she is the chairperson of ethnic studies at laney college in oakland welcome dr brown thank you for being here it's my pleasure and on the way end to the tido fundamentals of good first grade education and so it's from grades one through six and the inspiration occurred to me that for a topic we shall talk about this evening opening the door to higher education because we had broached this topic at a staff lunching a couple of weeks ago and i would like to pursue it further our for our audience but first of all i want you to tell the audience something about your self how long have you been at laney so i've been at  thousand and eight started off in education in north carolina and east carolina university and i started off in student affairs as an advisor and then moved to the bay area back to california worked at stanford and an outreach program for minority and under represented students to make college a viable option for students so i worked at oakland tech another high schools in the area to recruit students to go into the medical field and then ended up at santa clara university and then teaching in a community college and i just loved it excellent now in addition to cherry the ethnic studies department you have other duties as a way oh yes i am the district staff development officer so i provide staff development activities for faculty and staff the route the district to help improve teaching and learning and professional growth opportunities in addition to that i am also the p f d which is our union diversity representative excellent excellent have planned to do how can we reach more students here within the urban area in the bay area so we're developing pipeline programs in fact we have a few of them already in place like gateway the college and gateway to college is a program for students who have dropped out of high school or did not receive a high school diploma so this is a way to receive both high school credit as well as college credit and that is currently in existence at laney college in addition to that the entire district wants to market to our students that we are the source for job creation if you come to any of our four campuses and receive or certificate our for two year associates degree you will be marketable for the jobs of tomorrow and for instance our medical manufacturing program at laney college it's a certificate program one of our career technical education programs but students who graduate from this program are in such high demand that they're making sixty to seventy thousand dollars upon completion we also have great partnerships which have ron and other companies that are coming to the camp isn't saying these are the skills that we need and if you give us these courses in these skills we will hire these students we  apprenticeship we will provide the resources some of these career technical education programs are paid we will pay students to actually learn a skill we will also provide financial wait for students to complete an associate degree which with a an associate's degree you're more likely to earn over a million dollars more in your lifetime been just having a high school diploma wow now there is the perception that once you leave public education without having completed that process of being awarded high school diploma that that's the end of it that i road but i hear it you mention the out said you have a program gate way where students not only in a tin community college but also complete the requirements for their high school diploma how does this work say for instance i dropped out of high school how do i become involved in this program so what you would do is you can come down to the campus admissions and records office and tell them that you want to be a part of the college and it's important that you get that high school diploma because now financial weight is tight to it there's some legislation that was passed a few years ago where there is some limitations now on your requirements for financial weight without that high school diploma a lot of students are intimidated especially under represented students first generation students undocumented students to actually come down to the college and apply but we have foundational skills courses we have e s l courses we have basic skills courses to help you catch up and get ahead so that you can complete whatever goals that you have with attending college it's crew show today most of the jobs even at burger king require basic skills in reading and writing and arithmetic and we're teaching notes foundational skills at the community college so you're never at a loss are a disadvantage you need to come down and seek us out any body can help you once you come on campus and point you in the right direction traditionally community college had been a two year process yes i know now even a four year degree what we call the four year degree in undergrad degree your bachelor's is taken most students five years ok i dropped out of high school and now enroll in laney my ultimate objective is to obtain an associate's degree how alone with this process tak approximately we are in a wonderful position now that we've had a restoration of funds from the state to our community colleges so we are actually offering more courses and expanding our course offerings so there is still a strong possibility that you can complete your degree within two to two and a half years we have intercessions we have summer sessions and we have both fall and spring semester  we also have orientation that is required now it will be required in two thousand and fourteen for all students this is extremely important because you need to set your academic goals and plans at the beginning with a counsellor and map it out and then you need to also go to your department your department chairs can be a wealth of information and resources sometimes there are courses that can be waived are sometimes we can give experience if you've had life experience work experience in the area so you have to seek out that information and we can help you stay on track excellent ok say that everything is in order i completed successfully thirteen years of education now i'm in a position to choose the college where that is a four y institution or a two year institution and i decided that i want to a tin lanie would you recommend that i perhaps state and complete the basic requirements or do they call them general education requirements or should i stay and get the associates of lords degree is very in the vantage of the associates divorced degree and i can prior to obtain in that i could transfer to the university so first of all first and foremost completing any of your coursework at a community college is going to save you and your family money tremendous amount of money i would suggest if you attend community college to complete your associate's degree and the reason being is because we now have transfer associates degrees where if you complete some of our transfer degrees c in psychology english history ethnic studies other areas you're guaranteed a spot in a four year cal state university and you'll only have two years of your major coursework to complete we also have a get c and we also have other guarantees to where if you complete your associate's degree you will not be required at the four year level to complete any more general education courses which again saves you money when you transfer you can look at two years at that for your college upon completion so you a the vantage actually by being a community college for your first two years rather than going straight into a four year institution you are definitely an advantage and we also have internship  college fairs for sometimes we have our colleges and universities come in and at mit students on the spot or at least tell them the application process housing process we have h b c you've college fairs that come through laney every single year that will also at mit students on this and r tell them what is required in order to get into their institution so there's a wealth of resources as well during that those two years  we also have the same things that four year colleges have terms of student involvement we have lots of student activities we have lots of cultural events that go on and again that cost saving cannot be emphasize enough the fact that our unit cost is significantly cheaper and different than your four year cost tell me something about the internships of the all volunteer army do you have some paid position there are some paid positions there are work study positions as well throughout the colleges and they are in the communities so a lot of these are service learning are you know educational opportunities as well where you can actually get credit for some of the work that you're doing in the community and it's a wonderful thing to be able to give back to your community as you're seeking  your own education an advancement and so these are opportunities to be a tutor maybe a middle school tutor or high school tutor or maybe to work for a nonprofit organization and do organizing within your community getting the vote out we had a lot of students that were hired to do door knocking we were trying to pass proposition thirty which actually provided us with the resources to maintain what we currently have in terms of our financial situation for course offerings so there's lots of ways for students to get involved an awful sea internships which will help build their resume so when they graduate from a four year institution they already have work experience which puts them at it and even more and the taisha as position now are there plans to take these programs in to the secondary school in the bay area show that this information is a very low bow to them yes we are doing outreach we have an outreach coordinator that will be going out into the community and letting everyone know you know our funding base to cape twelve community college funding so we do need to work more closely together in terms of informing students what we have and what are next punk graduation and addition to that some of our student organizations are social justice organizations the black student union for instance and every college is very much committed to going back into the communities  and informing students about the college process about next steps about opportunities we need to instill hope in our students because hopelessness leads to deviant behavior and we need to let our students  know that there are resources there are options there are opportunities now that have not been available to students of color in the past and so we need to do that outreach faculty staff administrator as well as students are all responsible for making this information known to the community excellent now tell us something about this staff at the community college level at one time maybe forty percent of the staff were part time and and many of them were all so teaching at the same time at one of the local universities whether that is the callous state campus university of california or stanford so presently do you still have some in some instructors at the community college level who are f part time say at the university of california or some of the four years we definitely do we have a very rich diverse and talented pool of part time faculty and we need them we do we are hiring full time faculty and in fact will be hiring numerous positions because of the increase in funding from the state there is a ratio that we have to maintain in terms of full time versus part time faculty but the richness of our part time faculty is a lot of them are still in the field still in various occupations so they're bringing to the classroom the most up to date most rich in instruction there is and resources for those internships are printed ships that we've been talking about so there is an advantage as well to having a dynamic part time instructor who is also still working in their profession so for students to elected to many of their general education classes and the community college level chances are they will have they could have the same instructor at laney as if they would take biology of political science at the university of california you'll definitely have the same high expectations and standards and possibly the same instructor that you would see your gene you're in senior year of college definitely and so speaking of the highest standards for your doctors they are preparing the students to transfer or perhaps to go straight into the marketplace with the b two of your objectives yes it would definitely be to either get a certificate go into the world of work our transfer our the objectives and addition to that to be lifelong learners you know i talked about foundational skills and that is because it is so crucial that once you leave a community college or any higher learning institution that you have the basic skills to write to read and to do arithmetic that is what our employers are asking for and if you did not unfortunately receiv k through twelve we would be we would be wrong not to ensure that you receive it at a higher education level as well so the standards are high there are placement tests the resources as well we have a writing center a tutoring center a mouth tutoring center to ensure that every resources is available for that student to be successful we are about student success and success is defined in many different ways because our students have many different goals as they enter a community college so reading and writing is definitely part of our agenda then you correctly when you say they are placements they are assessment tests so i'm a new student coming in to the community college system i graduated with a three point five do i have to take an assessment test is this open of requirement for all students come in and we do have an assessment test for english place and math placement we do  all students to ensure that we are putting you in a position where you can be successful or that we're not putting you in the position where you are not engaged because you've already done this so it's extremely important that we place students in the on the right level of english in math and also if students students can test out of it if they are advanced and they can definitely take an exam and go on to english two way to be and that is to their advantage as well to complete that associate's degree even earlier you anticipated my next question terms of being able to test out of it if you do not meet to go through these refresher courses but many students actually me that as a prerequisite before they can embark upon them major this is true there's a possibility it could only strengthen you know the students writing skills by taking a foundational still skills course and we're actually trying to streamline that so that students are not stuck or discourage in foundational skills courses for years and so that will change and that's part of our students success initiative is to streamline that so that student who in the past may have taken a year to get to english one a but only take a semester because we're giving you the resources early on and putting you with engaging instructors that are going to ensure your academic success ok you said that education is a lifelong process and i do agree as a look at the series of books which your first grader needs to know serve a good first grade education i would think that this would apply to students who are in barking career are attending college what are some of the things highschool student needs to know in college any college one of the things that a student needs to know is to be a culture rated in to the culture of student success and that is study skills how to read a text book what are you looking for when you open up the textbook what are the important pieces how do you critically analyze information how do you write an informative paragraph are an essay that's more than five pages how do you conduct research in the library how do you find information the importance of being and class on time every single day that the classes offered though also are skills sometimes for our first generation students that need to be addressed and need to be learned because you can't assume that everyone knows that if the class starts at ten am i expect you to be here at ten am on tuesday and thursday so i think that we need to present students with the overall foundation of what a successful student looks like how to navigate through financial way which can be a barrier for some of our students without having you know knowledge or information of how this process  works the importance of meeting with your counselor the importance of talking to your or professor your instructor outside of class attending their office hours some of our students are still timid and shy and just feel as if they're they're not supposed to ask questions and we as professors are that's why we're here is to inform is to help facilitate the learning process is engage our students in to help them be successful so we're we're not at all you know about intimidation and we want our students to dialogue with us on a regular basis and so i think yes there's an orientation online as well as on campuses and these are this is information that will be covered during the orientation phase the other thing is programs like ethnic studies if you take an intro to ethnic studies or you take any of our classes we are an emancipated space for students we will tell them rather not they received it at orientation or not again and again we are there is a resource  students and any time a student is struggling where their home this is where you can go to find help support at any time regardless of what your career goals are your major we're there for  you in summary i am that student that has been a little less than successful i never talked with a college counsellor or advisor but i know that i must continue my education what would be the first step for me would i go to the can would i go to the internet how do i get into lanie how do i get into marriage so you would go to the campus  and you would try to make an appointment and then go to the campus to meet with your college counselor that's your first step and he or she will advise you on what you need to do in order to be successful academically what the next steps are and possibly your next step would be meeting with financial way to ensure that the ngs are in place for you financially and the next step may be seeking out that instructor or that faculty member who has been a great mentor to you or you had a great experience in that faculty members class and is really going to speak with them about your goals about your career goals about you know your next steps because the gr level of retention is student to faculty relationships and that contact is so important everybody needs encouragement every now and then so i think it's important that the last step be speaking with a leisure thank you