Week of October 16, 2023

Hi Clovis Fam,

Happy Friday Fam! How are you? I have been off campus every day this week and I have missed seeing you. I will say that I was able to support our students and see many of you at the community events. Let me update you on my thoughts, experiences, and activities this week.

Thank you for coming up to me and letting me know that you are actually reading my reflections. Thank you for asking about my younger daughter. She spent part of her birthday in reflection and then her friends showed up and made her go out. They recorded some of her reflections of the day and what she was feeling.

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend Saturday with many of you. Thank you for inviting me to come to Lithop. As I listened to our students express themselves in poems and original writings, I could not help to feel the magnitude and depth of the emotional strain that our young people are experiencing be it due to loss of a loved one or loss of a relationship. I could also feel their resolve and strength as they expressed resilience and resolve. I was both saddened and proud of their use of the written word to be able to find a safe space to have these deep, raw, and real emotions exist. I became aware of the need to HEAR our students and the need to create more spaces for them to be their own authentic selves and to be heard. I cried during most of the reading. And I was so proud of them feeling safe to express. I looked around the quaint Teazers and saw it filled with Clovis. I smiled and said to myself “this is the Clovis Spirit” . On a Saturday, you were there supporting and encouraging our students. Thank you. Thank you for understanding that what you do and how you do it matters both in and outside of the classroom. Thank you for encouraging our students to freely express their very raw emotions. Thank you for creating safe spaces. I challenge each of us to extend and continue growing that safe space for our students to be themselves, to have their diverse voices be valued, respected, and embraced. “It’s not what you say or what you do, it’s how you make people feel”. Make them feel like they belong – A sense of belonging. A sense of belonging was one of the data points discussed in our Integrated 2035 meeting in August. As I reflect on Saturday’s students, I could not help but think about my daughter and, like with our students, I was glad that she could find the words of what she was feeling and that there were caring people around to hear and support her and not stifle her voice.

Saturday, I also had the pleasure of spending time with Silas Cha, Charlotte, and Silas’ family and friends as they bestowed blessing for good health for his father-in-law. This cultural expression of love and family was beautiful. I saw generations of family come together from all over the country to bestow prayers of good health. Silas’ father-in-law’s father (yes, I said father) opened the occasions by ringing the bells to invite the ancestors to join. Several people offered prayers. They had candles and incense burning as part of the ceremony. They toasted to his health. What was most impactful with me, observing this tradition, was that in my culture, we come together for wedding and funeral, family reunions, graduations, anniversaries, and for baptizing a baby. We have a saying to give someone their flowers while they can still enjoy them; i.e., not waiting until we are placing flowers on the casket to let them know how you feel about them. Saturday, I saw family coming together to show love and support for the father-in-law while he was able to enjoy and receive it while at the same time praying for his health. Silas lives on a farm and I was taken around to see the women making all the food for the ceremony. I saw large pots and woks where they were making stir fry, curry chicken, egg drop soup, and other wonderful dishes. They described the area where the meal was being prepared, as something I would see if I visited Laos. I saw the acres of farmland and chicken coups. I saw the area where they dried their own peppers. This was a beautiful demonstration of the love of family, culture, and the way to carry traditions throughout the generations.

Sunday at 11 pm, our students returned from their HBCU trip. Most of them didn’t get home until well after midnight and still attended classes at 8am. I am looking forward to hearing their reflections on their experiences. Thank you, Sasha, for going with our students and for sending me pictures.

Monday, I had President’s Council where we talked about the Ag Tech initiative. I then went to the District Office for Chancellor’s Cabinet and we had a discussion about the recent conference on Ag Tech held in Florida. Those who attended talked about what they learned and what we could implement here in the Central Valley as this is a regional initiative. We talked about OER and budget, specifically the 50% law and the financial implications. Due to the length of the Ag Tech presentation and discussion, we did not have time to go over ARs and BPs.

Tuesday, Dr. Pimentel and I were guests on a radio show to talk about our colleges. They asked about enrollment and our CTE programs. We also talked about our status as being a Champion in Transfer to 4 year colleges and universities.

Tuesday evening, I attended the Speech and Debate Gala. Watching our students demonstrating skills of public speaking, researching, working under extreme time constraints, and supporting a position was impressive. I was so very proud and thought, the future is bright with each of these students being prepared to lead. Again, seeing the number of debate coaches who volunteer their time to help develop these skills and who were there was another example of the Clovis Spirit. Looking forward to seeing this incredible group of students doing well in competition again this year.

Wednesday, I attended the Marjaree Mason’s 40th Annual Celebration of Women event. I had the opportunity to actually meet and talk with all of Marjaree’s family. We talked about her and the legacy of her life. It was emotional listening to the stories of women who either survived domestic violence themselves or who as children witnessed the physical abuse and their helplessness; yet their being empowered to call 911 as the child, or them, as adult, now serving in roles to combat domestic violence.

I also had a meeting with Christina Wells to discuss what the DEIA Coordinators have been doing since our last meeting and to provide guidance for how to increase our institutional priority for the DEIA work. We talked about the importance of using a data informed model to guide the work. They presented me with tool that they feel can best assess our current DEIA culture. We also talked about the importance of including faculty and classified professional in the assessment. We discussed plans for spring focus groups of students, with the expectation that focus groups would also be done with faculty and classified professionals and would be held in the fall. We discussed the importance of identifying an institutional framework from which to operate.

Wednesday evening, I attended the Focus Forward reception and unveiling of the Focus Forward Magazine where our alumni, Daniel Availa, was recognized. I was only able to spend a few minutes in support of Daniel but was glad I was able to attend. I left the Focus Forward event and went to receive a check for $20K in scholarships from Comcast. I brought the big check back (looking for the real one 😊). Thank you to Gurdeep, Maricarmen, Emilee, and Amy for getting students to join me in accepting this check. A special thank you to the following students for joining me: Stephanie Gomez, Ziyue “ Sue” Xue Zaphaniah Sequeira, Benson Karki, Hayden Del Fierro, Mili Bhandari, and Pragya Verma for spending time with me on this special occasion.

Thursday, I spent the entire day off campus. The majority of the day I was at the 10th anniversary celebration of Annual ProspHER Women’s Symposium. I was a panelist along with the Honorable Keisha Thomas and Debra Bradley. It was titled as a “Pioneer Panel Discussion” where we talked about our stories, our journey. We shared difficult experience we had to overcome and we talked about what advise we would give our younger selves. I was most proud because I was able to spend time with powerful African American women from across SCCCD. Sasha Fisher and Clark-Lauren Richard joined me as bid several of our African American Female students. I was also able to spend time with African American women from the DO and FCC as well as students from FCC.

After I left the Symposium, I went across the street to attend the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) Board of Directors Meeting. This is a group of Presidents, Chancellors from all (28) community colleges, and universities (both private and public) across the Valley. This meeting focused on reviewing the data presented by consultants in preparation for our strategic planning process.

I then left that meeting to attend the Chancellors Circle reception and tour of the new FCC First Responders Campus.

Today, I am at the CVHEC Annual Summitt . We heard a message from Sonya Christenson, Chancellor, California Community Colleges . These are a list of the topics presented: Pathways to and through college; Transfer models, Approaches to equitable dual enrollment Federal legislative updates, real colleges serving real needs, and what does this mean for students.

Last but not least, please join me in thanking Leslie for serving as my Executive Assistant for the past 3 months, she stepped in and made the transition as smooth as possible when Bonnie transitioned to an instructor position at the CDC. On Monday, Bonnie will rejoin my team as my Executive Assistant. Please come by and welcome Bonnie back.

As always, I want to thank each of you for having a student-first spirit and for showing the Clovis Spirit for our students and each other. Please have a safe and wonderful weekend. Enjoy your family and friends and come back well rested.

In service,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.