Karla Montenegro Gonzalez: Welcome Moorpark College, we're going to be starting in about two to three minutes while participants to start joining. Thank you.
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Welcome participants today to the Moorpark College's Resource Fair. We're going to go ahead and start it and get it started now.
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So without further ado, I would like to introduce you all to Claudia Sitlington. She's the Student Success Supervisor over for the First Year Experience, Second Year Experience, and CHESS. So please welcome Claudia with me.
Claudia Sitlington: Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much
for having me this morning. I was very much looking forward to spending this time with you and being able to share with you and talk with you about the programs that I oversee
on the Moorpark College campus. So as Karla mentioned by name is Claudia Sitlington and I oversee our First Year Experience Program on
campus, our Second Year Experience Program, and also our CHESS Program which is Collaborative for Hispanics in Higher Education and Student Success.
And I will go through each one of our programs and I will explain to you, what our focus is, what our main programming efforts are, and what we can do to assist you. So first slide, please?
And I will also make sure that I leave some time at the end for questions as well.
So about our three programs. So the First Year Experience Program is exactly what it sounds like. So it is a first year program that we focus on efforts for our first time,
first year freshmen students, and within that experience we offer them personalized success coaching appointments, where they can work with the coaches
in order to learn how to adapt and transition from high school to college and learning what those different strategies look like,
and our coaches work very closely with students to be able to embed in them a lifelong learning experience so that they don't really get these positive experiences while at the college, but we want to be able to prepare them
for time at the university and beyond that. We also offer personalized academic counseling. So when our FYE students meet with counselors
they're able to develop their comprehensive education plans and really get a feeling for what the next two years are going to look like as far as their classes are concerned.
We offer many, many different types of workshops and within our workshops we also offer what we call our virtual community hours.
And our virtual community hours is where we have, of course virtually during this time, we have a virtual space where we invite students to come
and just have a really informal conversation with one another, with coaches, with our student staff, so that they can feel like they can have a positive outlet and just a safe space to come and join our team to talk.
Within virtual community hours we have different virtual games. We talk about maybe different things that students are doing to
cope with being at home a lot the past few months. So that's been really fun for the students. And as far as workshops go, we offer workshops on money management, time management,
assistance in choosing a major. We work very closely with our Career Transfer Center so that we can make sure that we're offering
the most up to date information and for an internships and career. And I'm going to move on to our Second Year Experience. So our Second Year Experience
is a bridge from first year to the second year, and it's a very new program it actually just was established this past fall. So within that
in launching this program, we noticed that our first year students were saying, "Well, what am I supposed to do after my first year? What happens after that? Where do I go? Who do I talk to?"
And so now we say, "Well, you can go to the second year experience," and still receive the same coaching services, counseling services, except those services are going to be much more focused now,
on the career pieces, the transfer pieces because we know that this is the time that students are really starting to think about transfer.
We also don't neglect the fact that our first year students are thinking about transfer. So that's something that we make sure that we like to have a very heavy focus on in your one and in your two.
In addition to that, we still continue to offer the various workshops, but again, those workshops look a little bit different. Some of the few that
we've had in the past few weeks have been focusing on trying to find internships during the pandemic,
making sure that the transfer focus is accurate, is everybody meeting deadlines, do we have to refer them to our campus partners for further assistance?
So on and so forth. And we also continue to offer virtual community hours for our second year students. And sometimes what we do is
we will combine these efforts, and we'll invite first year and second year students to do these events together.
And lastly, I want to talk to everybody about our CHESS program. So CHESS is a collaborative brand that we work on and we partner with CLU.
And within that we have a very strong focus on a male initiative and making sure that our programming focuses primarily on the items that you're seeing here on the screen.
So we have men of color support where we do linked courses for our men of color. Quick example we're doing one right now where we have a group of students who are taking a linked English M01A
and a Counseling M05 course and they're able to meet online at different times to get to connect to know one another.
We offer an annual retreat for these students. We do that every year in the month of August. And lastly, kind of, as I mentioned before that focus
is very heavy on career leadership and transfer efforts. So that's a, that's an overall view of our three programs. So, next slide please?
Thank you and I want to talk to everybody about the benefits of joining these programs. So as I had mentioned, we offer personalized success coaching, and academic counseling, and support guidance.
I like to mention that we have obviously a lot of students on campus and
I want to make it very clear that even if you are not officially in our First Year Experience or our Second Year Experience program our coaching services are open
to all students on the campus. The difference does come in with counseling. Our counselors in the programs can only meet with students that are enrolled in the programs,
but not to fear because you can always see our counselors in general counseling which one of my colleagues Alex is going to be talking to you next about that.
So I want to make it very known that our coaching services are open to anyone even myself
as the oversight as the director I even meet with students because sometimes that's just what they ask for and they'll email me and then I put them on my calendar and we meet, so the support goes very
broad we're all here to help. And it's very important as well because other benefits is that we like to keep you in the know. And sometimes we have discussions and in the back of my mind, I think, "Are we,
are we sending too many emails?" but in my personal opinion, and in my theoretical opinion I feel like we have to be doing that, during this time. It's very important to make sure that all of as students
are aware of everything that we're doing, not just in the programs that I oversee, but we also make sure within our monthly newsletter, in our social media outlets that we are letting you know what's going on campus wide, even in other areas.
And that leads to my next point about branching off to other support services that we have on campus.
We understand that sometimes the help that we offer you may just sometimes not be enough. Maybe we do have to refer you to our Teaching and Learning Center,
or we have to refer you to our partners in Financial Aid and we give that warm handoff, and you're able to get the assistance that you need.
Another big and very, very, I think the most important thing to know about these programs is that we're able to offer a sense of belonging, and community, and really like a family.
And does it feel a little bit different, these past few months? Yes it absolutely does. But when we were on campus
we have our Student Success Center, and that's where students would come and hang out from when we opened to when we closed, and they were able to come and use computers,
and get school supplies, and just to be with one another. So it really does feel like it's a family and you have that community.
And we also are very, very mindful about making sure that we are preparing you for your lifelong learning skills and success skills because
you have to remember that even after your time here at the college, and when you do, and if you do decide that you're going to go on to transfer to a university,
then we want to make sure that you are prepared for that. And not only that, it's important to remember that once all of your schooling is over and you go out into the workforce in your professional career,
that these are the types of skills that are going to be instilled in you for life.
So if you might be asking yourself, "Okay, this sounds great. How can I get the assistance and get more information?"
I would welcome you to please visit our website. We do have different websites for each of the programs. So the easiest way to find our information is if you just go to the main Moorpark College website at moorparkcollege.edu
and in the search bar if you search "first year experience" or "second year experience,"
our programs will come up. We have specific information about the CHESS Program embedded within the Second Year Experience because we're all pretty much under the same umbrella.
So if you are interested, please don't hesitate to visit our websites. We have all of our contact information on there. So if you do feel that you can benefit even from meeting with a coach, and gaining those connections, please make sure to reach out to us.
And next slide please?
And this slide right here. We can leave up. I just wanted to make sure that I included our logos because I feel that it's very important for us to be able to
let everybody know who we are, and what we do, and being familiar with the services that we offer.
So I would like to open up the floor to any individuals that may have questions. I'm just excuse me for a moment. I'm going to check the chat, I'm not seen anything just yet, but if anybody has any questions, I would welcome them.
Karla: And there's a way, a couple ways that you can submit your questions, you can go ahead and do that through the Q&A portion or if you wanna become live. We can uncover your camera and have you participate and ask your question live as well.
But in the meantime, while we wait for some questions, potentially. What are some other good things to know about the FYE, SYE, and CHESS Program, Claudia?
Claudia: So some, I think, fun fact for me at least, fun fact is how I mentioned that our Second Year Experience Program is very new and it was, as we were thinking and thinking and
really just hearing from the students that they wanted to be able to have the support into the second year made it the perfect fit.
And so our goal is to have all of our students, so we have right now in our First Year Experience Program, we have approximately 400 students, students who participate and our goal is in the
spring is to be able to really just have all of them go automatically into the second year.
And as long as our students remain full time and they're meeting with their coaches and their counselors, then, then that's okay because and that's a very good question Karla because one thing I didn't mention is that in the First Year Experience Program, our students are required to meet with our success coaches
three times a semester and they have to meet with a counselor at least once a semester.
Once they bridge into the second year, into the CHESS Program, we only require one coaching appointment and one counseling appointment.
Do we have students that do more than that, as far as the coaching appointments go? Absolutely. Some of our coaches have standing meetings with their students where they meet with that student once a week, sometimes once every two weeks to check in and make sure that they're on task
with everything. I really am blessed to have the team that I have. Really passionate and dedicated people working for us.
Karla: Yeah I agree, and I and we used to work together prior, I was in the First Year Experience Program,
so I definitely encourage all students to visit the student success, excuse me, FYE, SYE, and the Project CHESS. I think that it's a great connection for our students and
like you mentioned it provides a platform to build skills, not only for college, but beyond, you know, career, university, whatever is next for the students.
So, Claudia I wanted to ask you, can you tell me about some of the upcoming events that you have?
Claudia: Yes, absolutely and so we actually have a virtual community hour that's going to be coming up this week.
We just had the Internships During A Pandemic Workshop and then we're going to be having a few more workshops coming in the month of November,
and I want to welcome all of you actually to follow us on Instagram, we are found under first if you just go onto Instagram and you search "First Year Experience" and "Second Year Experience"
please follow us because on those accounts that's where we announce everything. We do have Twitter accounts as well. So that's where we post really more news.
And then we have a monthly newsletter that we send out and one of our latest things that I, it might sound small but it's a really huge deal and it does take a lot of time and it's been vital
is a weekly email. So we have a fantastic admin, who spends a lot of time putting that together into really just one digest and we send that out every Monday, so that we can keep our events in the know for everybody.
Because it gets overwhelming sometimes when you have any areas throwing things that you, we just want to make sure that we keep that towards the top of your inbox.
Karla: Right, right. Oh my god, that is so great to hear. And that is a very new update. I feel like our students. Nowadays it's easier to do stuff on email, or in our inbox just because how we're getting so
many. But if we get a reminder like a Monday or what's coming up, I think, I think our students, yeah are benefiting from that.
So my last question.
Karla: Alright, I just want to make sure that we're online still. Yes. Okay, perfect. So can you tell me the names again of your team members in your offices?
Claudia: Yes, absolutely. So the FYE team. We have Stephanie Caranica who has been in the program since inception. She's been
there for a very very long time, extremely knowledgeable. We have our other Student Success Coach, Xilen Ramirez,
who reaches out to a lot of our students who were in the linked learning to see if they need anything. Do they need any, did they need any items from the bookstore.
Really creating those personal relationships, and on our actually in our counselors. I was going to
mention all of our counselors at the same time, but for First Year we have Pam Kennedy Luna
and Marc Roaquin who are phenomenal. They are really our cheerleaders for the program. So that makes us very excited and proud. And on the Second Year and CHESS side of programming,
our amazing coaches are Adriana Gonzalez and Annie Wheatley,
who have these amazing, creative ideas that we are getting out to the students, and making sure that they are aware of everything they're going to need before they leave us and go on to transfer.
And our counselors, we have are Rosa Sanchez and Traci Allen, who are able to work with our students in making sure that they get their ed plans done. Are they in the right courses and are they ready to wrap up their time soon.
And last but not least we have our amazing admin Philip Koscak who joined us in June and it's been an absolute pleasure to have him join the team.
Karla: Oh my god. Thank you Claudia for sharing all that about your programs. I think our students will definitely take note on it. Thank you for representing these programs, Claudia.
Claudia: My pleasure Carla. Thank you.
Karla: And virtual hugs virtual claps, I'm sorry.
[Claudia]: Thank you. [Karla]: Hugs too. [Claudia]: And virtual hugs too. Yes.
Thank you.
Karla: Thank you Claudia.
For the next part of our presentation. We're going to have General Counseling, visit us with Alex Gonzalez she's a Counselor Assistant over in general
counseling and I just wanted to mention that Claudia and Alex are our liaisons, they're in their proper offices. So if you ever come across their names or get to see them on campus or through Zoom to say hi.
Alex. We can't hear you. There we go.
Alejandra Gonzalez: Yes, thank you Karla. Yes, thank you for sharing that. Hi, good morning, everyone. Like Karla said I'm Alex Gonzales and I'm a counselor assistant
in general counseling and thank you for being here today. I'm going to be reviewing some of the services that we offer and just provide a nice little overview about our department. So if I can get the next slide please?
Thank you. So we are general counseling and just like how Claudia had briefly mentioned, we help all students. So we're usually the first stop for any student who is interested
in, you know, applying to Moorpark College and they want to get to know what courses they need to do. So we provide academic counseling for students. So
we have counselors that help students in various ways. The main one would be through appointments and even though we're working remotely, we still are having virtual appointments with students.
And that's a time where the student sits down with a counselor and they create their full comprehensive ed plan. Now, what does a comprehensive ed plan,
you know, what is it compose of? Your comprehensive ed plan includes all of your major prep requirements, all of the general education requirements
to meet your academic and career goals. So if your goal is to earn an associate's degree and go straight into the workforce, awesome. We're going to help you get there.
If your goal is to transfer to a UC, Cal State, out of state or private university, great. We're going to put every class you need
in your comprehensive ed plan or your educational plan to make sure that you meet that goal. So that's one of the biggest, biggest things that students are usually
concerned about or they come to us and talk to us about. And so that's kind of one of the main services that we provide.
The other one that's very listed here at the top is virtual drop in. So before the Covid 19 life, we were in person. We had drop in where students would just, you know, you would check in, on the computer. Take a seat. And we would call out your name.
We're still doing that, but it looks a little bit different, it's virtual. We use a platform called Cranium Cafe. I personally really like it, where we video conference, pretty much, same setup.
Once you sign into Cranium Cafe through virtual drop in a little timer starts and then you can see where your place is in line and we call up the next student.
So a lot of students aren't really aware of that service yet. So we're really trying to get students to reach us. We're available through virtual drop in during our office hours. So if you need immediate assistance, you need to be cleared for prerequisite,
you need to reach a counselor, counselor assistant and ask a quick question, the fastest way to reach our department is going to be through virtual drop in. So I highly encourage you
if you have any questions about your classes. Maybe you're struggling this semester, you know, with one of your online classes,
or, you know, maybe a class that's in person, because it's a lab, please come talk to us. You know, appointments right now they're kind of hard to get to, because registrations around the corner, but we always have virtual drop in its first stop shop for students. And so I highly encourage all of you if you have any questions about your classes or you're struggling, please come talk to us.
Next, so for the actual appointment. There are several ways students can schedule appointments. So as of this fall semester, you can actually schedule an appointment through your student portal through your My VCCCD account through the Starfish app. So through the Starfish icon you can schedule an appointment,
and, you know, it could be with any counselor that you'd like or what we're doing now is we're also moving through or towards Guided Pathways where we have counselors by major. So depending on what your major is we're going to assign you to that counselor
that specializes within that major and we've done that in the past, ever since I started working here which is four and a half years ago.
So we have counselors by major because we know that certain areas require certain expertise, well I should say every career and every major requires expertise.
So we have that available for students. So you can schedule an appointment online through Starfish or just like always, you can always give us a call on our general line and our student staff will be happy to help you schedule an appointment as well.
We also have an email server, which is MC Counseling. You can email us we're constantly checking the emails if you have any questions.
However, if you need again immediate assistance, go to virtual drop in, just because our MC Counseling email sometimes we are a little bit behind because of all the inquiries we got.
So if you don't need immediate assistance and it's kind of like, "Oh, you know, I'm thinking about transferring in a year, you know, what are the resources?" Awesome. That would be a good resource to use. Next on the slide we have several workshops that we offer through Counseling.
One of the newest ones that we're currently offering now is our goals workshop which is essentially our second semester planning workshop
for continuing students. So if you need help with your spring 2021 course selection then I highly encourage you to sign up for one of our goals workshops. So essentially what we do is we review
courses that most second semester students should be taking and then we answer questions. Once the workshop or everyone that attends a workshop, we follow up with an email where we provide a program map based on your major.
And so the program maps are really great because depending on what your academic goal is, and your major is, we list in the program maps and these were all created by our counselors, and our Guided Pathways Lead Traci Allen as well as other departments that we're partnered up with on the campus, to create these program maps which are really great.
And so we follow up so you have that as a resource as well to kind of help you select the courses you need to reach your academic goal.
The goals workshop we offer two during the week and we have one on Mondays morning at 9:00 am for any early birds. That's the one that I facilitate.
So if you want, if you want to get one of my workshops, then sign up for the morning one on Mondays. And then my colleague Cassie facilitates the goals workshop on Thursdays afternoons at 4:00 pm so we actually are having one today at 4:00 pm.
And then one of the last things that I just kind of wanted to address, our social media. So we are kind of gaining a little bit of attraction in our social media. So I do encourage all of you to please follow us on Instagram, or Twitter, our handle is right there. It's at MC underscore C-O-U-N.
If you have anything, we're trying to figure out, you know, what types of things students want to hear from us, you know, weekly,
if you have any ideas or would like to learn about any resources or information about counseling that maybe we're not providing for you, through our web page or through
social media, please feel free to reach out. So for example, if you're like, you know, "I want to learn more about, you know, exploring careers. How can I get resources for that? I want to learn more about, you know, having something about, you know, transferring out of state," or anything of like please reach out to us, so we know what type of content the students need.
And that's essentially just wanted to highlight those services and then encourage everyone, I usually recommend that students meet with a counselor. So whether it's general counseling or if you're a part of a special population,
like EOPS, ACCESS, FYE, SYE, or PACE, please make sure that you schedule an appointment at least once a semester to update your academic goal or your educational plan if you need to. If you have any questions about transferring our counselors can help you as well.
And then we also have counselors who helped students who are exploring or are part of the exploratory pathway. So if you haven't quite selected a major, then I highly encourage you to also meet with one of our exploratory counselors, so they can help you select any major and kind of find
that because it's very important to find your major sooner rather than later, so you know what major prep requirements, you need to take to reach your academic goal.
And I know I don't think we have anyone from the Transfer Center, but I did just want to highlight that we do work really close with our Transfer Center our Career and Transfer Center on campus
and they do offer several workshops where we also help one of the ones that is going on right now are the CSU and UC application workshops, well the CSU ones now and then the UC application workshops will begin in November and then our Transfer Center also has transfer 101
workshops. If you don't have any idea. You're like, "I don't know if I want to transfer. I don't know where. But I, you know, maybe I'm interested," then I highly encourage students to definitely sign up
for one of our transfer that transfer center's transfer 101 workshops really great insightful information that they're going to provide you with the kind of get started. So,
if any of you are thinking about transferring it's never too early to learn more information about transferring. And again, you can always come talk to us during virtual drop in if you have a quick question about transferring or you have any questions about transferring to any of our out of state or private institutions within the state.
I think I covered it all.
Karla: Thank you, Alex.
Participants if you have any questions please feel free to drop them in the Q&A and then we'll bring them up to Alex. But Alex, I do have a question for you. So can you explain to us what's the difference and when should we request a full appointment versus go to drop in?
Alejandra: Yes, that's a really great question, thank you for asking that Karla. So for a full appointment and our appointment blocks right now, since we are virtual they're a full hour. So if you want to discuss your full comprehensive ed plan and you're like, "I want to sit
with a business major and I want them to tell me these are the classes that I need to transfer to UC Irvine's Business Administration Program,"
that would be a full appointment. If any of you need help with a SAP appeal for financial aid, then you would definitely need to book a full appointment as well.
And then if you want maybe like a year comprehensive ed plan, then that would be an appointment as well.
But the virtual drop in are, you know, if you have a quick question or need something done that's really quick. One thing that our students use virtual drop in for a lot is clearing a prerequisite. So if you need to clear a prerequisite for a class, let's say for the spring semester, you're planning on taking micro econ,
and you want to show us that you took algebra two and passed it in high school, or you took Intermediate Algebra at a different college,
then yes definitely stop by virtual drop in and we can clear you for that prerequisite no problem. If you have a question about a class
or if you want to plan for one semester we can definitely help you in virtual drop in
for that as well. If you have more in depth questions about transfer institutions and determining which would be the best or which universities have the best program for your major, then that would definitely be an appointment
because you really do need a longer, a longer appointment than virtual drop in to have a more in depth conversation,
you know, looking at different universities. If you're exploring majors and want to learn more about what major best suits your interest and values, then that would also be an appointment. Virtual drop in, prerequisite clearances if you need help with,
you know, the next semester, one semester plan, academic plan we can help you with that. If you have a quick question,
with, you know, maybe you're having some issues with your CSU or UC application, then we can definitely address those questions as well.
One thing I did want to say is that for the Cranium Cafe platform that we use we can actually do screen sharing
which is really great just like Zoom. So I know I've helped some students with their CSU application. And they're like, "Yeah, I'm stuck at this part like I don't know what to put,"
and then they'll do the screen share. And I'll say, "Oh Okay, like this is what you want to do."
So we have that option as well and I personally really love Cranium Cafe. I think it's a really great platform for advising students and
again, if in doubt, just reach out. If you're like, "I don't know if this is a full appointment or virtual drop in," when in doubt, just reach out to
us virtual drop in and then we'll go ahead and let you know like, "Yes, we can help you with this right now, or no, you need a full appointment."
With that said, we do have a deadline coming up for fall 2020 degrees, your application degree. So those if any of you are planning
on earning or finishing up all of your requirements for a degree, an Associate's Degree, an Associate's Degree for Transfer, or a certificate this fall 2020,
the deadline is going to be a week from today next Thursday, October 29. So if you do need to petition for a degree, usually we may refer you to book an appointment. However, because the deadline is around the corner, then you may want to stop by virtual drop in.
If you've completed all of your courses within the districts at Moorpark, Oxnard, or Ventura,
then petitioning for a degree, you can do that at virtual drop in. However, if you do have a lot of outside courses. So if you maybe took some classes LA Pierce, maybe you have some from
a four year university, then we usually refer students to book a full appointment for those because it takes a little bit longer for the counselor to evaluate all of that outside coursework.
Karla: Thank you Alejandra for clarifying all that and and thank you for sharing about your department. I think all our students will definitely benefit from scheduling that appointment every month and get a clear plan as to what's next for them, even if
even if something changes just go in and talk to them about it and they'll provide you with the best guidance on how to move forward, based on your situation. Once again thank you Alex.
Alejandra: Thank you Karla.
Karla: Alright, so for our next resource I would like to introduce you all to Esmeralda. She works at Extended Opportunity Programs and Services. She was recently welcomed to the team full time. So welcome Esmeralda. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your department?
Esmeralda Camarena: Thank you so much Karla. I'm really excited to be here today.
I've loved listening to my colleagues, talk about their programs, and services, and all the amazing things that they do within their department for our amazing Moorpark College students and I as well, you know, I love our program EOPS the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services is a very unique and
just amazing program that benefits our most needy of the neediest students on campus. Just a little bit of the background of who we are.
If you want to
next slide, please?
Thank you. So historically, EOPS has been around as a student support program that was implemented and is funded by the State of California as per Title Five of the Education Code
to help recruit, retain, and assist the academic success of students that have been historically disadvantaged by financial, educational, linguistic, and social factors.
The aim of our program is to motivate, and encourage, and provide eligible students with the necessary tools and resources for achieving a higher education.
One neat thing to note about EOPS is that EOPS is a social justice program that was created out of the Civil Rights Movement over 50 years ago. So we've been around
at all 114 California Community Colleges for over 50 years and we're actually going to celebrate 51 years, next month. So,
the main thing that I want everybody to know who doesn't know about EOPS, is that we take pride in walking alongside each and every one of our students
educational journey as they navigate higher education. As professionals we aren't ahead of you or behind you, we're actually right there with you, holding your hand through out your time at Moorpark College.
All of the counselors and all of the staff members within our department, understand the unique needs of our student population.
We all share similar stories, we come from similar backgrounds as all of our EOPS students.
Just to highlight, for example, Angie, one of our EOPS Counselors, she is a former Ventura College EOPS graduate
and now she's an EOPS counselor, so it has come full circle. And that's really actual typical of our counselors and other staff members at not only Moorpark College EOPS, but at Santa Barbara City College, Ventura College, Moorpark, Oxnard, etc.
That is why we love the work that we do because we relate. We were there in your shoes at some point in our lives.
Another success story, for example, Alethea she's our Student Support Services Specialist. She graduated from Moorpark College, a few years ago,
She was not only EOPS but also Cal Works, which is one of our other programs housed within our services.
She transferred to CSUN out of Moorpark College and has now been hired as a full time provisional students services worker.
She is amazing. She has so much experiential learning as a product of EOPS. She knows the ins and outs. So anytime a student walks into her office or virtually now,
gives us a phone call or email, she is the first point of contact, and she will know the answer and if she doesn't, she will get back to you once she checks in and gets you that answer. And then finally, I myself,
was not a product of the community college system, but I am the product of the California State University system. And I was part of the EOP Program at my respective CSU. And I want to say that being part of a specialized program like EOPS and EOP have definitely
assisted me and navigating the complications of higher ed, especially being the first in my family to go to college and not really having the support at home, as far as telling me go to Financial Aid, go talk to your counselor, go talk to a career counselor, take these classes. My own family
didn't unfortunately have the opportunities and I have now, but being part of a specialized program like EOPS and EOP really do bridge that gap between
not knowing where to go, who to go to, and actually finding your own family on campus away from home. So EOPS really strives to provide a safe space, judgment free, and
just a space for you to be yourself. Be you. We won't judge you. We will take you as you are. We will celebrate you. We will meet you where you're at.
Especially because we do create this family atmosphere and environment in our department. We get to know you by first name. We get to know your family, sometimes, you know, sometimes you
come in with your sibling or with your son or daughter, and we get to, you know, extend the services and get to know you beyond just your 900 number.
We do very much like to establish report with you and establish a strong relationship with you because we pride in who you are,
where you've come from, and where you're going to go because we believe in you. We strongly believe in your abilities, and your capabilities, and,
you know, we're here cheering you on. We're are your cheerleaders all throughout your time at Moorpark College. And like I said, we are a family. And once your EOPS you're EOPS for life.
And next slide?
All right, so all this talk about EOPS and our history and who we are and what we do, but I really want you to also understand all the individualized services that we offer once you join EOPS.
So the benefits of being part of EOPS is you get financial assistance in the form of an EOPS book grant and this book grant is for fall semester, spring semester,
and depending on funds available you may also get a book grant over the summer as long as you're enrolled in classes.
The amount will fluctuate semester to semester, but typically, it could range anywhere from $250 to maybe $300.
This current semester we were lucky to award our students $300 and this grant is to help you pay for your textbooks if you haven't bought your books yet for the semester or think of it as a reimbursement if you already paid for them, you get the $300 grant
dispersed to your account. The other key benefit that our students receive, is priority registration. So we have around 15,000 students at Moorpark College
give or take part time full time and as an EOPS student, we have close to 400 students in our program. All of our 400 students get to register early, they get to beat the the rush
of regular registration and get into the classes that they need. All of our students love this benefit. They, actually this semester, our priority date is this Monday, October 26.
So our students are going to be the first out of the entire campus, along with ACCESS students and other specialized populations to get their classes. They get to secure the perfect schedule
with the perfect instructors that they've been hoping to take certain classes with without any issues of the classes getting full or being closed and unable to register for those anymore. That adds on a ton of stress to our students.
So being able to register first and get that priority actually helps you finish quicker or stay on track as far as reaching your educational goal.
Another key benefit, which unfortunately due to Covid we're not able to provide but in a normal semester we do give you give our students parking permits. As you know students who drive to campus must purchase a parking permit so that they can
park on campus, otherwise you will get a citation. You want to avoid, avoid getting a citation on campus. So our students, we help them out by providing them a parking voucher, and they get to obtain their parking, semester parking permit for free.
A meal voucher also pre-Covid times we are able to credit our students at our bookstore a $50 credit for the semester where they can pick up snacks and drinks, just food and drinks and nothing else from the bookstore for the semester. So maybe you're
running between classes and you may be hungry and you want to pick up, you know, a packaged sandwich or a Gatorade,
you can go into the bookstore and say, "Hey, I'm an EOPS student. Here's my card. My student ID card," and they will look you up and then they will
subtract your purchase from your $50 credit. So that's also been helpful to our students. Right now we've added that $50 into our
$300 book grant for the semester, and it will be the same for the spring semester. Tutoring, we've also been really lucky to have our tutors,
our personalized tutors in our office for Math and English. Those are the two key subjects, where students struggle a lot and our students are EOPS students just like everyone else, and
are hired to tutor our very own EOPS students with any questions they may have pertaining to Math and English. So that's in house tutoring. We also provide our students with school supplies.
Pre-Covid, students would need to buy scantrons for example or blue books to take their exams. No need to buy that as an EOPS student, we have those in our office, you just come in, ask, and we will give you any supplies you need. Notebooks, a backpack,
pens, highlighters, flash cards, you name it, we will have it. And if we don't have it, we will let our coordinator know and she will get on it and we will provide that service to you. Individual academic counseling. So we have our own specialized counselors.
Angie, Priscilla, Margaret, and myself, and we're all available to service EOPS students only. You do have to meet with us three times a semester and that is what I want to stress the key
emphasis on
why we consider ourselves to be a family, because you get to visit us three times a semester. We get to establish that relationship with you.
I get to ask you questions to get to know you. You get to ask me questions to get to know me.
You know, you call us by our first name and it were, you know, we, we understand that you're a student and you have all kinds of things going on. And we get that. We get you and, you know, we're here to help facilitate anything that you may need as far as your educational or personal
necessities. So individual academic counseling, we will get you from point A to point B to point C. Whether that is you want a certificate, you want to AA, or you want to transfer, we will create that SAP that student ed plan based on that particular goal of yours.
And you also get the benefit of once you are getting ready to graduate Moorpark College and move on to bigger and better things we pay for your cap and gown. So our students don't need to purchase it, we will provide a voucher for you so you can participate in our end of the year
College ceremony, the big ol' celebration that you get to bring your family to campus to and we get to celebrate you and your accomplishments.
We also assist our students with workshops when it comes to CSU and UC transfer, as well as waivers.
All Cal State University and UC applications have a fee but as an EOPS student, you will get waived four applications to the UCs and four applications to the Cal States as well.
We also offer a loaner program for laptops and calculators. So if you find yourself in need of a laptop. Let us know and we will provide you a laptop, as well as a calculator. Print cards, typically
at the college when a student meets with a counselor for their first appointment, we provide them a $7 print card.
Printing on campus does cost, I believe 10 cents. So as an EOPS student, you will have your own card with pre loaded $7 and you get to use that
at the library, at Fountain Hall. However, you do get to print completely for free within our, our office, we have a computer station, and a printer station, and you don't have to use your card in our office, you get to print for free. And then we have so much more,
you know, robust services and I don't have on here but just know that we are a very holistic, comprehensive EOPS program at Moorpark College and
when in doubt, if you have any questions, and you find yourself that you need anything, just come in and ask and
we will find out and we will get you the appropriate resource as needed. So then you might ask yourself, "Well, I'm interested. You got me. I'm hooked.
How do I participate in EOPS?" Well, because we are a state funded program, you do have to meet certain criteria. So in order to be eligible
you have to apply. We will check that you are a resident of California or an AB 540 student. We check that you must be enrolled in 12 units, which is considered full time at Moorpark College, unless you're part of the ACCESS Program.
Students who have the accommodations through ACCESS will just be asked to bring in a letter from their ACCESS counselor. If they were approved to have a reduced unit load then that could also
get you into the program. You must also have completed less than 45 degree applicable units overall, whether that's at Moorpark, Ventura, Oxnard.
If you did attend another community college outside of the district, we will ask for those transcripts and we will count all the degree applicable units, just to make sure you are under the 45.
And you must also financially qualify under your financial aid for the California College Promise Grant.
And then be educationally disadvantaged as defined by the EOPS guidelines. In order to apply we do have an electronic application. The application link I can provide a here in the Q&A for everybody to, oh I'm so sorry in the chat.
Or if Karla can post it.
It's a, like I said, an electronic link. It's also housed within our EOPS website.
And it's a two minute application, you attach your unofficial transcript from high school, if you have it, and other external transcripts.
Once you submit the application our coordinator will review your application, make sure that all of the check marks have been checked off, and if you qualify based on all of these criterias,
you will be required to attend an orientation. So you get to learn about our program, go over the mutual responsibility agreement.
Thank you Karla. And once you've attended the orientation, you got your supplies and we've gotten your forums, you're fully in and able to participate 100% in our program and receive all of these awesome benefits. Next slide please?
And then I do have a video that I'd like to show just to get you excited about EOPS and exactly to see how EOPS all across the state of California how impactful EOPS has been to our most disadvantaged students.
Michael Ashton: Apologies. I do not find the video within this PowerPoint.
Esmeralda: Are you able to right click and see the open hyperlinks? It's a hyperlink.
Michael: Oh, okay. One second.
Dwight Coleman: I'm a product of a drug addict mother, gang member father. My mother was on crack cocaine, my father a gang member he sold her the drugs.
You know I'm a product of that. It was a struggle for us coming up. We were dirt poor, we didn't have a lot. We didn't get a lot, but we loved each other and my mother made sure that we still had love in us.
I had a son when I was 20 years old. He was born in 2011 in February. My son is now eight years old. His name is Deyon, and that is the single greatest gift I was ever given.
In attempts to gain full custody or my son I was sent to prison. I lost two years of my life. I lost two years of my son's life. And I also lost two years of my education.
I didn't know whether I want to run the streets. I didn't know whether I wanted to work. I was in between jobs. Odd things. You know, cutting grass, you know, laying bricks, and doing things like that, helping people move just to make money. And I'm like, "This isn't what I want to do. This isn't the life I want to live. I'm better than this."
So I decided to go back to school.
My name is Dwight Coleman. I'm a sophomore at Antelope Valley College. Political Science major. I'm 30 years old and a single father. And this is my story.
As I sat there in the orientation that first time, and understood, and got the story behind their program and what they do it was more than just giving you a voucher for books.
It was more than them just being able assistance financially for you. These people took you under their wing. They treated you as family because they know that we come from a background as that isn't as advantaged as other people.
That first semester in the EOPS Program really gave me a broad look at what I can be, what I could be, what I had the potential to be, and I took it and ran with it. It was the greatest single decision I've ever made.
EOPS Staff Member: You are loved. Our program cares about your deeply and it goes through your staff and to you. It's a give and take. We all are human beings and we all need to be appreciated as well. So be a Gandhi. Be the change in the world that you want to see and we can make tremendous things happen.
Dwight: When I got out of prison my son was placed in my arms. The next day I came back to the school, signed up, got me some classes and then I walked back upstairs to the second floor. And I walked into the EOPS Program and they looked at me like they never forgot me and that was something I needed at the time because I felt that I was lost. I didn't have a lot. But I had the EOPS Program at that time and they stood behind me ever since.
I'm a kid from South Central LA and I'm here at UCSB, a former prisoner, a convicted felon. But I plan on being the first convicted felon to ever run and be elected by the people of the state as their governor, and by God and EOPS behind me, that will happen.
If I put the work in and if I keep doing what I'm supposed to do and hold up my end of the bargain, everything will be alright. And that's why EOPS has stood out to me. That's why they are a part of my life story. That's why I will always preach the praises of the EOPS Program.
Because you don't, you just don't know what they can do to walk into that door and you walk into their office and you say, "Hey, I need help with books," and they'll change your life.
Esmeralda: Thank you. Next slide?
Please?
Awesome. So I always get a little emotional and choked up when I watch this video, but just so you see EOPS is a very in fact impactful program.
You will not regret being part of EOPS. It'll take you so far personally, professionally. We're here for you. So please, please, please, I encourage you to apply if you're not in EOPS yet.
We're available virtually Monday through Friday. There's counselors there. Alethea is there to answer the call. We have an Instagram, a Facebook.
That's our phone number, write it down, screenshot it, follow us. I look forward to meeting you soon applications for spring 2021 have,
we'll start taking applications for spring 21 now and we'll start reviewing them November 5, and we will let you know if you qualify, but I'm keeping fingers crossed that you do because I really, really want to connect with you and that is the end of my presentation. Thank you.
Karla: Thank you Esmeralda for giving us all this information about EOPS I think that, the students were definitely able to see that tight community that you all are and not necessarily here at Moorpark, but you're part of something bigger. You're part of
this retreat where you get to meet other students who can potentially be going to the school of your dreams and you get to ask more questions too.
Esmeralda: That is correct. Summer Institute is one of the other robust,
game changing, life changing summer where students, I should say summer program where students get to go to UCSB, spend the night there at the dorms, and
with other EOPS students from the region. We have about 10 other community colleges where they also bring their EOPS students and we just bond over that weekend and it transforms students completely. They don't want to leave after Sunday comes around they've just connected so
much with other students outside of, you know, Moorpark College, right?
Karla: Well, thank you Esmeralda. If any students have any questions for EOPS, please feel free to drop them in the Q&A and Esmeralda will be able to answer them.
For the next part we're going to go ahead and move forward with Maker Space and we have Clare joining us today. Thank you Clare. Hi, how are you?
Clare Sadnik: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me and Maker Space on this meeting.
Karla: Thank you.
[Clare]: Do you want me to go ahead and get started? [Karla]: Yes, please go ahead and get started. Tell us about Maker Space.
Clare: Yeah, so I'll just really quickly introduce myself so I'm Clare Sadnik I am a faculty member who runs the Maker Space. And I'll get into what the Maker Space is, but I'm also a teacher, I teach Art as
well, so you might see me around. Well, we're not really around right now. But when we're back on campus, you might see me around both in the maker space and and teaching art classes around the Art building. Okay. So, go ahead. Next slide?
So I just always like to start with what is Maker Space or what is the maker space, because it still is a little bit of a new concept, not only for our campus,
but maybe just a new concept in general to people. And so a maker space and our maker space specifically on our campus,
is a place where there is tools, equipment, and technology that facilitate making. So I want you to think of the maker space, like the library. So this isn't a class, although we are working on some non credit classes that will be
rolled out in the fall, but this is a place. It's a resource, just like the library where anybody can come in and use the space. So just like you can go to the library and there are all these books, and research materials, and people to help you with your research, the maker space is just like that, except instead of having books,
we have various different types of equipment and you don't need to know how to use any of the equipment or any of the programs or technology because we have staff there to help you. So you can come on in, with no prior knowledge and be able to use the maker space. So I'm going to go through our different campus locations. So next slide?
So we have three different locations on our campus. So we have this kind of dispersed model, which I know I'm going to get to how we are organized in a virtual format for this semester. But I want you to understand what we have on our campus because we will eventually be transit, hopefully sooner rather than later be transitioning back into a more
normal way of being on campus, but we have three different locations and we have our clean collaborative space which is our main hub that's located in the Campus Center. We have a dirty workspace, which is in the Applied Arts Building and so that's located with our sculpture and 3D design class.
And then we have something called a digital fabrication Lab, which is in the Communications Building and I have a little picture of
aerial view of our campus and they're highlighted to show you where we have our different spaces. So the blue is the clean collaborative space. The yellow is the dirty workspace, and the magenta is the digital fabrication lab. All right, go ahead and next slide?
So our main hub, our main space is this clean collaborative space and when we are normally on campus this is the one that's open, five days a week.
And in here we have, and so this is a nice panoramic view of what it would normally look like on a given day when we're on campus and we have, we have a workspace, so we have tables that you can sit around. We have laptops or a computer lab. Everything's very movable and normally, you can come on in and just use the computers.
And we have a lounge. So if you look in the panorama. On the left hand side is our lounge area.
And so what's so important, just like you're hearing about with some of these other spaces, with Maker Space, you don't necessarily have to go in and have a specific project to work on, it's a space that you can just hang out in and normally we have, you know, students who come on in and they just,
you know, eat their lunch, they work on homework, and there's so much energy in the space that you will come up with an idea or you will start collaborating with
one of your peers, because you're seeing all of this energy that's happening in there. And then as far as equipment we have 3D printers, we have a vinyl cutter so that cuts, solid color vinyl, whether it's going to be a decal that you put on your laptop, or on a wall, or on a car,
but it can also cut heat transferable material, and so we also have a heat press. We have a vinyl printer. So what the students love to call it is the sticker machine, which I always push back a little bit on because it's a very expensive sticker machine.
But basically it's an inkjet printer that can print on destickable vinyl, and we have button machines and we have a heat press, and soldering. So next slide?
And so that just shows you just a little bit a close up of the different equipment that we have. So we have those four 3D printers in the clean collaborative space.
There's that sticker machine and then the student on the upper right, she's holding a something that she heat pressed. So the great thing is you can come on into this maker space and if you just want to make your own unique t-shirt, or you have an idea for a business that you want to start,
or you want to, you know, start creating T-shirts and selling them, you can go ahead and do that. And we have students who have done that.
They've had an idea of some type of apparel or product that they want to make and the maker space can help you do that. Maker Space is very rooted in entrepreneurship
and getting equipment out that you wouldn't normally be able to invest in. So I say the sticker machines expensive. It's about a $10,000 piece of equipment printer and you would, it's very hard to invest in that, but the maker space is able to give you access to that so you don't need to invest in the $10,000 piece of equipment,
but you can come and use ours, and then you can start your business or, you know, generate your idea and then maybe move on to getting your own equipment.
And then we have those button machines down there, which are super popular whether you have you know, a concept, an idea, something that you want to get the word out for, buttons are very effective, a club that you're a part of, or you just want to make your own custom buttons to put on things, alright, go ahead and next slide?
So then we have our dirty workspace. And so this one is where we have all of our tools that can make a giant mess. So we have
woodworking tools, we have a CNC router, we have a water jet cutter, this whole outdoor workspace you can see that all the students are outside. So this is,
you know, then there's large cutting or we have a laser cutter over there. We have screen printing now which is new and super exciting that we're going to be able to not only can you heat press apparel, but you can screen print your own apparel
and learn about that process because that's an industry that is booming. People are always going to be
screen printing T-shirts and this is a place where you could come and get those skills and get a job as a screen printer or start your own business in screen printing.
But we have this space where you can get messy be outside and so that's the goal of the dirty workspace. All right. Next slide?
And then we have our digital fabrication lab. And so in there we have a small Mac computer lab. Another laser cutter. There's something called a milling machine so
it takes a big block of material and it cuts it away. So it kind of think about it like
3D printing in reverse. 3D printing's additive CNC is subtractive. More 3D printers and what's really awesome is we have sewing machines, embroidery machines, and book binding. So in the middle you can see you can make your own notebooks.
Just if you want a custom notebook, a custom journal, or again you could put artwork and make custom notebooks that you could sell. So you can see, this can be for personal projects, it could be for entrepreneurship, it could be for a class project, all of that kind of stuff.
And then, next slide?
So, but those are our different spaces and yes we're, you know, in this virtual kind of model and I have the slide after this one, talks about how you can access the maker space during this,
this Covid time because you can't just come to campus and use the space like it normally is. But we one of our hallmarks of Maker Space that we've had since our inception. We've only been around for about two years.
We're going into our third year this academic year, is that we always host workshops and they're always free. Even when they're on campus we never charge for the workshops.
Generally we charge for consumables, meaning, whatever you take home with you. So if you make a bunch of stickers
you have to pay for the vinyl or whatever you're using, whatever you're taking home.
But the nice thing about that is, is that you're only paying for the materials. So I like to use the buttons as an example, in that if you make a button in the maker space it's 10 cents a button.
Because you're only paying for the materials. And normally, the reason why things are so expensive and students have told me. "Okay. You know, I go to, you know, Tilly's or whatever and I buy a button that's like $3," well
there's a lot that goes into that cost. Here in Maker Space you're the laborer. You're the designer. You're all of that and all you have to do is, and we've already invested in the equipment,
so all you have to do is pay for the materials and materials are actually pretty cheap.
But with workshops it's, they're always free. And so we're offering Friday workshops and those are the up there are the rest of the workshops that we have for this semester
and they're all on Zoom. So, we have a Zoom maker space. And that's how you would access
the workshops and so tomorrow, we have 3D modeling. So if you're interested in learning how to 3D model, which is really popular, we have a we're going to show you how to use a piece of equipment,
or not a piece of equipment, a piece of software that's free. It's web based very, very user friendly. It's called Tinkercad,
and then we're going to have some fun ones with pumpkin carving and then the mystery box is going to be really fun, where we actually have a system if you RSVP you can come to campus,
pick up the kit, and then we're going to go through the project on Zoom. So you're making it at home, but you'll be able to pick up the kit so you will be hearing more about that. And then designing a sticker and learning how to crochet. Alright, next slide?
So, you know, this semester, again, everything's online like your hearing counseling, all of that we're online as well. So the way that we've set it up is on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 2:00 to 5:00
we have a Zoom meeting open and we have student staff, as well as I'm in there, kind of, from time to time, but you'll you'll interact with the
student workers first. Another great thing about Maker Space is it's students learning from students, and it's such a great model and we're all learning together.
But you can pop on in there and I took a screenshot right there where it says "Zoom virtual maker space link," you just click that link.
And if it's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 2:00 to 5:00 we have Maker Space student workers in there
waiting to answer your questions. We have breakout rooms setup so you guys can have side conversations and they can help you with your projects.
And the other thing that I'm sorry I forgot to put on here but I'll say it now is we also have a Canvas shell that we created for Maker Space.
And so what that does is we have modules in there that show you how to use the different equipment, show you how to set up they're
organized in that, "You want to make a sticker, run through this module, it shows you how to make a sticker." And so you can do independently. The other great thing about our Canvas shell is we have
assignments that are project submissions and we've already been doing this in the semester and it's great.
If you want to 3D print something or you want to print some stickers you send the file in through the products or through the project submission assignment,
and then we will print it for you, and then we set up a time, we have appointments staggered so you can come on campus and you can pick up your projects. So it's not just virtual, you can actually make physical things which is really what Maker Space is all about.
So if you want to be enrolled in our Canvas shell just you can email us at MC Maker Space at vcccd.edu and I saw that Karla put our web page
in the chat so you can find the link to our email address right in there. And then I'll get you enrolled in there and you can poke around in the Canvas shell and get a lot more information.
And yeah, and so that's how we're formatting it for the virtual for this semester. And then my last just last slide is questions.
And so it has our Instagram on there and our motto, which is. Let's make it happen. And that's what we always say here in the maker space, you have an idea, you want to get something done, we will say, let's make it happen and,
you know, we might not know how to do it, but we're going to figure out how to do it, and we're going to do it together, because that's what Maker Space is all about.
Karla: Yes.
Thank you Clare for all that information. I love it. I'm so glad that we were able to move forward with the services for our students, virtually.
Clare: Yes, yeah.
Karla: As you may recall last year we had one of our events at the maker space.
Clare: That was awesome. We did you press tote bags. It was amazing.
Karla: Yeah. Yeah. And then we had in the other art room we had kind of distressing activity where people were just painting. So we, once we return up on campus our hope is to continue collaborating with Maker Space and participate with fun activities with MC Dreamers.
So although at this time, we don't have any questions in the Q&A, participants please feel free to drop them in the Q&A and then we'll go ahead and answer them.
Once again, Clare. Thank you so much for bringing this presentation to us.
[Clare]: You're welcome. [Karla]: Claps for you.
Alright, so we're going to go ahead and move forward and invite the Student Health Center to tell us more about what they have to offer. And I would also like to invite Niki to if you're able to show your, your video?
So people can see you and unmute your mic.
Niki Sarrafian: It. So it says a host has stopped it. So I can't start it.
Karla: Oh okay, no worries but thank you.
Niki: There we go. Okay everyone, good?
Karla: Yes, we're good.
Niki: Awesome. Okay, so. Hi, everyone. My name is Dr. Niki Sarrafian. I'm one of the postdoctoral mental health counselors at the Student Health Center.
So, as I'll tell you guys in a little bit we have two sides of us so we really function is like two big teams that work together.
And so I'm on the mental health team. I'm working with a group of like five or six other people. So we're small but mighty trying to do everything that we can. So, next slide please?
Okay, perfect. So just some information about our Student Health Center, so at the Student Health Center our goal is to really support the students in your journey.
So we want to provide student centered medical care, mental health counseling, and then of course valuable wellness resources, through our website and, you know, whenever you consult with one of us.
Just in terms of our hours because I know that's super important. So for both fall and spring our front desk staff works 8:00 to 5:00 on Mondays and Thursdays, 8:00 to 6:00 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Fridays 8:00 to 12:00.
I know that's super confusing, so you don't have to memorize all of our hours but just know that if we don't pick up, pretty much our earliest appointments are at 8:00 am,
and then for the medical side their latest appointments are 6:00 pm but they but on the mental health side we even have some evening appointments.
We typically reserve those just for students who, you know, are working or have family troubles, or whatever it may be
and can't make it like really by no means necessary to any other times, but we're totally open to like talking about having a more flexible schedule, at least on the mental health side for sure.
Just in general, just so you know the Student Health Center is closed when classes are not in session, but I mean we're, we do offer services during the summer, which is really nice. So we'll just be closed for that couple of weeks during winter break.
In terms of our location. So as everything I could bore you and tell you where we're located, but due to the pandemic most of our medical and mental health services are going to be available via Telehealth.
So we do two different ways kind of depending on comfortableness, equity, things like that. We do use a HIPAA compliant Zoom. So it's a little bit different,
just because that kind of Zoom really allows for us to keep client confidentiality, which is obviously something you want with a medical or mental health provider.
Or we can also utilize the phone. So we would call you at your number. Just in case, you know, sometimes people don't have a private space to be in, don't have internet access and so we really want to make ourselves available in whatever format that we can.
In general, appointments are required, but you can always call us to consult. So it's never necessary, you know, that you have an appointment before you call, it's just we might have to set you up with something in a couple of days.
There's two ways of contacting us. So the first one is our general email. It's MC SHC at vcccd.edu that's for general questions. So like, "Hey, I'm experiencing like these kinds of things, like do you think I should like make an appointment with mental health or medical?"
or "What are your hours?" or, you know, some people have a preference. Like, "Do you have any Spanish speaking therapists?" or something like that. We can definitely kind of answer those questions through email, and then to make an appointment it's through our phone number. So it's right there 805-378-1413.
Something I do want to kind of let you know is that our services are not a part of the academic record.
So when you're thinking about, you know, when to apply to transfer or when you're thinking about, you know, different various things that you might go through,
getting a degree, this isn't really going to show up. This is really confidential. This is really your health care.
And so we try to keep it that way. We don't share any information with like professors or anybody like that. So we're kind of separate from how like the school operates in general.
Next slide please?
Okay perfect, so as I told you guys, we do have two sides to us. So there's the medical side and the mental health side.
So of course I'm not as well versed in the medical care side, but I do know kind of who we work with and what we kind of provide. So I'll let you guys know about that.
We do work as a diverse multidisciplinary team. We have people of all ages, all ethnicities, all religious backgrounds so we really pride ourselves on that. A lot of different kinds of degrees.
So our medical care side is we have a physician on duty and we're actually getting a new one starting, I believe in a couple of months.
We have nurse practitioners and we also have registered nurses.
We do care of acute illnesses and injuries, program physicals, immunizations, so if you wanted to get like a flu shot or something of the sort we do provide that and lab work.
Something to note is that since you guys are already paying like a health fee every semester that you register for classes,
most of the services are covered under this, except for lab work or medication. So the health fee is like an access fee it doesn't cover those things, but it does cover
most of your medical services and all of your mental health services. So absolutely nothing out of mental health is out of pocket, which is really a big perk.
Just another thing that they provide on the medical side is family pact services.
So free STI testing and treatment, birth control options, exams, and of course education. So we're here to consult, but we're also here to diagnose any issues, help you get care. If you need a higher level of care, we can connect you with that, but we can be kind of like the first people you go to.
In terms of the mental health counseling. So we do have like a pretty eclectic staff. We have a licensed Psychologist, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and then as it says trainees, and what that really means is we have two Doctoral level trainees,
and one Masters level trainee. And what that means is we've all completed our degrees. So we all have all of our
all of that we just are accruing our final hours towards licensure. So, the psychologist has to supervise everybody's like notes, but isn't really involved in your therapy. So you will be with the trainee, just as you would with a regular Psychologist or MFT.
So we have a couple of different types of services in mental health counseling. We do short term individual therapy.
What that means, can be different for everyone, but really we cap it at about six sessions per academic semester.
So every time you pay that whole fee you're paying for that six sessions. So in my head, I'm like, use the free services if you can.
Some common concerns that we typically see are anxiety concerns, depression, substance use, grief, isolation, we often see people who are experiencing partner violence, relationship difficulties,
stress management, things like that. We also do a lot of work in particular to the undocumented student population and just, you know, racial and ethnic minorities, we do social injustice work, work on kind of experiencing micro-
aggressions, racial trauma, and we do a lot of work with immigration acculturation issues, things of the sort.
Something to note is that all of our services are always confidential. So what that means, again, is that we can't share any of your information with anybody else.
We can't call like professors, or parents, or anybody. So if that means, you know, immigration status if that means, you know, just mental health issues that's not something we can say.
We are bound, we do have a couple of exceptions to confidentiality, which are if you say you're a danger to yourself or someone else, or if we hear about any child abuse or elder adult abuse,
we really want to make sure to keep everyone safe, but other than that, we really try to stick to those bounds of confidentiality. We really can't do it or we will lose our licenses.
So that's a cool kind of perk of going to counseling, going to therapy with us. We also offer and this is like a new thing that the Counseling Center has never offered before, we offer group therapy. So we're currently starting two groups.
What group therapy is, it's a it's a little different. So individual therapy obviously, it's like you, your therapist. Group therapy can any can have anywhere from like six to ten participants
who are all coming in for issues with the same concern. So we have two groups, which is the Loss and Grief group and a coping with Covid group.
Our loss and grief group is really for anybody who's lost a loved one, whether it be to an illness, a sudden death, really, you know, the wide range of different reasons.
And it's nice to be in kind of that space where other people are also kind of going through the same thing.
It's both a psycho education group, so where we teach you kind of skills, but also a process group where we can just kind of talk about what's going on.
And then there's also the Covid group. So I'm sure as you guys know, a lot of us have had a lot of troubles because of the Covid pandemic.
Working at home is not easy, trying to figure out child care is not easy, things of the sort.
And so this is really a place where we can come together, process the various stressors that the pandemic has kind of presented for us, and kind of get a place to cope and learn some coping skills and really talk about everything.
And then finally we do also offer crisis services. So what our crisis services look like is for every hour that we're open we do have clinicians on duty, who are ready if the client calls in crisis.
Crisis is different for everyone. For some people, it's like, "Oh, I'm having a panic attack and I can't calm myself down."
For others it's, "Oh I'm having some suicidal thoughts and I really need to talk to someone, you know, I'm not thinking, I'm not going to do right now, but I need to talk to someone and calm myself down."
And we can definitely be a resource for both of those. So you would just call our main number and say, "I need to talk to someone right now."
And you'd be connected with someone, whether it be like pretty immediately or if not, if they're with a client, maybe like an hour or so you would have some immediate support that day. So, next slide please?
So just want to give you kind of some information on where you can find more info, more resources. So I know we talked about how we provide those resources for you.
So we do have social platforms, one is our Facebook page. The other is our Instagram, which is finding calmish.
The Instagram is more tailored towards like mental health, and it really has, you know, useful mental health information, mental health quotes, motivation things.
So things to kind of keep you going and obviously has some information about, you know, any events that were throwing, groups, things like that.
We also have mindfulness training online. So this is a project that was sponsored by the Student Health Center.
The intent is to provide an opportunity for anyone in the Moorpark community really, it's not just limited to students, but to learn simple mindfulness practices.
And mindfulness really has proven benefits for their, for lives whether it be as a student, a professor, a college administrator, or a staff person.
So I really encourage you guys to check it out if you're open to it. And there's also an online training, which is an eight week program but you definitely don't have to do it that way if you don't want to. There's also just resources and handouts on that website.
Just kind of some benefits of mindfulness in the case that you do feel hesitant but you're interested in it, so mindfulness really can help us
better concentrate, sustain our attention, and refocus and notice when our mind is wandering, which I'm sure happens to all of you, it happens to me all the time.
And then it helps us improve our working memory, which is kind of where we hold our information, whether it be towards school or just tasks we're doing.
And mindfulness also helps us emotionally balance more, makes us less judgmental of both ourselves and others. So it has a whole ton of benefits that I would encourage you to look into.
And then finally, just our website. So our website has really good information, who we are, what we provide, more detailed info about our services, especially on the medical side, but also the mental health side.
And we have different resources on there. So things about mindful movement. We have anonymous screenings for things like depression.
We have a whole info kind of section on Covid. What to do, how to get screened, when you should get screened, things like that. Really useful website. So I would encourage you to look into it if you're interested in any more.
And then next?
Okay and that is it for my presentation. I know it's short but quick, hopefully it gave you some good information about the Student Health Center.
Wanted to see if anyone had any questions or anything like that, that I can answer. I know it's hard to like clarify specific ones and I don't want to do any individual things here, but I would love to answer any general questions anyone has.
Karla: At the moment Niki we don't have any questions in the chat, but I think that you brought up a really good point that it's very important for for all students, which is, you know, you keep their records separately from the academics, so
no one really knows that you're visiting the Student Health Center and you get to talk to diverse individuals that probably can understand your experience based on your ethnic background, if anything,
so, so, yeah, you have, students you have many resources available for you at the Student Health Center. And what better way to receive those than be in a confidential and private manner.
Niki: Definitely. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. We would love to see anybody, any and all, even if it's just for a one session thing. You just want someone to talk to, for one time we can even do that.
Karla: Thank you Niki for joining us. We will let you know if we have any other questions in the chat.
Niki: Okay, thank you.
Karla: Virtual claps for you too.
Alright, so for our next first presenter, we're inviting Kristen Robinson from Student Activities
and she's going to be talking a little bit more about how to get involved. Hi, Kristen.
Kristen Robinson: Hi, Karla. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to introduce our community to the Student Activities Office. If you don't mind,
or my name is Kristen Robinson, I am the Student Activities Specialist. Essentially Student Activities is about student life. Do you mind going to the next slide please?
So the Student Activities Office exists to develop extracurricular programs and services that are intended to build upon
the things that our students are learning in the classroom or complementing some of the things that they're the experiences they're gaining to help them to develop personally, professionally, and academically. So essentially Student Activities
is responsible for developing opportunities outside the classroom for our students to get involved. And shown here on this slide, I'd say the most visible ways that or
the things that students are most familiar with that Student Activities oversees include our student government, our clubs and organizations, as well as some of the other events and activities that we host. Please go on to the next slide?
So like I mentioned, one of the most visible functions of the Student Activities Office is that it houses the Associated Students of Moorpark College, which is your officially elected student government. So each spring
students run for one of the 11 positions on the board of directors in hopes of getting to serve and represent on behalf of the broader student body. Pictured here on the slide are our students from the 2019-2020 A-S-M-C Board of Directors. Next slide please?
And this is really important because state law, so California law actually mandates
that students have the right to representation on issues affecting them, such as grading policy or curriculum, which is why we have the authority to establish a student government. So A-S-M-C exists to represent students. And this is a board. This was the
2018-2019 Associated Student Board of Directors in Washington, D.C.,. I'll get into their representation in just a moment. Next slide please?
So because representation is key in their role, advocating for students is their number one priority. So A-S-M-C advocates for students in a number of different ways. For instance, they serve on campus wide shared governance committees alongside faculty, staff, and administrators.
So they get to weigh in on the discussions that are happening at a campus level on things that impact you, such as student services, resource allocation, and curriculum. They also in the past have led letter writing campaigns to legislative representatives either
trying to compel our local like assembly members or senators to vote in a specific way that supports our students, whether it's increasing financial aid or supporting our DACA students.
And sometimes they also get to travel to either Sacramento or Washington, D.C., and meet with legislative representatives on behalf of our students. So shown here in this picture is a member of the 2018-2019
Associated Student Board of Directors Andres Ramirez Galeano outside of Senator Kamala Harris' office after they met with her legislative educational fellow, on behalf of our students.
Next slide please?
I'd say perhaps what students are more familiar with in terms of as A-S-M-C's work is their efforts to bolster student life.
And their efforts have not ceased, just because we are now in this virtual realm. In fact, pictured here are some of the marketing collateral for events that they've been able to host virtually.
And they have many more planned this semester and into the next. And so I actually strongly recommend if you're curious to see what's coming down the pipeline and how you might be able to connect with your students,
and classmates in like a fun virtual environment, be sure to follow them on Instagram at A dot S dot M dot C. And that's where they're first
going to post about anything that we have coming up, such as they have a virtual palm reading or tarot card reading event next week, which should be fun and spooky for Halloween.
Next slide please?
We also, I understand that like getting involved in student government might not be everyone's, you know, first priority. So I'm happy to report that we also have dozens of active student clubs and organizations
that continued into this school year and that are operating virtually, and if you want to see which ones are currently active, go ahead and visit the website that's listed on this slide. moorparkcollege.edu slash clubs. Next slide please?
So we have, like I mentioned, dozens of clubs and there's, I think literally something for everyone. Pictured on this slide on the top left is
a member of the Nature's Finest Club outside of our student garden. One slide over you can see the Dance Club. They were clad in ugly Christmas sweaters for a Christmas themed dance that they did.
Next to them are members of the Film Club and their advisor dressed up for Halloween. Underneath them we have our Flex Club, which is actually for fitness specialists.
Next to them to the left, we have the Business Student Association. And then the final picture there is our Engineering Club at a vex world competition. So there's
a variety of clubs to suit people's academic, or spiritual, or personal interests, but the cool thing about clubs, is that if you were to go on to that website
and you didn't see something that sparked your interest it's really easy to form a new club. You just need to find a few friends,
get a faculty or staff member who's willing to help shepherd you along the way and serve as a mentor and you can create a club. And I think that it would be a great opportunity and particularly for well, for any of our students really because
what becoming a officially recognized student organization does for you is it allows you to request funding to support some of your ideas. So like if you want to get
T-shirts for your club, or you want to go on field trips when we're able to travel again hopefully soon,
or if you want to bring in some guest speakers of your own to give virtual talks,
if you're an officially recognized student organization. You can request funds from the Associated Students to support those activities.
It's also a really great way to develop skills and you can put it on your transcript. So I recommend checking it out and get involved in a club or considering starting a new one. Next slide please?
Something else that the Student Activities Office does is implements addition like programs or development opportunities. One example is our MC LEADS Program; LEADS standing for Leadership Education and Development for Students.
This is another opportunity for students to develop skills related to cultural competence, conflict resolution, identifying their personal strengths, ethical decision making, and other important
skills for you to know as a developing leader. And so if you're interested in learning more about MC LEADS, be sure to visit. Moorparkcollege.edu slash MC LEADS our next cohort will begin in spring 2021 and it's happening virtually and be sure to check that out. Next slide please?
And so, I think that there are a lot of different reasons for students to get involved in Associated Students, or in clubs, or other
on campus engagement opportunities. The first one is, again, you can develop soft skills. So you can learn how to be an effective communicator. You can learn how to manage meetings or teams. Work collaboratively. Oversee projects or events.
So all things that will help make you a more viable candidate for future jobs or internships. They're also great place to learn about yourself, whether it's
finding or discovering a new passion because you joined like the Maker Club. I know Clare was talking about the maker space. They have a club.
So maybe it's joining the Maker Club and learning how much you love to create things
from hand or maybe it's joining the Dance Club because you want to learn some dance moves. And so it's a great way to learn about yourself.
I've already kind of mentioned this, but getting involved is a fantastic way to gain practical experience. I know when I was in college, I went to Ventura College
and I would apply for internships and they would want me to have more experience, but then I would get flustered because I needed
the job to get the experience to be a viable candidate. So it was sort of this chicken and egg situation. The good thing about getting involved in student government or clubs, is you can gain practical experience,
and have it put on your resume, but there's also this safe space to maybe make errors. So if you
are planning an event, things don't go 100% according to plan it's not like you're going to lose your job because of that, right? It's a great learning tool. So that way you can sort of hammer out
and learn those skills and experiences, so when you go to get an internship or a job you've already kind of learned how to handle those things. I also think it's a great way to develop application material, whether it's job applications or school applications. I know a lot of,
you know, a transfer applications, particularly for the UC schools will ask you questions about, you know, how you've improved your
or impacted your campus community. And so getting involved in student government or with clubs is a really great way to generate application material. It's also a good way to
generate application material for scholarship applications. I don't know if you've heard from the Scholarship Office today but Moorpark College has a scholarship office.
They award thousands of dollars each spring to students, I strongly recommend you look into applying for them. But sometimes there are scholarships that are specifically geared toward
students who have contributed to their community in some way. So being able to write about your engagement with clubs or student government gives you,
you know, additional material for that. Another reason is to develop contacts for letters of recommendation.
I've advised a few different student government boards since my time with Moorpark College and I can't tell you how many of those students have come back to me and asked me to write them letters of recommendation for internships, or scholarships, or jobs and I'm always more than happy to do it.
Because they were involved in student government, I had a chance to get to know them and I can really speak to their leadership skills, the things that I've seen that they've
developed in. So it's a really great way to establish connection. So you can go back to mentors or advisors for letters of recommendation.
And last but not least, I think one of the most important reasons to get involved in extracurriculars is because research shows that there's a direct correlation between students who get involved and
their retention in school. And so we are all about student success. And so if getting involved in organization helps you to develop community, feel like you belong at Moorpark College
that's exactly what we want. And that's another reason why I think you should consider getting involved. Next slide please?
And so that was it for my slides. I would love to be able to answer any questions that people have them if there are none at this time, our contact information for both me the Student Activities Specialist, as well as
to contact our Associated Students, you could reach out to the current board of directors their information's there as well. And with that I'll turn it back over to Karla.
Karla: Thank you Kristen. Thank you for sharing that information. I think that the main takeaways that I took from your presentation was that, you know, while advocating for all these causes that you're passionate about you also get to network with others, right? And
it's there is something for everyone available through clubs and organizations and on top of that, there are funds available for you if you would like to go on to field trips, once we return up to,
to campus or you want to participate in other projects. So thank you so much Kristen again, and to all the presenters who joined us for the
resource fair at Undocumented Student Action Week this Thursday. I thank everyone for their time. This concludes the webinar for today. Thank you.