September 2022

Vol. 9

Students Return for Fall Semester, Bringing Campus to Life

The Bakersfield College campus has come back to life after the pandemic and students are back in full force!  In fact, enrollment has increased 12 percent compared to last year and the numbers are almost back to those of Fall 2019 which was a watermark year.

As more Measure J projects are reaching completion, construction fencing is coming down and the view is remarkable!  The brand-new Science & Engineering Building is a favorite on campus.  The three-story, 71,000 sq. ft. building is evidence of the college’s commitment to STEM and ensuring students have access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to prepare them for the jobs of the future.

A ribbon-cutting for the new building is set for 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, September 7. The community is invited to come to campus to see what the excitement is all about!

The Administration Services Building, formerly the bookstore and located next to the Campus Center, was gutted and the renovation is now complete. The building houses several different departments, including Human Resources, Marketing, College Safety, Scheduling, and the Student Health & Wellness Center.

The new Welcome Center (formerly the administration building near the northwest corner of campus) will soon be complete.  The completely remodeled building will provide a one-stop shop for students who need to visit Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, Business Services, and Outreach (where students can meet with advisors).

All these campus improvements are coming to Bakersfield College thanks to Measure J and the support the community showed Bakersfield College in 2016.  The students and employees of BC thank you!

If you would like to visit campus and take a look at the transformation, be sure to attend the September 7th Science & Engineering Ribbon Cutting, or the October 15^th Renegade Promenade, or simply call the BC Foundation and schedule a special visit!

From the Executive Director

Dear Friends of BC,

We’re just a few weeks into the fall semester at Bakersfield College, and the energy is simply unbelievable!  Our enrollment is up more than 12 percent and we’re offering nearly 70 percent of our classes in person.  The result is students, lots of students, on campus!  They are enjoying the new Science & Engineering Building, the new Dining Commons, and the new Campus Center where Student Life and the Student Government Association are based.

We’ve been excited to bring our supporters up to campus for quite some time, but the pandemic forced us to delay our invitation.  Finally, the time has come!  

Your opportunity to experience the “new,” post-Measure J Bakersfield College campus is just around the corner! The entire community is invited up to the Panorama Drive campus on Saturday, October 15^th when we’ll hold our inaugural Renegade Promenade: Alumni, Family, & Friends Day at BC!

Alums from across the decades, current students, future Renegades, and friends of BC will all be on campus where they can tour the new buildings, participate in fun hosted by BC’s sports teams, and learn about the innovative programming available to our students.  You can check out the Dining Commons where we’ll have lots of great dishes available for sale.  Oh…and if you’re thirsty (and over 21, of course), you might want to check out the beer and wine garden in the Quad!

Some of the other activities will include:

• Two free shows in the BC Planetarium
• A bake sale by the culinary crew (not your typical cookie sale!)
• Performing arts vignettes around campus (think jazz musicians, singers, and more!)
• Activities on the BC Farm (and even the BC Rodeo team will be out!)

The event kicks off at 11:00 a.m. and will wrap up with a concert by Mento Buru in the quad starting at 2:00!

If you’d like information about sponsoring this exciting inaugural event, please visit this link: Renegade Promenade

I hope to see you on October 15^th!

Cheryl

Major Gift Will Fund New Carbon Management Institute

California Resources Corporation recently presented the Kern Community College District with a $1.94 million donation which will create the CRC Carbon Management Institute. As Chancellor Sonya Christian said, this gift will help Kern CCD’s colleges prepare our future workforce by “bringing the worker, educator, and employer together from the very start.”

Spotlight On The Renegade Room

Did you know there is a restaurant on the Bakersfield College Campus that offers the community a fine dining experience?  The Renegade Room is a public restaurant that has been operating every semester since 1970!  Students in BC’s culinary program operate the restaurant, which provides a terrific learning space for the culinary arts.

Students learn about baking, food production, nutrition, cost control, supervision and management, dining room services, and food service safety and sanitation practices.  These skills are then applied to the hands-on training experiences in the Kitchen and Dining Room Lab stations.  This unique experience prepares students with real-world practices they can take directly into the hospitality industry.

The Renegade Room offers Tuesday Night Fine Dining (5:30-6:30 pm), Wednesday Lunch (11:15 am- 12:30 pm), and a Thursday Night Buffet service (5:30-6:30 pm).  They also offer takeout orders!

Contact the Renegade Room for more information, directions, or reservations at (661) 395-4441.

The updated menu will be released in mid-September.  Menu Link: Renegade Room Menu

Tables fill up quickly!  Be sure to make your reservations on OpenTable here: Make a Reservation

“Introduce a Girl to Engineering”
Event hosted by the Bakersfield College Math, Engineering and Science Achievement Program (BC-MESA)

By Dolores Salgado

The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC-CA) was interested in sponsoring events throughout California that would promote the field of engineering to female students, and ultimately increase the number of women entering engineering careers to meet the demand of our industry.  As Chair of ACEC-CA DEI committee, I contacted the Director of the BC-MESA Program, Consuelo Gonzalez to share this concept.  Connie embraced the concept! “We will target our feeder schools, such as South High, Bakersfield High School, West High, and other high schools whose students are most likely to choose Bakersfield College following graduation,” Connie said. Connie has a degree in Chemical Engineering and has established great partnerships and relationships with the engineering industry in Kern County and with the BC-MESA students.  She is a MESA alumna and started her engineering career in Bakersfield working for the oil and gas industry.  Once she accepted the position at Bakersfield College, she has not looked back since!  BC-MESA is dedicated to developing a new generation of leaders in STEM within the Bakersfield community. The MESA program fuels diversity by propelling historically underrepresented groups toward STEM degrees and professional careers.  At least 60% of BC-STEM students qualify for MESA because they receive Financial Aid. 

Eighty 9^th and 10^th grade girls, representing 10 local high schools, attended the event.  The students were highly engaged as they listened to a diverse panel of women engineers that shared their education and career journeys.  The girls were inspired to pursue these careers despite the pitfalls along the way.  Our industry needs the creativity, personality, and skills that are unique to women.

The event included a marshmallow STEM competition where students divided up into teams and were challenged to design and build the tallest structure.  Based on the student’s feedback, this activity was most enjoyable.  The students received prizes, such as gift cards and Bluetooth speakers, and 10 lucky students received $100 cash as a lottery giveaway!  Each student received a t-shirt with the amazing IGE logo created by a BC-MESA student, Megan Mccullah, and a goodie bag filled with SWAG.

The afternoon speakers’ panel was comprised of the BC-outreach team and STEM faculty.  Connie shared how the BC-MESA program will prepare them for long-term success in the STEM career of their choice!

In the end, students were motivated and excited about pursuing careers in engineering. Our committee is looking forward to next year’s “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event at Bakersfield College.  To support the BC-MESA Program, visit the Bakersfield College Foundation’s Website and select the MESA Program. Donate Now

Save the Date
15th Annual Sterling Silver

Mark your calendar for the Bakersfield College Foundation’s 15^th Annual Sterling Silver, set for Saturday, March 25, 2023, on campus, in the Renegade Ballroom.  Each year the Foundation recognizes some of its most loyal supporters and philanthropists whose commitment to education creates life-changing opportunities for students. 

For sponsorship or ticket information, visit this link: Sterling Silver 2023  

Scholarship Donors Help Bring Students’ Dreams to Fruition

Have you ever wondered how you can help a student achieve their dream of a college education?

Scholarship season is upon us, and now is the perfect time to consider establishing a scholarship at Bakersfield College!  The scholarship application process for students opens on October 1, which allows just enough time for us to help you get something established. 

Maybe you’d like to honor a loved one with a scholarship in their name; or maybe you would like to help students who come from a background similar to yours; or maybe you want to help students who are studying programs that will eventually make them valuable employees for your own business. 

Whatever your motivation, you can create a scholarship fund with as little as $300 (for non-endowed funds) or $3,000 (for endowed funds).

Because of our generous scholarship donors, 620 students have been awarded scholarships this academic year, adding up to more than $560,000!  With your help, we can help even more students next year!

If you’d like to learn more, contact Alyssa Cross at the BC Foundation office, (661) 395-4800, or email alyssa.cross@bakersfieldcollege.edu.

New BC Alumni Association Logo & Member Benefits

The Bakersfield College Alumni Association (BCAA) is proud to unveil its new logo! The BCAA Board of Directors are excited to share the new Association branding with the community—especially now that membership is FREE! If you attended BC, regardless of when and regardless of the number of classes, please consider joining the Alumni Association by following this link: Join The Alumni Association.

New Benefits of Joining the Alumni Association:

• An online subscription to the Foundation newsletter, PANORAMA
• Renegade football season ticket purchasing priority
• FREE Admission to 10 regular season Bakersfield College athletic competitions** (Excluding football games. Punch card will be included in your welcome letter, must be presented to be redeemed.)
• FREE soda at Renegade concession stands at Home Football games with any purchase
• Modified borrowing privileges at the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library
• 10% off your meal at The Renegade Room Restaurant
• Early notification of Alumni Association & Foundation sponsored events

Meet Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee NaTesha “T” Johnson

By Steven Watkin, July 2022

It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces in the room at Bakersfield College’s Alumni Hall of Fame event.

As the Executive Director of Outreach and Early College, Bakersfield College is dear to my heart and so is the success of our students. Watching students grow and supporting them as they develop their skills and talents is one of the greatest joys of my lifelong career… and that’s because students are empowered to go on to do great things.  They give back, serve their community, care for their families, and do good for others in new and innovative ways.

I was thrilled to see NaTesha “T” Johnson’s induction in the Bakersfield College Hall of Fame because she is a shining example of what it means to be a graduate from the community’s college.

It’s easy to overlook how critical the work of someone like T is. She describes herself as a community connector but be sure there’s a lot more to what she does than just making introductions. She inspires people to step up, step forward, and get involved with things in order to give back to others and build a better community. She runs programs for youth that involve them in volunteerism and serves on many community boards. She is not afraid to spearhead fundraising efforts for important causes and is also leading BC’s Launchpad, an entrepreneur and small business lab where those with ideas can find the resources and support to make them a reality.

T works behind the scenes to bring ideas and goals to fruition as she has recently done in advocating for a DEI position in Kern County while also encouraging more support for our community’s Black and minority-owned businesses. In fact, T is a champion of Black business owners and since the pandemic, when 40 percent of Black-owned businesses failed, she has been on a mission to develop better support for these entrepreneurs. Having identified that many Black and minority business owners lack banking relationships and access to capital, she is part of a local effort to spur those relationships.

In her remarks at the Hall of Fame dinner, T thanked her mother for keeping her busy in her youth; busy doing work to help others. She thanked the women she could look up to; the ones doing phenomenal things that also looked like her. She called these trailblazers “warrior women” and credits these women as the role models of hard work, laughter, and love.

T has a golden heart for her community, one focused on young people, acting in kindness, giving of her time and energy for the betterment of others, and one rooted in being inspired by those around her. T will tell you, “one of the most beautiful gifts in the world is encouragement,” and I hope she knows just how much she is encouraging and inspiring all of us blessed to know her.

This is what makes the Renegade community and Bakersfield at large so great. It is the collective impact of our graduates; the ones like T who take what they learn and go out to do wonderful, hard, impossible, and noble work… making our world a better place.

Panorama Feature: Your BC Story

In every issue of PANORAMA we highlight proud BC alums. You can share “Your Story” in our next issue of PANORAMA.

Rosalie Stilwell – Class of 1991

My Dream Beginning!

It was a long time coming and began at age fifty-five. I had married at 16 and had not completed high school. It was quiet at the house, with only my husband and me there. Our 4 children were married and had started their families. I missed all the noise and fun. After dressmaking for over 20 years, I wanted to spend time with children. I decided to become an aide in a classroom. I could not do this without a diploma.

I enrolled in Bakersfield Adult School and loved learning! Then a thought entered my mind! I could be an aide for the next 5 years OR I could go to college for five years and fulfill a lifetime dream. My desire was to be a kindergarten teacher.

My daughter was already at Bakersfield College, and I persuaded my sister to start there also. It was the real beginning. I loved my time there and had some amazing teachers! The classes were hard, especially algebra. It had been almost 40 years since I had used it. With the help of a tutor, I passed the class with a B.

There was one thing I found out about myself. I loved to write! I will tell you about this a little later. I graduated from BC two and a half years later, together with my daughter and sister. What a day that was!

My dream continued at CSUB where I graduated at the age of 60, with my BA and teaching credential. READY TO
GO! I taught kindergarten for 10 years.

Back to loving to write! At 88 I just wrote my first book, and it is published on Amazon. The title is My Journey to Kindergarten. It is never too late to complete your education and fulfill your DREAM.

Homecoming Week Calendar

BC Foundation 2021/2022 Financials at a Glance