– The lack of information in my first year was my enemy.
– $1500.00 was my life.
– The cafeteria needs to be open until 6pm.
– I don’t know how it works sometimes, ya know?
– When I came to Skyline people believed in me and made me feel loved.
– Skyline made me understand the feeling of community.
– The structure is clear for you but not for us.
– I want Skyline to know that status doesn’t matter.
– We are here. We are human. We have dreams.
Powerful quotes from the UndocuWeek Student Panel. The students helped to lift the fog for leadership during the Summit
Integrated Planning Leadership Summit
It was a great day! I heard great feedback from others. One person told me they had been to so many of these “retreats” and never had the student voices been truly centered. Someone else said, “it was engaging, productive and inspirational futuring for Skyline”. Our students opened the event with their personal experiences as they related to our mission, vision, values, and our student demographics. Our students told their stories about their academic experience and student support experience. We also integrated the one-and-a-half hour UndocuWeek student panel into our day. We listened to so much valuable information from students to inform our journey forward. We have a follow-up half-day on the morning of October 28. Let’s keep the momentum!
Ribbon Cutting at College Ridge
College Ridge, the housing development to the east of Skyline College campus, is officially completed and open for District employees. Now, each of our campuses in the District host employee housing. We heard from Chancellor Claire, San Bruno Mayor Rico Medina, Trustee Maurice Goodman, and our very own Professor Danielle Powell on the importance and immense value this resources provides for our employees. We also heard that student housing is our future focus. The apartments are beautiful with a great many amenities for very comfortable living at well below market rents.
Park Cannon Visits Skyline College
It was such an honor to hear Park Cannon speak. I was so inspired by the courage, grit, and determination to fight for what is right as an elected official in Georgia. If you recall, when the Governor of Georgia was signing a voting bill that curtailed voting access, Park Cannon was arrested for knocking on the Capital building door to attend the signing. Click here for more information.
Building Captain Training and The Great Shakeout Earthquake and Evacuation Drill
Human Library
Both Muang Pharn (President’s Office Staff Assistant) and I attended the Human Library event. It was so good! Muang said, “I did not know it was Lesly Ta when I chose the human book, “Driven to Speak Up”, but her story was fascinating as it relates to equity and anti-racism. We shared similar lived experiences as she allowed me the opportunity to talk about my personal story. It was a great conversation”. I had the honor of attending two “human books”. The first was “A Foreigner Everywhere” where I had an interactive conversation with Luciana Castro, Professor of Language Arts – Spanish. We discovered so much about each other, and I was inspired by Luciana to tell my story she titled “From GED to President”. I also attended “a different kind of birthday” with Devi Laskar, writer and photographer. Devi shared her personal story and struggle experiencing being a target of racism. We had a moving conversation about trauma and healing and she has since wrote several books. A big shout out to Pia Walawalkar for hosting the event!”
Celebrate the People
Thanks to everyone responsible for a beautiful and relaxing evening of music to Celebrate the People! All photos and videos courtesy of Danni Redding Lapuz, Dean of Social Science and Creative Arts.
Random Run-Ins
Free Form Fridays with the President is intended to provide us with a virtual space to connect. Anyone is welcome to join throughout the session which keeps the conversation interesting! Next one: November 4.
Upcoming dates: 11/04, 12/02, 02/03, 03/03, 04/07, 05/05. Zoom In!