Inland Empire / Desert community college students who successfully transferred to a public or private university share their experiences about navigating this process. During in-depth conversations, the students highlight the challenges they faced and the strategies they used to overcome them at various stages of their transfer journey. They share experiences about preparing for community college, maneuvering the community college system, managing external factors, and actualizing transfer. One-on-one interviews provide insights from the student perspective about ways to strengthen student advising and supports. If implemented, these student suggestions for straightforward and actionable interventions could have a transformative effect on educational outcomes in the Inland Empire.
twitterfacebookinstagramyoutubelinkedin
Category: News
-
College Futures Foundation Provides $687,000 to Support Regional Guided Pathways Work in the Inland Empire
College Futures Foundation awarded $687,000 in funding to support seven community colleges in the region to implement Guided Pathways initiatives from October 15, 2020, to June 30, 2022.
Guided Pathways provide students with clear course-taking patterns to encourage better enrollment decisions and a clearer path to graduation. “For Guided Pathways to work, colleges must implement an integrated, institution-wide approach to support students from the point of entry to attainment of high-quality postsecondary degrees and careers,” said Dr. Carlos Ayala, President and CEO of GIA. “This generous grant from College Futures Foundation will ensure professional development and support for Guided Pathways is available to all of our community colleges here in the Inland Empire.”
Five of the Inland Empire’s twelve community colleges have already been selected to participate in the statewide California Guided Pathways project. These colleges include; Chaffey College, Moreno Valley College, Norco College, Riverside City College, and Victor Valley College. Grant funding from College Futures Foundation supports the remaining seven colleges with coaching and guidance similar to what is being offered in the statewide program. These colleges include; Barstow College, College of the Desert, Copper Mountain College, Crafton Hills College, Mt. San Jacinto College, Palo Verde College, and San Bernardino Valley College.
GIA in partnership with Guided Pathways Regional Coordinators Angelica Ibarra and Leslie Valmonte, and national experts will provide customized direct support for individual campuses as well as professional development training and guidance on implementing Guided Pathways across all colleges in the region. Additionally, funding will allow GIA to host a regional Guided Pathways Virtual Summit, taking place on April 28-29, 2021. “This grant provides the necessary funds for the colleges to engage with the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement across several categories of support, said Ann Marie Sakrekoff, Chief Operating Officer of GIA. “These categories include two-day convenings for all 12 regional colleges, one-day workshops on key guided pathways issues, sub-regional sessions for groups of colleges facing similar challenges, and individual college site visits that are designed to support their institutional implementation.”
twitterfacebookinstagramyoutubelinkedin
-
GIA INSIGHTS — A Collaborative, Regional Response to COVID-19: Preserving the Educational Future of Students in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
As a result of the closure of schools, teachers, administrators, counselors, and parents were all in the same storm facing the potential loss of students’ educational dreams. In a remarkable, aligned effort, members of the GIA Action Network Teams came together to create the Postsecondary Taskforce to address the situation. There had to be a way to keep the high school class of 2020 on track, heading toward achieving their dreams. Considering the short timeline from the end of March to the end of May, when most high school students would be finishing the school year, the task force had to act quickly…
twitterfacebookinstagramlinkedin -
New Strategic Plan Points the Way Forward for GIA
After several months of collecting stakeholder feedback, planning, and support from consulting firm Student-Ready Strategies, GIA is pleased to release a new strategic plan. The plan aims to align regional work and point the way forward for achieving GIA’s mission and vision for the next 5-years.
GIA’s 5-Year Report (2015-2020) shows how the region successfully pursued their five regional goals over the past five years. As part of the new strategic plan, GIA has released five new regional goals that address this new era in education.
The pandemic and other exogeneous factors have transformed the educational industry. Despite this transformation, GIA and the region have incredible assets to help students succeed. GIA’s strategic plan describes the strategies and tactics to pursue regional goals by using these assets.
Despite this transformation, the Inland Empire region has incredible assets to help students succeed. GIA’s strategic plan describes the strategies and tactics to pursue regional goals by using these assets and making progress towards a shared vision for the region.
The new strategic plan outlines GIA’s mission, vision, and values. It also lays out two types of strategies to pursue regional goals: cross-cutting and goal-specific strategies. Cross-cutting strategies are broad, large-scale strategies that map to and support all organizational goals. Goal-specific strategies are clear-cut strategies that pair precisely with an individual goal.
Both strategy types approach our regional goals in achievable and measurable ways. GIA selected a set of metrics to assess large-scale progress toward the new organizational goals in consultation with cross-sector regional professionals (GIA Data ANT) and Student-Ready Strategies.
Check out GIA’s Strategic Plan to read more about our regional goals and our various strategies and tactics to pursue them!
twitterfacebookinstagramyoutubelinkedin
-
GIA Thanks Dr. Judy White For Her Leadership
Dr. White’s Leadership at GIA
GIA thanks Dr. Judy White for her leadership in the Inland Educational Network and Growing Inland Achievement.
As Co-Chair and Board Member of Growing Inland Achievement, Dr. White was instrumental in crafting our mission, vision, and values that guide our work every day. She brought together GIA, educational nonprofit organizations and institutions in the region into a network that pursue the same goals.
Dr. White also had a major role in creating the regional goals the network and GIA pursue to accomplish our mission. Resultantly, she played a large part in constructing the necessary strategies and tactics, and metrics of success to strive toward our goals. Her leadership in the network has led to significant student success increases by the Inland Educational Network.
Dr. White’s Distinguished Career
The entirety of Dr. White’s career can be characterized by incredible achievements. Her leadership bettered educational institutions and students in the Inland Empire.
Dr. White began her K-12 educational career as a classified staff member assisting the principal at San Bernardino High School. Dr. White then earned her teaching credential to teach within the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD). Her career in in SBCUSD accelerated as she was hired in roles as a principal, assistant superintendent, and deputy superintendent.
In 2011, Dr. White’s career moved to Riverside County as she became superintendent of the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD). For six years, Dr. White led the 3,400 employees and 33,000 students at MVUSD, Riverside County’s third largest district. In Dr. White’s tenure, MVUSD graduation rates increased by 20.5%. The district also received notable achievements and awards on a county, state, and national level.
Sworn in on February 1st, 2017, Dr. White made history as the first African American woman to serve as Superintendent for Riverside County schools.
The Next Step In Her Journey
“I love you. It is okay for us to tell each other as we feel as long as it comes from a pure heart with good intentions and genuineness. I love you.” – Dr. Judy White.
After 43 years of service in public education, Dr. White’s shares her plan to launch the nonprofit organization MOSAIC, (Multicultural, Optimistic, Support, Aspiring, Inspiring, Called), in her farewell announcement. The nonprofit’s mission is to lead others to bring races together.
“At the age of 12, I made a commitment to be serving people at my highest capacity by 2000. I also said I wanted to retire at 65 years old, while I was still young enough to serve my community… and to be the best grandmother as my grandmother was to me. I have not held her yet, but I look forward to holding my tenth grandchild.”
Dr. White’s faith, love for her family and community drive her to continue bettering our region and our world.
We wish Dr. White happiness and fulfillment in the next step in her journey. You can watch her full farewell announcement below.
twitterfacebookinstagramyoutubelinkedin