-13 academic years, the number of CTE graduates with certifications or associates degrees grew by 54%. The number of bachelor’s degree graduates rose by only 36% in the same time frame.

 

And for students, the rewards are even better:

Short-term certifications and diplomas (6 – 17 credits) raise the learners earning capacity by 14%.

Longer-term associates degrees (60 or more credits) increase earning capacities by 45%.

 

CTE Moving Forward

Of course, the relative earning capacity changes based on the education received and the nature of the work. The point is that California’s community college CTE training is providing more people with job opportunities tailored to their skills and abilities than ever before.

Today’s truth is that industries are clamoring for well-trained and educated workers who provide the critical middle skillsets they need. The PCC EWD Future of Work Conference is an excellent opportunity to learn more about how Pasadena City College is responding to that demand.

PCC Supports Career-Focused Student Success

Pam Sornson, JD on October 8, 2020

This is Part Two of a two-part series on PCC’s six Career Communities and the supports offered by the school to assist its students successfully navigate them.

Like many community colleges, Pasadena City College (PCC) took a two-pronged approach as it re-engineered its programs to reflect the demands of its local and regional industries. Its dual focus was to respond to its corporate neighbors’ workforce preferences while also providing success-building support for the students seeking those jobs. The result is a network of interrelated systems and processes, designed to assist the learner in finding the program best suited to their taste, and then progress through that program into employment.

 

 

 

Student Success One Student at a Time

PCC recognizes that each of its students is an individual with unique skills and talents, as well as specific challenges and sometimes, barriers. It designed its student support services to meet each individual student’s needs regardless of what those were. Accordingly, PCC learners of all ages and backgrounds can find the exact type of support they need to enter into and progress through their PCC college career.

 

 

 

Explore All the Options

PCC offers six Career Communities, each designed around several occupations and jobs that share similar requirements and educational outcomes. The wide variety of employment and career options facilitate almost every student’s wishes, from those who simply want to find a good job to those who aspire to a four-year degree and beyond. Each Community offers training for entry-level learners, emphasizing ‘middle skills,’ those skills that aren’t taught in high school, but that don’t require a more advanced degree. California will need one million more middle-skilled workers by the end of this decade, and PCC is doing its part to deliver at least a portion of that number.

But choosing a career option is just one element of finding educational success. Many learners haven’t finished high school, didn’t do well in high school, or look back years or sometimes decades to when they were last in a school environment. For these students, the processes involved in just entering college can be overwhelming, let alone taking on the task of actually learning a new skill base. PCC has their best interests in mind, too, and offers a series of supports designed to help them get through the entry hurdles and into the education processes beyond.

 

 

Guided Pathways:

Just as the name suggests, Guided Pathways provide a clearly marked educational map of processes to follow to enter, complete, and graduate from college. Designed around specific job and career options, the pathways help define any barriers that might slow students’ success and suggest possible resolutions to those impediments. It then sets out a detailed map of the courses needed to achieve those educational goals. Throughout the process, PCC counselors maintain contacts with the learners to help them through any subsequent hurdles that might pop up during the semester. Finally, Guided Pathways assist the students in graduating from PCC by facilitating their individual next steps, whether those include transferring to a four-year school, completing certification requirements, or finding a job.

 

Getting Started at the Robert G. Freeman Center

The Robert G. Freeman Center (Center) is PCC’s one-stop-shop for getting started. The Center provides a full scope of services for students at all stages of their education, from beginners to internship-seekers to graduates planning their careers.

 

 

Beginning College Students

Often, the most challenging step for a beginning college student is the first one. Learners seeking a new college experience but who may have no personal or family history with college can be especially challenged by the prospect of starting a new education track. Further, many new students aren’t fully aware of what they want to do or even what they’re good at, nor are they familiar with all the available options. PCC designed its Student Success supports with tools to help these hopefuls clarify their wishes, skills, and aspirations, then match those to appropriate programs and careers.

 

Career Surveys

For most students, the initial step is to take one of the two available Career Surveys. The simplified six-step “Quick Assessment” explores what the learner likes to do, how they use their skills in their daily lives, and how engaged they want to be with others in their optimal job. The 60-question “Detailed Assessment” delves deeper into personal skills, preferences, abilities, and ambitions. Each assessment then provides an overview of the student’s strengths and suggests possible career options that work well with those attributes. Insights gleaned here can help the new students identify which jobs or careers offered in the Career Communities are the best fit for their skillset and satisfaction expectations.

 

Counseling

PCC’s counselors have all the tools needed to help any student resolve a concern or move forward in their education. Typically available in person, they are now accessible online, so no one chances a COVID-19 exposure. Additionally, the website hosts a series of “How To” tutorials available to learners whenever they have the time to look.

 

Tutoring

PCC’s ‘Success Centers’ provide tutoring services, technology access, study space, and more, and are dotted across the campus when classes are in session. These days, they are also available remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their Success Coaches are available to direct the student to the resources they need at that time, and also to review longer-range plans and strategies.

 

Special Groups

Many PCC students manage personal and family challenges in addition to being new to the college experience. PCC’s Special Services unit helps learners coping with language concerns, students whose lives are impacted by incarceration, foster youth, Disabled students, and learners who must also work or provide care services for family members. Students of African descent, with sexual or gender diversities, and those with military veteran status will find the assistance they need to reach their goals. Each of these situations presents unique challenges; PCC designed its counseling services to encompass them all.

 

Continuing Students

Sometimes staying in school is more difficult than getting started in school, as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated. PCC’s focus is on helping its student body progress through their chosen programs then graduate into careers of their choosing, and it offers help and support every step along the way. Program maps keep learners on track with their eventual goals, while the guided exit process moves them through graduation and into their next steps, whether those are toward a four-year degree, a new job, or a new career.

 

PCC Student Success Metrics

PCC measures its success by the number of students that progress through and complete their programs, fully prepared to find their future. It knows its Pathway program works because the metrics derived from a 2019 study prove that fact:

* 87% of students following Pathways tracks persisted from fall to fall (compared to 80% of non-Pathways students);

* Almost half (48%) successfully completed transfer-level English and math courses (32% of non-Pathways students)

* 64% were prepared for transfers (43%);

* 44% were ready to transfer (28%), and

* 39% completed their program (22%).

 

PCC has learned that connecting students with the supports they need as individuals is the key to facilitating their success. As an institution, PCC knows that its students can find success when school-based supports include counseling that is sensitive to their personal concerns, clearly marked pathways lead them from college entry to taking the job, and they get individual attention for coping with all the details of life that pop up along the way.

And PCC isn’t finished in its evolution to job-training Mecca just yet. Like the economy, job skills evolve over time, and PCC is as committed to meeting those future needs as it is to meeting today’s labor force demands. Maybe the pandemic has you thinking about what your new future might look like? For more information, start here.

 

 

PCC’s Six Career Communities and California’s EWD Revolution

Pam Sornson, JD on October 8, 2020

This is Part One of a two-part overview detailing how PCC’s six Career Communities tie into its regional industries and businesses. Part Two discusses the support systems PCC provides to ensure its students can thrive in both their education and their future careers.

 

 

Rethinking Career Options After COVID-19

For many people these days, the future is foggy. The COVID-19 pandemic may have forced them to work from home, and they’re finding that the at-home mandate isn’t to their liking. Others may have lost their job altogether and wonder where and when they will find their next one.

The reality is that the virus and its impact on jobs and the economy have given people the time to think about not just what they can do to earn their living, but also what they want to do once it’s over and the world gets back to ‘normal.’ The pandemic is providing a departure from our culture’s ‘business as usual’ mentality and allowing people to truly ponder their future. Many are taking the time to consider possible changes they might make that are more in line with who they want to be. And for a significant number, the answer to their soul-searching inquiry is to pursue advanced educational goals.

Fortunately, the State of California is way ahead on that thought process.

 

 

 

Strategizing the Future of the State …

In 2012, at one of its Economic Summits, the State of California convened to evaluate and strategize a revision of its economy. That gathering resulted in two public policy principles that are now playing a significant role in the work of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) and its 116 community colleges:

Rethink the overall monolithic economy as one of many regional economies, and build each one per its individual assets, and

Expand the career and technical education options (CTE) in each regional economy to meet its respective industries’ needs.

For the State, revisioning means a realignment of state-based resources to enhance the best economic growth opportunities as those arise in each region. For the local and regional community colleges, the revisioning means redirecting school resources towards teaching and training to the requirements of their local business and industrial communities.

 

… and of Pasadena City College

For PCC, the revisioning means developing relationships with its corporate neighbors and engaging them in the process of building a more robust, more relevant workforce. It also means ensuring its students have the training and skills needed to find work in those businesses. To do that, PCC is implementing California’s Guided Pathways strategy to assist every student enter college, attain the education and credentials they seek, and graduate into successful and fulfilling careers.

 

The Business Needs Survey

In 2018, PCC conducted a ‘Business Needs Assessment‘ survey, seeking direct inputs from the companies and employers who needed to workers that PCC would train. The assessment had three goals:

To identify employment trends and anticipated industry growth, including the skill requirements for entry-level jobs within those sectors;

To assess the business community’s interest in providing on-the-job training and internships opportunities for PCC students, and

To assess the business community’s perception of PCC, and its willingness to join the jobs-creation effort as PCC’s partners.

The survey focused on businesses in Pasadena’s ‘primary industrial sectors,’ which offer the most promise for future growth and development.

 

The Business Needs Assessment

That assessment provided all kinds of interesting insights:

Of the 112 company respondents, over 40 were information technology (IT) businesses. This strong response indicates that technology skills are in high demand AND that those skills are deployable in more than one industrial sector.

Business leaders were also optimistic about business growth possibilities, with almost 80% expecting gains in the near term of five years, and 70% expecting gains to continue through the next ten years.

Approximately 48% of respondents reported they would need workers with at least some advanced education beyond high-school. Of these, almost half were looking for Associates Degrees, while the others required some form of certification or advanced training that wasn’t available in high school but was necessary to qualify for the work.

Perhaps most optimistically, over 60% would be available for job shadowing, and most of those would also be available for internships. These forms of training provide the on-the-job skills needed that respond to the ‘more-than-high-school-but-less-than a degree’ demands.

Overall, the survey provided a vast wealth of information that PCC has used to streamline and guide its program-based planning and investments.

(Note that PCC conducted the study before COVID-19, so it may not be as accurate now as it was then. However, it does reflect the attitudes of business leaders; assuming many or most of those businesses were not lost to the pandemic, those attitudes were based on known business and economic realities that should rebound in some form as the epidemic recedes.) 

 

 

 

Providing an Optimal Learning Platform

PCC’s six Career Communities offer a wide variety of occupational and career options, so each PCC student can choose to pursue the one that best suits their aspirations and goals. Each career community title clarifies its course offerings, and identifies the industries driving the demand for those programs. Some training straddles multiple sectors, such as IT courses, while other programs are narrowly designed to meet the needs of specific specialties, such as dental hygienics.

 

 

 

The Arts, Communication & Design Career Community

LA’s vast entertainment industry offers many enticing career options, including creative pursuits like multimedia arts and animation, directing and producing, and film and video engineering and editing. Similar design-based occupation options include architecture and industrial engineering, speech-language pathologies, urban planning, and Internet-related design and development.

 

The Business & Industry Career Community

This Career Community covers a vast array of subject matters and career options, from accounting and auditing to hospitality management and paralegal studies. PCC designed these programs to respond to the various training levels sought by its students, from relatively simple on-the-job skills through to both Associate Degrees and Four-Year Transfer Degrees. The umbrella covers justice administration, automotives, business management, business information technology, electrical tech, culinary arts, and fire technologies.

 

The Health Sciences & Wellness Career Community

LA’s health and wellness industries continue to grow, and PCC course offerings reflect that demand. Students can train to become physician assistants and dental hygienists, health educators, nursing specialists, and radiology technologists.

 

 

 

 

The Liberal Arts Career Community

These career options span every interest from audiology to writing, with several education-based training programs sprinkled in. Here, second language learners find the training they need to pursue higher education opportunities in foreign languages and linguistics.

 

The Social & Behavioral Sciences Career Community

Students interested in these subjects are often caring and compassionate individuals who want to help others. Career options cover a wide variety of education-related occupations (administrators, child-care specialists, school counselors, etc.), and programs in social work, mental health therapies, and human resource services.

 

The STEM Career Community 

Science, technology, engineering, and math are the core sciences driving this Career Community. Students can learn the skills needed for many different industries in these programs, including forensic investigations; information systems security, analysis & statistics; environmental science concepts, and surveying and mapping technologies. Since IT employment accounts for 13% of California’s gross economy, it makes sense that PCC would adopt IT education as one of the pillars of its STEM career college.

 

After the Pandemic – PCC?

Thousands of displaced workers are wondering what their future holds and what their next steps should be. Pasadena City College provides both answers and solutions to those concerns. It offers a selection of programs that appeal to a broad stratum of learners, as well as the coursework and hands-on-learning they need to find a job.

Everyone whose job is affected by the COVID-19 concern (or who is just wondering what else they might do with their time) should take the opportunity to explore further career options that are a better match for their skills and abilities and that may lead them to the work that satisfies their personal ambitions and goals.

Stephanie Fleming: Supporting PCC’s Frontline Teaching Troops

Pam Sornson, JD on September 17, 2020

“There are no work policies for pandemics,” deadpanned Stephanie Fleming, Dean of Instructional Support for Pasadena City College (PCC). She was speaking, of course, about the abrupt halt to standard college operations in March 2020, due to the unabated spread of the COVID-19 virus. Her role as Dean gave her both a front-row view of the virus-control processes rolling out across campus, and the opportunity to collaborate with Dr.’s Bob Blizinski and Terry Giugni (VP’s respectively of HR and Instruction) on strategies and next steps. She’s learned a lot from her experience assisting with redirecting a highly organized and connected institution and helping it juggle its myriad of obligations and aspirations when faced with what was truly an insurmountable barrier.

 

Many Perspectives to Consider

At first, like much of the world, all of PCC paused when the volume of both information and misinformation muddled everyone’s capacity to address the advancing health threat. After carefully reviewing all facets of the situation, the leadership team launched the first of many steps in response to the crisis, recognizing the need to craft short-, mid-, and long-term decisions.

 

Short-term considerations:

Initially, simply getting students out of the classrooms and off-campus was the goal. That was handled pretty quickly, and the physical site went dark just days after the call was made to close it. But the swift switch to remote learning prompted many more questions:

For the school as a whole:

How would the school handle those classes and courses that don’t translate to remote learning? Hands-on labs, courses with lots of field trips, or programs that engage heavily in work-based learning situations suddenly lost those training opportunities.

Even courses that do shift fairly easily to online learning posed problems when the student didn’t have the resources available to connect to them. Could the school help them, if it had the resources available to do so?

For the faculty trying to finish the semester:

As the Dean of Instructional Support, Fleming’s role on the leadership team focused her attention on assisting the faculty to achieve their semester goals despite the COVID-19 concern. The project wasn’t an easy one: most of PCC’s teaching staff relied on years of standard teaching strategies, very few of which transitioned smoothly to an all-digital format.

Further, the ‘digital skill’ level of the overall faculty wasn’t balanced either; for some, the transition was more comfortable than it was for others. However, no matter their skills, all of PCC’s faculty was at a loss for what to do when they suddenly had to move all their curriculum online and, simultaneously, become adept at reaching their students remotely. Fleming was busy sorting who needed what and determining how she could help them.

She set her focus on maintaining as much instruction as possible while prioritizing safety for all.

No Easy Answers

However, Fleming quickly learned that there are no short answers to the questions she and the team were facing. Every decision had subsequent, significant, and sometimes devastating consequences, if not thought through thoroughly.

Individual issues illustrate the depth of the challenge as it existed in March and April 2020:

Some courses typically assigned grades based on hands-on projects, while others relied on technology to determine students’ marks. Without access to the tech or the data, how would students complete their work or professors grade those students?

Some courses simply couldn’t continue from a remote perspective, so they made an early decision to assign those students an incomplete grade, which wouldn’t affect their GPA. This election eliminated the requirement of assigning a merit-based grade, but also hindered the educational careers of students who needed that prerequisite grade to continue in their course of study.

It also raised the issue of the student loan that paid for that course. Would the lender pay for that course again? Would the school absorb those costs for the second go-round? How could the student remain unaffected in this circumstance?

The changes mandated by the transition to online teaching also created havoc with PCC-affiliated contracts and standards. In some cases, the virus interfered with long-standing agreements, and those terms needed review and sometimes revisions in the face of the pandemic. Other COVID-19 related accommodations resulted in violations of teaching and institutional standards, putting the school’s accreditation in jeopardy.

Never far from her mind, though, were the circumstances of PCC students, some of whom were facing potentially college-ending situations.

International students were facing the loss of their F1 visas if they weren’t able to attend classes. That loss would mandate their departure from the country.

Many other students were struggling to find the resources they needed when they had no access to the resources available at the school. Students without technical resources or Internet access at home were unable to remain as students. The pandemic had revealed the cultural divide between those students with assets and those without.

Teamwork to the Rescue

Fleming noted throughout the conversation how the ‘success’ of PCC’s transformation to an all-digital school was the result of the collaboration of its faculty and administration staff. Everyone from the Dean’s office through all the ranks and divisions came together with their talents, skills, and know-how to solve immediate problems and contribute insights that might generate strategic solutions to longer-term concerns.

The Distance Education team was a critical component of the school’s success. Those professionals contributed a variety of resources and efforts to get every teacher and every office online.

Decisions were hammered out in all-in meetings that included faculty, staff, and leadership. Together, they explored each element of every decision for its potential impacts across the campus.

The Professional Development team was also instrumental in getting classes online. They worked tirelessly to implement the ‘Just in Time’ training that the Distance Education department developed in response to the pandemic. That process brought the entire teaching staff onto a single strategy, so courses and learning would be at least consistent if they couldn’t be optimal.

In remarkably short order, PCC was back ‘in business,’ at least to finish the Spring semester.

 

Mid-term Decisions

The work done to get the school online also informed the strategy for PCC’s Summer Session.

Theories developed early on around student support were put to the test, including those that promised hope to learners with sensitive access and capacity issues.

Faculty training shifted from digital competence to ensuring the achievement of as many necessary teaching standards as possible. Grading plans and student supports were put in place, and Fleming assisted the VP of Instruction, VP of Human Resources, Dean of Distance Education, and the Faculty Association to craft parameters for appropriate additional training.

While all teaching staff received sufficient training to remain accredited, some elected to attend an extended course that gave them accreditation for distance teaching as well.

All academic staff also received at least basic training so they could understand what their colleagues were doing.

Summer Session also brought its own set of challenges:

Enrollment was impacted in strange ways. Some classes were almost empty (not surprising), while others filled up quickly and had waiting lists.

Some courses needed not just digital learning but also some semblance of an on-site opportunity, too. The health sciences departments are currently working through possible solutions to allow on-site work but in as safe a manner as possible. Hopefully, those announcements will come soon.

Fall Session is also revealing unexpected nuances to the challenge:

Fleming expects the college will continue building on the faculty’s newly established ‘uniform training’ platform, which lays the foundation for future building opportunities.

That platform is also proving advantageous for more esoteric training beyond getting lessons to students. Fleming is especially enthused about using it to develop a broader base of equity and diversity training, as an example.

Face-to-face teaching opportunities continue to present concerns, but the school continues to consider multiple options to provide as much learning as possible despite needed protections.

These and other concerns, challenges, and opportunities will continue to develop over time, as PCC works to build its ‘new normal’ in this decidedly different world.

 

Long-term Considerations

Looking back, Fleming is immensely proud of the work being done by PCC and all its teams through this entire adventure. It’s managed to save as much instruction as possible, and to preserve stability across its curricula. She is also immensely grateful to the teaching staff who, admittedly, have born the burden of learning how, adopting, then learning from their new digital teaching practices. She notes that both the faculty association and the district are seeking ways to recognize their effort.

Looking forward, Fleming is accepting the situation as an evolving strategic planning session. Regardless of the solutions in place now, it is almost assured that circumstances will change and that new solutions will be needed tomorrow. She will continue to work with the PCC leadership team to support the school’s professors, so they can accomplish their session goals (as much as possible) while also retaining the joy they experience in their teaching role. As the Dean of Instructional Support, that focus seems to be the best ‘policy’ available when there are no other policies to which to turn.

 

 

 

 

Shelagh Rose: Finding Opportunity in an Unlikely Situation

Pam Sornson, JD on September 15, 2020

Well, here’s some pretty sweet lemonade made from one fairly bitter lemon: Shelagh Rose, Career Community Faculty Coordinator at Pasadena City College (PCC), looks at the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity, not an obstacle. Like any other unexpected development, the situation forced her and her colleagues to re-evaluate the work they do to keep PCC’s stellar faculty and staff well able to teach and serve PCC’s equally stellar student population. She’s using both data revealed by inquiry into student experience at PCC and the conclusions it suggests to address long-standing concerns while building a healthier future for the entire PCC region.

 

 

She’s also enthused by the present mindset of the PCC faculty. The pandemic has opened their collective eyes to challenges they’d not otherwise been in a place to see. With their heightened attention also piquing their interest, Rose hopes to engage them in new considerations that better serve PCC’s greater diverse community.

 

Always Learning; Looking to Teach

Rose is currently a student in the doctoral program in Educational Leadership at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS). She is also fortunate to be a part of a long-standing Research-Practitioner Partnership with faculty and Ph.D. students from GSEIS. As a member of this partnership, Rose, along with a multiconstituent group from PCC, participates in a Data Inquiry Group (DIG) focusing on student ‘career decision-making processes‘ at all stages of their education. As the research partners gather data about the barriers and supports PCC students face in their career exploration and decision-making process, Rose gains insights about the additional supports that would benefit students engaging in this process.

One of the significant drivers of the UCLA program is its focus on equity and how inequitable access to information affects long-term outcomes for historically underserved students. The COVID-19 concern is acting as a substantial disruption to ‘standard operating procedures,’ revealing where those inequities lie and how destructive they are. She intends to partner with others campus-wide to use the information to inform the changes she hopes to see at PCC. She likens the COVID-19 situation to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, which educated millions of Americans about long-standing injustice, and ushered in years of enlightened legislation to address those challenges.

 

Deeper Insights = Better Decisions

One of the first concerns Rose noted when reviewing data provided by PCC’s UCLA partners was how often Latino/Latina/Latinx and Black/African American students choose career paths that may respond to their personal values, but that don’t necessarily lead to a livable wage or a wider range of career options. While most seek jobs that will improve their community, they may limit themselves to a narrow field of known choices and fail to discover a wider selection of careers related to that occupation. Rose and her team of career community faculty leads are working to introduce them to those expanded options, many in the STEM field, that address their concerns with social issues while also facilitating a more lucrative future.

At PCC, she’s bringing her insights to her work with the Robert G. Freeman Center, its Work-based Learning department, and the PCC Transfer Center, who have partnered with her and her team to organize PCC’s six Career Communities. Supported by a federal Title 5 grant dedicated to Hispanic Serving Institutions, she has also engaged the partnership of a collaborative “Equipo” (Spanish for ‘team’) – an advisory board of students who work with their PCC faculty colleagues. The six Career Communities they advise now provide a space for all students to explore career and major options while also connecting them to the academic, career, and personal support they need to achieve their goals. Because her work is faculty-facing, Rose also supports the faculty in their role as leads for their respective career community. (When asked, 28 faculty members applied for the Team Lead role, and the college hired all. Many of these leads attend the UCLA inquiry partnership, gaining valuable information about students, which they can then take back to their specific Career Community development team.)

 

Pre- and Post-COVID-19: It’s All Good

Rose is just in her second year as Career Community Lead, after spending 13 years fully dedicated to classroom teaching as an ESL instructor and another ten as faculty lead for the First Year Pathways programs. During these years, she participated successfully in campus leadership positions:

As a member of the Senate Executive of Academic Senate, she suggested that updates on the school’s Guided Pathways program be added to every meeting agenda to report on the program’s progress for the full faculty.

As a member of the Pathways team, she coordinated College 1, developing professional development, in which over 200 faculty, administrators, and staff participated.

Rose is proud of the long-term relationships she enjoys with PCC’s faculty, staff, and administration, including several significant friendships that she treasures and on which she is relying as she moves forward. She deeply understands that it takes many collaborators to transform a college so that their processes actually improve students’ lives.

For the early part of the 2019-2020 school year, Rose collaborated with her team to develop several events to introduce students to explore the broadest possible range of career options. The highlight was a two-day ‘Explore Your Career Comunidad’ fair that attracted approximately 1,000 PCC students. Since that event occurred in March immediately before the college went remote, it has been challenging to plan additional events. Instead, Rose has taken the opportunity to team up with Myriam Altounji, the Guided Pathways Faculty Lead, Jacqueline Javier, the Director of Work-based Learning at the Freeman Center, and Jason Barquero, the new Freeman Center Director, to develop a strategy for ongoing collaboration between the Center and the instructional side of the campus.

 

Past Lessons; Forward Progress

Looking back, Shelagh Rose wouldn’t change anything that’s gotten her to this point in her career at PCC, and she’s very excited about taking those next steps towards her Ed.D. She recognizes that making any substantial change in an academic setting is a process. In her opinion, PCC is already deep into the process of ‘awareness building,’ as more faculty, staff, and administration members acknowledge the social realities of bias and inequality. There is a growing realization that the campus must play a role in achieving an equitable outcome for Latino/Latina/Latinx and African-American students.

Looking forward, she’s excited about PCC’s Career Communities’ ‘Social Justice Conference,’ running September 15th through the 17th. Following the conference, she and her team, with support from Strategic Communications and Marketing, will roll out a new website designed to streamline the PCC student’s user experience. And she’ll continue to plan career events for the future while exploring new ways to help PCC teachers help PCC students gain the satisfying careers they want. Far from being dismayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Shelagh Rose has embraced the opportunity it created to sharpen her focus and commitment to find even more success for all of PCC’s student body. Now isn’t that refreshing??

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Thoen: Electrifying Online Instruction

Pam Sornson, JD on August 31, 2020

It’s no surprise that Professor Thomas Thoen, electronics instructor at Pasadena City College (PCC), is popular with his students. He’s been an avid fan of electronic gaming since childhood, and most of his students identify as ‘gamers,’ too. Thoen shares his natural affinity with his students and works to make his classes as much fun as they are educational.

 

Finding a New Circuit

When the PCC campus closed down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both Thoen and his students were non-plussed that the learning fun was screeching to a halt. In this case, that cessation of classroom and lab activities was particularly challenging because so much of the Electronics Technology that Thoen teaches requires hands-on learning. His students learn about the strategy and design around electronic circuitry, printed circuit hardware design, microcontrollers, digital electronics, and robotics, all of which require skillful manipulation of materials and tools. Without those hands-on training opportunities, they won’t gain the skills they need to enter today’s thriving electronics technology industries.

Thoen was equally dismayed about how to digitally replicate – if that was even possible – what he does at the school. His PCC lab is populated with special lab equipment, machines, tools, circuitry boards, etc., all the paraphernalia needed for the students to complete their labs. He was confident none of his students had those resources just lying around at home. However, after an almost 20-year teaching career (preceded by several years as an electrical engineer), he also knew he would be able to solve that problem, too.

 

 

An ‘AHA’ Moment – the Light Bulb Goes On!

While he had no problem moving his theory lectures online, he knew he had to provide his students the opportunity to practice the electronic skills those theories suggest. Fortunately, he had Strong Workforce Grant funds available, a stable home-based Internet connection, and a reliable car. He would purchase the parts his students need and meet them near campus, and in some cases deliver them to their homes, where they could practice what he was attempting to teach them. This possibility offered its own challenges:

Typical electronics equipment is expensive, and he needed to stretch his financial resources as far as he could. Shopping online, he found less costly but still eminently usable alternatives for each of his students.

He also needed licenses so his learners could access the designs and software they’d need to add to their home computers. The “Autodesk” online store came through with the solution to that problem. They directed him to comparable open-sourced software, which was free.

He also pursued a variety of reduced price options offered by companies actively helping students gain the resources needed to continue their education from a remote location.

Within a few weeks of going remote, Thoen had provided his students with both the equipment and the software they needed to implement at home what he would teach online.

Not that the situation was easy. The campus was closed, so Thoen only returned to it to retrieve needed supplies. Otherwise, he collected his wares in his home office/supply depot/family room, and the back of his car on delivery days. He also developed the video capabilities needed to record and upload his lessons to PCC’s online portal. Regardless of the difficulties, between Zoom meetings, video chats, and supply drop moments at each student’s home, he was able to retain almost 100% engagement with all of his learners right through to the end of the term.

 

Creating New Connections

According to Thoen, a big part of the success of his first COVID term was the excellent engagement by his students. Spanning the full scope of PCC’s student population, they included electronic tech wanna-be’s, yes, but also entrepreneurial types looking to build or improve on their big idea, budding electrical engineers, and just recreational folks looking to have some fun and learn some science. Almost all completed their labs and their term, and Thoen can’t be more proud of their accomplishment.

Looking ahead, Thoen is now more excited than he has ever been about his teaching future since he’s learned so much about how to optimize his already formidable skills for an online format. He has a clearer understanding of all the necessary bits and pieces that go into lab work, so he’ll have those ready and organized for his next class. His video’ing skills now capture the intricacies and nuances of electronic circuitry building and design, and he’s getting officially certified to teach via Distance Learning through an eight-week course provided by PCC. All in all, he’s much better prepared to meet student needs from a remote position.

However, as good as all that is, it is still not the icing on the top of Thoen’s cake when it comes to the COVID crisis. In his opinion, the best lesson both he and his students learned through the Spring 2020 PCC semester was how to be resilient. Regardless of the barriers and pivots and equipment swap-outs, he and they were able to meet the course goals as they were initially designed. Plus, everyone is now also skilled at online activities – how to attend virtual meetings, connect through the Internet, and follow through with strategies when they’re working at home, and there’s no one watching them.

All of these benefits will serve his students well, Thoen thinks, as they reach into their respective electronic technology futures. Those looking for careers now have more than just technical skills; they also have the work habits and collaborative abilities that will make them valuable employees somewhere, sometime, after the pandemic has passed.

As far as program updates, currently, Thoen is working with other faculty on updating the curriculum by developing new electronics courses based on the Internet of Things (IOT) and Audio Electronics.  These courses will bridge the gaps between different disciplines and help students to understand the “bigger picture” of how electronics connect to different industries.  Additionally, a stronger social media presence has been developed, including updating the PCC website, along with creating Facebook and Instagram pages.  Please feel free to check these out!

Jesse Torres: PCC EWD’s Guide to Industry

Pam Sornson, JD on August 28, 2020

Pasadena’s Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) department works with a myriad of agencies, industries, and businesses to gather the information needed to drive its programs and services. However, connecting with all those resources takes time and strategy to maximize both the effort and the result. Consultant Jesse Torres, principal of ArroyoWest LLC, a Los Angeles-based economic consulting company, takes on the task on behalf of the department and brings a long and well-versed personal and corporate history to the project.

 

 

Education + Experience = Value for PCC EWD

Torres’s communications and business development talents were already sharp when Pepperdine University hired him as the Director of Alumni Relations for its Graziadio School of Business. He had received his MBA in finance from that alma mater, and his focus was always on helping businesses and industries thrive economically. That focus paid off, apparently, when he left Pepperdine two years later to become the Regional Director for the LA Small Business Development Center Network (LASBDC), and then again three years later, when he left the LASBDC to join the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

In both agencies, Torres’s attention was on working with companies and regional industries to grow and develop new economic opportunities, whether through direct contacts and communications or through the strategizing and development of business-friendly policies. Both jobs also revealed to him the diverse eco-systems in which California’s industries thrive, based on their geographic location, cultural backgrounds, and community connections.

What his education and experience have taught him is that the State of California is bursting with talent, innovation, and opportunity and only needs connections across its resources to nurture those opportunities to fruition. In his position as a principal at Arroyo West, he provides those insights to his clients as they develop their small businesses into bright futures. Through his work, he is helping PCC EWD foster industry connections even during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In addition to a notable Rolodex of who’s who in California’s business community, Torres brings a wealth of knowledge about what’s what and how to get things done.

 

Macro View; Micro Details

His position with the SBDC, gave him an understanding of the finer details of managing a successful business: customer management services, HR practices, and even regulatory compliance and his state-level position offered insights and information about the interplay of industry, communities and small businesses at large.  Knitting the two views together creates in Torres a formidable bevy of tools, strategies, and comprehensions that are applicable in almost any corporate or enterprise situation. It’s this bevy of tools that Torres offers to the PCC EWD. He helps the department make connections with its industry and corporate neighbors, while also engendering success in those relationships for both the school and its business compatriots.

From these perspectives, Torres brings several lessons to the PCC EWD table as the department reaches out to new and potential business partners:

To a company eying Pasadena as a potential home base, the available labor pool is as significant a deciding factor as other economic incentives or something more intrinsic like our year-round good weather.  Companies won’t make any city their home if they can’t find the labor resources they need to thrive in that community.

That labor pool also needs to develop the skills and abilities demanded by regional companies, tailored as much as possible to both the relevant industry and the specific business. Teaching students anything less serves no purpose.

Successfully connecting the two – corporate and labor – requires a strategy that ensures the needs of both are met, and that they can successfully partner to achieve their common goals: good jobs, healthy communities, and successful companies.

It’s from this perspective that Torres’s real work begins: helping PCC EWD advance on its industry priorities and supporting EWD leadership in determining and developing what programming is needed to attract and retain corporate engagement and to demonstrate that PCC is in step with the evolving industry sectors.

 

 

 

It’s All in the Details …

As in all other LA and California regions, there are identified industrial sectors that have a higher representation within the area, so those are the sectors that determine the scope of PCC programming. In his initial scope of work as a consultant for the department, Torres’ work involved researching key industries, reaching out to industry representatives and introducing them to PCC’s unique labor-development resources for those industries.  He played a significant role in the design and implementation of the department’s first Future of Work conference which brought many industry, academic and legislative contacts to PCC to discuss the opportunity for greater collaboration on economic and workforce issues.

Part of his work also involved exploring how to best support PCC EWD in developing strategies to connect industry and academia in term of talent development and upskilling.  From the school’s perspective, the business’s information about its specific needs not only impacts curricula development but also often defines economic investments in books, tools, and even lab construction.  From the business’s perspective, seeking well-trained staff may also be an indicator of corporate growth, which will, in turn, require analysis of the company’s finances, its capacity to take on more workers, and even a review of its HR protocols.

 

… Pivoting in COVID-19

As noted, the original scope of work entailed face-to-face meetings, seminars, and other networking opportunities. Then COVID-19 hit, and, like the rest of the world, it compelled Torres and PCC EWD to adjust his tactics and scope to reflect that new reality. Again, his past experience informed his decisions and his steps forward.

Back in 2018, while still at the Governors’ Office, one of Torres’s projects was to assist the countless small businesses impacted by that year’s devastating wildfires. The ability to adapt to one’s circumstances quickly rose to the top of the ‘most desired skills’ list, and the impact of Torres’s experience both personally and from observing the effort of those business owners remains with him today. That experience helped him pivot (like other PCC colleagues) to accommodate the virus while maintaining a steady focus on his goal of connecting PCC EWD resources to the businesses and companies that need them.

 

Looking Forward

The COVID-19 pause has also allowed Torres and the PCC EWD to regroup and rethink their next steps, although those will be different after receiving the benefit of Torres’ inputs. They’ve engaged in a retreat to review overarching intentions and resources, and have already implemented new communications tools (such as podcasts for both Torres and PCC EWD) to get the virtual work out to the community. Moving forward, outreach will be more strategic, and goals will be both clearer and most cleanly defined, which will help with metrics and measuring success.

Most importantly, though, is the fact that Torres’s work remains unchanged, regardless of the pandemic or any other barrier that has already popped up or will in the future. His focus remains on helping companies find success within their industry, and workers find success within their jobs. Adding in assisting students to find their future seems a logical next step in Jesse Torres’s already stellar career trajectory.

Dice Yamaguchi: Professor of Pivots

Pam Sornson, JD on August 11, 2020

‘Pivoting’ seems to come naturally to Dice Yamaguchi, an Industrial Design professor at Pasadena City College (PCC), as his pivot from in-class to online teaching was a relatively easy task to accomplish. His extensive training and experience in design, engineering, and art all facilitate his uniquely adaptable skill for pivoting to unique and often delightful solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges. His students, therefore, were not just able to remain ‘at school’ (albeit remotely) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they also gained resilience skills as they pivoted with their leader through his transition to the digital classroom forum.

 

Pivoting in Pursuit of Goals

Yamaguchi has always been intrigued by engineering puzzles (as a self-described ‘STEM geek’ even in high school) and began his college education in mechanical engineering. However, that discipline failed to capture his equally artful imagination, so he pivoted to industrial design to pursue his creative drive as well as his urge to build. The art+engineering combination took him through studies at both PCC and Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design (ACCD) and into a notable career as a physical and digital product designer.

His talent was such that ACCD took him on as a product design instructor just two years after he graduated, and there, he discovered his love of teaching. He launched and has been leading that school’s Summer Intensive program for high school students since 2012. He began teaching PCC students in the Visual Arts & Media Studies department of PCC’s Industrial/Product Design program in 2015.

 

Pivoting Through Problems

In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 concern posed not a challenge but a ‘fun exercise’ to Yamaguchi. Not at all dismayed by it, he chose to view the online transition as a ‘project’ and eagerly encouraged his students to work with him to navigate it. Together, he and his two classes worked through the bugs that are inherent in any big project: how to communicate across teams; how to achieve goals using different tools; how to stay on course when forced to travel a different road than was expected.

His work was a little bit challenged by his student’s circumstances. Some had all the resources they needed readily available at home, while for others, the at-home learning situation presented some daunting challenges. Yamaguchi happily worked to accommodate them all, holding virtual office hours at their convenience, and expanding ‘class time’ to include whatever time frame was needed. He also held ‘classes’ in Zoom rooms where students could actively participate in the discussion or just listen to the inputs of their peers.

Technically, Yamaguchi appears to have thoroughly enjoyed modifying his teaching practice to make room for the ‘all-digital’ format:

He used overhead cameras to capture imagery of his demonstrations and added more explicit detail to his narration. (Overhead cameras can’t capture dimension, apparently, so Yamaguchi added those minute details orally as he went along.)

And he replaced his whiteboard with his iPad. The iPad, apparently, plugs into Zoom and provides a similar appearance as that tool while also conveniently converting the project to a shareable PDF. Who knew?

Like his other PCC colleagues, he, too, opened a ‘Canvas-Pages’ site where his students could upload their work, see what their peers were doing, and engage in chats and conversations outside the formal ‘classroom’ setting.

 

From his student’s perspective, the semester was a very successful one.

They really enjoyed being at the ‘front’ of the class since the online program doesn’t line them out in rows. Instead, it switches screens, so it highlights the speakers.

The online discussion boards, chat rooms, and other digital resources kept them connected to each other and their teacher, regardless of their location or even the time of day.

And they appreciated the normalcy of ‘attending school’ even while they were stuck at home.

As learners, they probably weren’t as aware of the ‘teachable moment’ offered by the COVID-19-induced transition to remote learning. However, they certainly benefitted from having an instructor so well versed in changes and pivots, who helped them normalize that skill as well.

 

Pivoting toward Progress

Yamaguchi says that the overall ‘in-class to online transition’ experience was a good one for him because it made him rethink his approach to both teaching and product design, and because the ‘rethinking‘ process itself is an invaluable tool for future design projects and classes. He will use these newly discovered insights and the digital skills that grew from them to inform his teaching endeavors to give his future students that design-forward skill, too.

He also sees that the transitioning adventure was a positive one for his students. Yamaguchi notes that the Industrial Design field was already in flux before the pandemic, as 3D printing, Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD), AI, machine learning, and other technological innovations compelled changes in how products are designed and used. Further, remote teams – and the technical tools they use – are becoming more common as companies add diverse talents from across time zones and locations. Those innovations are continuous, and his current and future students will need to pivot to address all the innovations they bring.

Yamaguchi believes that working through the COVID-induced transition to remote learning has helped his students understand that a successful design process is rarely linear and that the COVID-curveball they faced won’t be the only such obstacle in their future. He is gratified that they embraced the pivot as the ‘project’ that it was, just as he as their teacher did, and he hopes they maintain that pivoting talent as they move forward into whatever future lies ahead of them.

 

 

 

Colleen Nanno: Culinary Arts From a Distance

Pam Sornson, JD on August 11, 2020

Online teaching was never part of Colleen Nanno’s plan. A life-long chef and cook, she’s spent her culinary career in professional and educational kitchens and had just recently engaged those skills to refurbish the defunct Culinary Arts program at Pasadena City College. Only one term in, she was dismayed in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic closed the PCC campus as well as her cafeteria-based teaching facility. While it took her a minute to get her bearings, she did what any cook worth their salt would do: she found the ingredients and recipe she needed to create an informative, enticing, and ‘tasty’ online culinary course curriculum.

 

 

Life-long Learning Leads her Way

Nanno attributes much of her success to the people who’ve provided influence and support to her career. Her family owned restaurants in the Pasadena area, so she grew up in a professional kitchen. That childhood laid the foundation for her on-going training at the Culinary Institute of America, through her internship in London, and into her subsequent career in the kitchens of numerous hotels and restaurants. She’s spent the past ten years teaching culinary arts at various California schools and was invited to bring the PCC culinary arts program back to life in Fall 2019.

At PCC, she’s found a fabulous partner in Dr. Mark Keene, the Director of the school’s Hospitality Management program. With his training, her students gain exposure to the business and ‘front-of-house’ sides of the professional culinary experience.

She drew on both her history and her partner as she refocused her curriculum to address the new COVID-19 driven teaching adventure.

 

Same Menu; Different Method

The school term was three weeks in when the pandemic hit, so Nanno had already established a good rapport with her students. Now that they were at home and attending school remotely, she was determined to maintain their engagement and education in this new configuration. While weekly Zoom meetings with the class as a whole maintained visual continuity, she needed to provide as closely as possible the hands-on learning that a culinary class requires.

Nanno’s first thought was to present cooking techniques and theories in online classes, then let the students practice those lessons at home. This approach was hit-and-miss, however, as students struggled to find the ingredients they needed and were missing the attention to detail they got while with Nanno in the kitchen (a ‘slow’ oven can create significant problems for a novice cook).

Instead, with the help of her assistant and husband, she launched her video career as she took to the camera to demonstrate her skills. The home-based project required significant negotiation skills, though – not with her husband, but with her two-year-old son. Once they had that sorted out, she turned her attention to actually teaching via video.

At first, she was all about the cooking, but video reviews indicated that she needed to devote equal time to the pre- and post-video preparations.

Proper lighting and sound capabilities were needed to ensure that the process (and the instructor) were accurately captured in the digital format.

Transitions from image to image are significant, too, especially since the final dish’s success is ultimately the result of an accurate progression from the beginning to the end of the preparation process.

And editing the raw footage into the final upload was creating a visual library for her current and future students, so each one had to be as pristine and perfect as possible.

 

Same Dish Reimagined

Looking back on that semester, Nanno is very enthused about what she was able to teach her students and about how she was able to grow as their teacher.

The video work allowed her to ‘preview’ her classes and coursework so she could edit/revise before publishing it.

Her students report that visual interaction was a big part of their continuing engagement in the class. Despite the distance created by the remote connection, they could still experience the feelings they have with Nanno and that she has with them.

Her ESL students were especially happy with the videos. The format allowed them to catch the action with closed-captioned support, and translators were available through a dedicated translation website.

Not insignificantly, Nanno now has the beginning of what will certainly be an extensive library of teaching resources that will prove invaluable in the years to come.

 

Developing a New Menu for the Future

Looking forward, Nanno plans to expand her new-found video capacities while also building the reputation of PCC as the premier Hospitality program in LA. Chef Nanno and Dr. Keene dream of expanding the kitchen capacity into a state-of-the-art building with five to eight kitchens, a cafe, a bakery, and any other culinary service that fits in. The plan is to populate LA and global restaurants with talented cooks and bakers, and find local taverns and eateries that will provide on-the-job training and internships for the students.

Alongside Dr. Keene, she wants to develop PCC into a world-class magnet for top culinary and hospitality talent. Since he’s new, too (they both started in Fall 2019), they both have a lot of new ideas to offer and exciting plans to make. With Dr. Keene at her side, Colleen Nanno has only just begun rebuilding the future of Culinary Arts at Pasadena City College.

 

PCC: Powering Progress Past the Pandemic

Pam Sornson, JD on August 11, 2020

Like most schools across the country, Pasadena City College (PCC) abruptly closed its doors in March as the COVID-19 pandemic spread through Los Angeles. Although the school offers an excellent ‘Distance Education‘ opportunity, most students prefer to attend classes on campus, so the campus closure was particularly hard for them. Both students and faculty were distressed and unnerved by the disruption of their school year, unsure how to continue with coursework, maintain connections, or move productively through to the end of the semester. It was a very stressful and difficult semester for everyone. 

Ultimately, the 2019-2020 school year did end, and a significant number of PCC students were able to complete (mostly) their coursework to achieve the necessary grade and credits to move on. The process wasn’t smooth, however; some students had to leave their studies due to family or personal circumstances. Others struggled to find the resources they needed to carry on. Faculty members were flummoxed, too, as they – almost overnight – became online teachers, which required a skill set that was foreign to many of them. For both groups and PCC administrators, the transition from an on-campus to an online college was lurching, uneven, and confusing.  

 

Pushing Past the Hurdles

Despite the challenges, PCC’s faculty and staff pushed on through the Spring, looking for solutions to social and technical barriers while also working to ensure teaching remained as accessible as possible. Staff worked hard to find new ways to support their constituents remotely while administrators secured new resources and assets to bridge the newly revealed gaps in their systems. Even though the campus itself was closed, PCC as a school did its best to provide its students with the education they needed, much of which is now enhanced with newly developed digital resources and capacities.  

 

Lessons Learned …

Looking back, the challenges presented to the faculty by the COVID-19 pandemic were significant; in-class, face-to-face instruction is the traditional college ‘comfort zone.’ Further, the transition to ‘online teaching’ was necessarily quick, which contributed difficulties to the situation. However, some were able to embrace the ‘opportunity’ and three of them – Colleen Nanno, Thom Thoen, and Dice Yamaguchi – are happy to share with Pulse readers how they reinvented their curricula to accommodate the changes, how their students responded, and how this COVID-19 experience will forever alter their teaching styles. 

 

… And Applied

Looking forward, PCC leadership has embraced the coronavirus’s technological opportunity and spent its summer investing resources into helping its faculty improve their online teaching chops. Besides offering an 8-week course on how to teach online, the school also offers online guidance on how to reach students and teach remotely. It turns out there’s more to think about than just ensuring an adequate power supply and a quiet room.

 

Teaching Remotely – A Primer

Shifting from in-class to online instruction requires changing the approach to four distinct aspects of the teaching experience:

Communicating with students

Per usual, students do better when they have access to their professors both in class and individually. While they are not optimal, online courses accessed through a digital portal provide a ‘whole class’ opportunity without the travel/bookbag/desk attendance experience. Email and other social media channels also open doors between students and teachers, making ‘chatting’ with the instructor easier and more accessible than ever. 

Delivering course materials

“Hand-outs’ become ‘uploads’ as lecture content and assignments go digital. Students can download them at will, or simply store their class notes in an electronic file. Course organization changes, too, since there’s no innate ‘ebb and flow’ of classroom conversation to segway into the next topic. Modules now collect ideas and principles into single units that build on each other sequentially. No longer live, demonstrations become videos that create a permanent record of the lesson, even though they also mandate the development of a new skill set around camera angles, lighting, and even costume and make-up. Video tools also capture on-screen images (documents, graphs, etc.), and adding voice-over technology enhances the lesson.  

Encouraging student engagement

Fortunately, PCC learning tech isn’t confined to the classroom. Digital tools connect learners to lessons in a variety of ways:

Discussion boards facilitate class discussions long after the class is over. Learners can ask questions or look to follow up on comments through this digital portal, which maintains student attention and learning.

Breakout rooms offer a similar opportunity. Students can engage with both their professor and their classmates in breakout rooms based on project work, topic, or any other course-related subject. 

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of engaging students electronically is that it also creates a permanent file they can refer to at their convenience, extending both the lesson and their education.  

Assessing student achievement

Interacting in person daily isn’t available in a remote learning situation, so teachers must develop alternative ways to measure their student’s progress. Digital tools facilitate several accessible assessment opportunities, so both teacher and learner can gauge improvements.   

Assigning projects through a learning portal allows students to clarify expectations before beginning, which maximizes both their and their teacher’s time.  

Quizzes and exams issued digitally enable teachers to choose the difficulty level of the subject matter, and students test their increasing knowledge. 

Digital portfolios accept uploaded assignments and record the date and time of the submission, any feedback or revisions, and the final grade, all in one location. 

Sharing student materials in breakout rooms also gives classmates insights into the course’s subject matter and their cohort’s perspective of that. 

 

As the 2020-2021 school year approaches, the staff, faculty, and administration of Pasadena City College will build on the lessons learned from the COVID crisis so far, to ensure its students continue to receive the high-quality education they’re expecting.  

Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator: Leadership Through Experience

Pam Sornson, JD on July 28, 2020

Call it kismet: the partnership between Dr.’s Wendie Johnston and Robert (Bud) Bishop, while only three years old, combines two already exceptional skillsets into one dynamic, forward-leaning leadership team for one of the state’s most influential incubation entities, the Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator (PBC).

Dr. Johnston earned her Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology, with a specialty in Cell Physiology. Dr. Bishop maximizes his Ph.D. in Biochemistry with the business acumen developed through his M.B.A. Individually, they each carry the depth and breadth of experience generated over decades-long careers in the life sciences and biotechnology industries. Together, they create a genuinely unique nexus: their talents merge to direct and drive the integration of the ‘business of science’ with the ‘science of business’ on behalf of LA’s thriving biosciences industrial sector. Combined with the impressive abilities of the PBC Team, this project has partnerships with the region’s schools, colleges, bioscience researchers, industries, and governments.

 

Dr. Wendie Johnston – Managing the Business of Science

A self-professed risk-taker, Dr. Johnston’s forays into new avenues of discovery has served her – and her students – well. After many years of teaching standardized science theories to her Natural Sciences students at Pasadena City College, in the mid-1990s, she embarked on what would become her seminal career journey. She spent her sabbatical year crossing the country, working as an entry-level lab technician at some of the nation’s most prestigious medical research centers, including the National Wildlife Forensics Lab in Ashland OR, Trevigen in Gaithersburg MD, Strategene in La Jolla CA, and the Huntington Medical Research Institutes in her home town of Pasadena.

She learned from that adventure that to find meaningful work, her students needed to understand not just the theories of science but also the teamwork of laboratory science: how to clean lab instruments, take accurate measurements, record and report data, and (especially critical) ensure quality control in every effort. Dr. Johnston rewrote her curricula to reflect her newfound insights and launched PCC’s Biological Technologies Program in 1997. It transformed her courses into career-focused training experiences. That year, she also launched the LA/Orange County Biotechnology Center (LAOCBC), where she continues as Director today.

By 1999, the high value of Dr. Johnston’s ‘business of science’ program had attracted notable attention. She joined an effort led by Dr. Jack Scott, former President of PCC, and then elected California Assemblyman (and, subsequently, California State Senator and 14th Chancellor of the California Community Colleges) to create a center of incubation and training in Pasadena.  The CSU system wanted to develop a center of bioresearch, and Dr. Scott had created the financial allocation that would facilitate that goal with fiscal control given to CSUPERB – the CSU Program for Education and Research Biotechnology. The founding partners in this project proposed that the co-location of shared lab space with dedicated work-based training would be a successful opportunity for both researchers and students.

From 1999 through 2004, Dr. Johnston and her like-minded colleagues gathered the data and resources they needed to launch the PBC in reality: non-profit status, tools and equipment, a strategy for its use, and space where it could live. Dr. Marc Baum, Director of the Oak Crest Institute of Science in Monrovia and an enthusiastic supporter of the project, indicated the availability of 500 square feet of space in his facility. The PBC officially opened its doors there in 2004, with Dr. Johnston as Lab Director, a position she still holds.

Dr. Johnston receives the first LA Biostar Award from Cal State LA

In the intervening 16 years, PBC has grown into the nationally recognized incubation model that it is today. Its location is open 24/7 and hosts more than 30 biotech startup companies, working on a wide range of projects to improve humanity’s health and welfare. Dr. Johnston’s experience, knowledge, and professional connections ensure that PBC tenants get the opportunities they need to take their work that one critical step further. That the lab also hosts extensive and immersive training programs for high school, community college, and college students is the icing on her already magnificent cake. She is, indeed, a Master of the business of science.

 

Dr. ‘Bud’ Bishop: Shepherding the Science of Business

No great biotech idea sees the light of day – let alone its potential market – without a lot of hard work going into its marketability as well as its effectiveness. And a biotech business is still a business, so getting its bio-product market-ready and marketable is as critical as monitoring the quality of the substances contained in its beakers and Petrie dishes. Enter PBC President, Dr. Robert ‘Bud’ Bishop.

Dr. Bishop’s selection as President of PBC is significant, as a quick review of his resume reveals that his long engagement with both the science and the business of the biotechnology sector is long, varied, and well respected. He began his career as a research associate at Hyland Laboratories in Glendale, which supported his PhD program. In 1976 he joined American Hospital Supply Corporation (AHSC), first as a program manager, then as a research director.  After completing his MBA, he rose to group vice-president for business development and finally to division president for American Medical Optics. When Allergan, Inc (AGN) purchased his division in 1986, he went with it.  He subsequently was promoted to division president for Allergan Pharmaceuticals and later president of the Allergan Therapeutics Group.

In 1992 Dr. Bishop left Allergan to become the CEO of AutoImmune, Inc., a start-up company focused on oral tolerance therapy.  In that role he led the effort to raise $120 million in an IPO, get two pharmaceuticals into Phase III studies and pivoted to make one of these into a nutritional supplement.  ‘Retired’ from that career now, he sits on two outside Boards of Directors and offers advice and counsel based on his diverse experience. In addition to a notable network of corporate and science industry contacts and colleagues, Dr. Bishop provides PBC with an unmatched skillset to inform its tenants, cohorts, and colleagues of the business opportunities and strategies available to increase their viability.

Dr. Bishop assumes the President’s role of PBC – 2017

In his role as President since 2017, Dr. Bishop brings deep insights from his ‘science of business’ career to the Lab as an exceptional complement to the ‘business of science’ offered by Dr. Johnston. His comprehensive understanding of entrepreneurship, corporate management, finance development and management, licensing and legalities, etc. – all the fundamentals that encompass today’s corporate entity – provides Lab tenants with the guidance they need to create the successful business that will embody their great idea. In short, Dr. Bishop teaches the ‘business of science’ to the PBC wetlab scientists who are brilliant in the Lab but not so much in the boardroom. With this information, biotech startup companies can bypass the fits and starts usually associated with any startup company and move into the market with a reasonable expectation of success.

Since he took office, Dr. Bishop has continued the PBC’s mission of growing educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for the LA region and its biotechnology sciences sector. He works closely with other wetlab resources in the area, maintaining for PBC the solid foundation and high respect developed by its previous President, the late  Bruce Blomstrom.

 

PBC’s Leaders of Science and Business Look Ahead

The partnership of these two ‘giants of science’ generates an ideal nexus to move the PBC to the next stage in its role as a leading member of LA’s burgeoning bioscience and technology sector. LA County continues to invest in biotech and bioscience startup incubators, and PBC, as one of the first wetlabs dedicated to research and collaboration, will continue its collaborative efforts with all its varied partners. Together, Johnston, Bishop, and the PBC Team will be working to further the intentions of the original initiative that drove the launch of enterprise: to provide the skilled, experienced workforce needed by tomorrow’s biotechnology industries so they can build and sustain the LA region’s economy and community.

 

 

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