Week of April 8, 2024

Good afternoon Clovis fam,

I hope you all had a great weekend. It was simply beautiful as my dog and I enjoyed our time spent outside.

This week’s reflection will be short as I am spending most of my week in final interviews. So Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I had the opportunity to meet with the final candidates brought forward by the Information Systems, Philosophy, and Ethnic Studies committees. All candidates brought forward were a reflection of the dedication and commitment to academic excellence and student success of the committees and I am very thankful to everyone. On Friday, I spent the entire day at the DO Manager's training meetings. For one of the sessions, the VPs across the District provided training to managers on strategies to deal with difficult situations. We had outside consultants also come in to provide additional training on this topic.

Now going back to my weekend. As you know, I rarely have a weekend where I am not involved in something in the community. This weekend was no different. I started my Saturday with the honor of attending a Release Ceremony for Suechang Cha, a well-known community leader who passed away. There were other proclamations read from the City of Clovis and Fresno and Fresno State to name a few. It was a beautiful cultural ceremony and I was honored to be invited to attend. I left that ceremony and went to Clovis Hat Days and was proud to see all of our students there manning the Clovis Booth. I ended my Saturday by attending the Elements of the Arts Scholarship event and was thrilled to see again all of our students there (some of the same ones that I just saw at Clovis Big Hat Days) volunteering with the silent auctions and helping with the scholarship task. They looked great in the Clovis Community College shirts. I was then thrilled when the auction was opened by our one and only…the great trumpeter himself, Max Hembd. What a great way to open up the ceremony.

The student speaker was our very own Shane Armstrong and she killed it. They gave her a standing ovation. Although, I know she doesn’t like to speak in public she was phenomenal. Then we had entertainment by Myles Hannon and Alex Liang. Everyone did Clovis proud. I had the honor of winning a piece of art done by one of our students.

On Monday, I had President’s Council; it was only me and Dr. Buckley. We talked about the Governor’s CTE Master planning session on Friday. There were representatives from K-12, Business and Industry, and the Governor’s Office. We spent the session in several break-out sessions with the goal being to provide the Governor input on how to improve the processes needed to fully implement CTE across the Central Valley. We talked about hurdles in staffing the Ag Tec positions and we talked about the upcoming Manager’s Meeting and our responsibility to provide guidance to our VPs in running the sessions as we decided in our last President’s Council meeting. I then went to the Chancellor’s Cabinet where we talked mostly about the upcoming Board Retreat and we reviewed the KPI on Persistence Rates which we will be presenting during the Board Retreat. After the Chancellor’s Cabinet, I left to go to the Clovis City Council meeting. I must say I was a little apprehensive about leaving the DO parking lot. I was so glad that the gate went up that I “burned rubber” getting under it. Then I laughed out loud to myself. It was a good guffaw too!!!!! Whew!

I made it to the Clovis City Council meeting and was present for the Clovis Rodeo Directors to receive a proclamation in recognition of this being their 110th anniversary. The Directors told me that they will be honoring Clovis Community College on the first night of the Rodeo. They have over 200 drones that will spell out our name in the sky. And they will display our flag as a horseback rider parades it around the arena. Last year I went on Sunday only because of the conflict with the Board Retreat. This year I am going to try to be there on Wednesday too. He was so excited to tell me. While at the City Council meeting, during Public Comments, Mikaela Silva thanked the Council for their support and provided them with an update on their Gold and Bronze awards at the national tournament (Speech and Debate).

After Mikaela spoke, I left and had the pleasure of attending the CCC Spring Concert. It was my first time in the Shaghoian Concert Hall at Clovis North High School, and I was amazed at the quality of that facility. Max and Tony did a fabulous job showcasing our student talent. Singing, dancing, drumming, and playing a variety of instruments. It was the perfect way to relax and be stimulated at the same time. It was nice to see the community come out and it was nice to see our faculty there in support.

On Tuesday, I was in interviews for Information Systems Instructor all day. Fabulous finalists. The committee did a fabulous job.

On Wednesday, I was in interviews for the Philosophy Instructor position again all day and the committee did a fabulous job bringing forth finalists. They were so good that I considered taking a philosophy class. In between the interview times, I met with the Classified Senate. We had a wonderful discussion about the AR and BP process as well as the importance of their voices being heard, documented, and validated. We also talked about the importance of respectful communication and documented feedback from the Cabinet.

After I finished the interviews, I went to the Soroptimist International of Clovis meeting. They spoke highly of the support they had while on our campus last Friday for the Dream It, Be It Conference. There were over 50 young women here from CUSD including Gateway. The focus of the conference was career readiness. My deepest thanks to everyone who invested their time and talents in letting these students know that college is an option and that they can see themselves here at Clovis: The Student Ambassadors, Outreach Team, Gurdeep, and everyone. They would like to host the conference here again next year.

On Thursday, I was in interviews all day for the Ethnic Studies – Asian American Instructor position. After the interviews, I attended the State Center Information Zoom meeting in preparation for some of my community speaking engagements next week. At the end of the day, I had the honor of attending our Fresno State Transfer Recognition Ceremony to celebrate our students who have committed themselves to transferring to Fresno State University. I thoroughly enjoy celebrating our students' success, so I was thankful to be invited. We had a wonderful celebration with reps from Fresno here to help make the occasion a special partnership. I was glad to be able to let Fresno State know just how valuable we are in terms of their transfer numbers. I am looking forward to building this relationship and formalizing our partnership. It was also bittersweet as I recognized most of the students and for a moment, I felt a sense of loss. I had to remind myself of the joy that comes with knowing that our students have finished their race here and are incredibly prepared for the challenges of the next phases of their lives. Well, done students, faculty, and classified professionals. You did it! I want to thank Tasha for providing an amazing celebration for our students. It was a class act ceremony and I know that our students, their families, and Fresno State felt special. I am looking forward to the many celebrations to come knowing that this is the standard of excellence.

I like to share that I also ended my day in the most incredible way possible. I missed the Student Poetry Reading (which happened before the FS Transfer Ceremony), and I got there just as they were finishing. My heart sank; but it was lifted as I got a personal reading, as 4 of the students read to me their poems. They were powerful, profound, thought-provoking, and sensitive. I was incredibly blessed that they wanted to share this with me. Mind you they had all already read their poems to the audience before I arrived and were lined up to take pictures. What great students we have.

On Friday, I was off campus all day at the DO Manager’s training meeting. The VPs led the discussion on how to handle challenging issues. At lunchtime, I stepped away and provided words of encouragement at the Future Teachers Education Conference where I spoke to the future teachers about their importance and impact as educators. Then, I went home.

I have nothing formally college-related on my calendar this weekend, I’m looking forward to relaxing yet preparing for my next week of events and requirements. But I think I can do them from my bed with my dog by my side.

Thank you all for your continued commitment to student success and excellence. It’s amazing coming to work every day and being around people who are about the business of respecting each other and making sure that we all give our students our very best. I hope and pray that everyone has a great weekend. Please be reminded to relax and rejuvenate and hug someone you love.

In service,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.