Leadership Update
Dear MiraCosta College Community,
As we wrap up another academic year, I want to take a moment to express my deep appreciation for all of the hard work, dedication, and leadership that you have shown over the past year. Your commitment to excellence and your tireless efforts to serve our students and our community have made a tremendous difference, and I am truly grateful for all that you do.
This year has been especially noteworthy in that we have made history by recognizing our Associate Faculty for the first time at MCC. This is a momentous achievement that would not have been possible without the efforts of many colleagues across our campus community. I want to take this opportunity to recognize and thank all of the members of the Faculty Award Committee, the MCCAAF leadership team, our HR leadership and staff, and all of the other faculty and staff who worked tirelessly to make this happen. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and are truly appreciated.
As we head into the summer months, I would like to remind you all about our upcoming May 19th event, where the Academic Senate will be inviting all faculty to celebrate and recognize your hard work and achievements. Please RSVP and plan to join us; This is our chance to come together as a community and celebrate all that we have accomplished this year.
Once again, thank you all for your incredible dedication and hard work this academic year. I am honored to work alongside each and every one of you, and I look forward to another successful year ahead.
Warm regards,
Leila Safaralian
Academic Senate President
Email: lsafaralian@miracosta.edu
Website: miracosta.edu/governance/academic-senate
Who's Who On Campus: Q&A with Luis De Luna
The Academic Newsletter team had a chance to get to know DREAM Scholar Luis De Luna.
How did your experience at MiraCosta College differ from previous educational experiences?
MiraCosta is different because of its staff and of its intimacy. In all of my classes, it was evident that the professors and the faculty took more time with their material and cared more about the student's learning experience. At all steps along my journey, I had always felt that my educators had my back should I ever needed it. I do feel that this unique feeling is very hard to find anywhere else.
What resources and support did MiraCosta provide that were of most benefit to you?
What really made the difference in my case was the library. The environment, its helpful librarians, study rooms, and everything else that I enjoyed in that space. I became very comfortable inside the library and would say that it cultivates learning very well. Another useful resource was the health services. Not only are the services wonderful and useful, but I also believe that MiraCosta does a wonderful job in promoting physical and mental wellness. I think that everybody should enjoy this privilege.
Can you share with us any future plans or events that you are particularly excited about and why?
I am particularly excited to begin a year-long internship doing research. I feel this way because it feels like the first step in the right direction towards my goal of becoming a scientist. I shall finally know what it feels like to be a part of that community and step deep into places that remove me from my comfort zone.
What do you do to recharge and stay motivated? In other words, what do you do for fun?
I enjoy learning to cook and staying up late listening to music. Recently my dog has reached adolescence and it has actually been very fun watching his personality and mannerisms develop. I suppose it is a very fatherlike thing for me to watch and I love it.
Bring the Joy -- Welcome New Incoming Joyful Teacher Jim Sullivan
What inspired the creation of the "Joyful Teacher in Residence" position at MiraCosta College?
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away the Academic Senate organized an event called Project Joy designed to bring faculty together for a day focused on sharing ideas about teaching and ways we could keep ourselves and our college community focused on teaching and learning as the heart of our mission. During that day, faculty suggested designating one among us to share the force of playful, engaged, and hopeful teaching in our MiraCosta community.
In your opinion, why is it important to prioritize joy and positivity in the teaching profession?
I think joy is a tough sell right now.
Coming off a pandemic and its consequent enrollment crisis, we are all under a lot of pressure to help a generation of students who quite rightly have come to question the nature and value of education in a rapidly changing world.
In these contexts, students and faculty alike are trying to figure out the best ways to learn and, even more fundamentally, what an empowering and liberatory education looks like.
That process feels daunting, especially if we think of "joy" as meaning don't worry be happy.
I think we need to worry, but I also think we can find joy in collaboration, dialogical learning, play, radical re-imagination, and building a new community of teachers and learners from the ground up.
Can you discuss any specific initiatives or projects that the "Joyful Teacher in Residence" will be embarking on in the Fall 2023?
Only in a broad sense --. I am not actually on the clock yet. Sean Davis is our current instigator in chief. And he has done important and valuable work in an incredibly difficult time. I will be working first and foremost to build on what he has started.
But I can say we will 1) have the C3 up and running, 2) regularly collect and share ideas from the various professional development our colleagues lead, 3) build up organically from collaborative activities like our recent Building Agency Through Human Connection event and the Light the Fire! programs Thao Ha led last June and Sean Davis and Aaron Roberts will lead this June, and 4) bring more student voices into the conversation about teaching and learning at the college..
How will the "Joyful Teacher in Residence" position support the professional development of faculty?
For me this always comes back to the three Cs. We want to celebrate the cool work people re doing it by featuring it in workshops and campus wide messages and activities. We want to connect with each other as often as possible and in as many ways, places, and mediums as possible, and we want to cultivate the best ideas that emerge from these moments of collaboration and dialogue and build an authentic sense of shared purpose from the ground up.
What impact do you hope the "Joyful Teacher in Residence" position will have on MiraCosta College students?
This is my favorite of all of your good questions!
When faculty celebrate, connect, and cultivate teaching and learning, they bring that energy to classrooms that empower student agency. That is ultimately what professional development is all about.
But I also think we need to do much more to bring students in as partners and collaborators in the work of crafting a community of teachers and learners at MiraCosta.
I hope to spend some time in the coming year, regularly meeting with groups of students to hear their thoughts about what makes great and inspiring teaching and how they think we should be re-imagining higher education.
And then I hope to share those ideas with my faculty and classified professional colleagues so that we can incorporate our students' ideas and perspectives into our vision for higher education at MiraCosta.
New Program for Former Foster Youth: NextUp
MiraCosta's EOPS program has received NextUp funds to provide a combination of support services and direct aid to current and former foster youth. MiraCosta College was one of the many community colleges in California to receive this funding due to the Chancellor's Office plans to scale the NextUp program to every college across the System. Program structure and development is currently underway.
NextUp Program eligibility criteria:
- Be a current or former foster youth in California whose dependency was established or continued by a court of competent jurisdiction, including a tribal court, on or after the youth's 13th birthday. A student is eligible to enroll in the NextUp program and shall receive NextUp services as long as they are physically present in California when enrolling and receiving program services, even if their dependency status was established outside of California.
- Be no older than 25 years of age at the commencement of any academic year in which the student first enrolls in the program.
- Enrolled in at least nine units, however, students enrolled in fewer than nine units may be accepted into the program if enrollment is part of an education plan designed to move the student toward subsequent enrollment in at least nine units.
For additional information, feel free to contact Yesenia Balcazar, EOPS Faculty Director at ybalcazar@miracosta.edu.
Salary Advancement Committee
We have concluded our meetings for the year and have passed the salary advancement applications for approval to the Academic Senate and to the Board of Trustees/Superintendent. If you’ve been approved for Salary Advancement for the ’23-’24 academic year, be sure to get your notice of advancement intent to HR by May 15, and your official transcripts to HR by September 15. Information about both of these can be found in the Salary Advancement Handbook.
Out next salary advancement deadline is October 1, 2023, and March 1, 2024 for the ‘24-‘25 academic year. Also, keep a look out for a Fall FLEX workshop about salary advancement, an online submission application process, and an approved list of courses from the past few years. As always, please reach out to the Chair, Donny Munshower, with any questions or concerns! We’re here to help you advance!
Phi Theta Kappa
The Five Star, Alpha Chi Lambda chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at MiraCosta College recently received several awards at the Regional (CA/NV) Conference as well as the National Convention (Catalyst). At the regional conference, the team was awarded with the "Chapter's United - Transformative Networking" for their Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship Workshop, and the "Community Project" for their collaborative work on the Brother Beno's Clothing Drive. In addition, the team won the "2nd Most Distinguished Chapter Leadership" award and the "3rd Most Distinguished Chapter Officer Team Award". Rounding out the awards were their first place wins with the "Honors in Action Project Award" at the Regional level and the "Distinguished Honors in Action" award at the National level.
Please join us in congratulating these amazing students and officers including Laura Davis, Co-President; Hayat Sherif, Co-President; Honors in Action (HIA) Coordinator, Nathaniel Cuaresma and HIA Committee Member, Jasslyn Bates; VP of Service, Gabriel Bartoli; VP of Scholarship, Barry Akers; VP of Public Relations, Sheeva Davari; VP of Records, Jason Wang; VP of Finance, Stephanie Torres; VP of Fellowship, Inayah Abdulmateen; and College Project Co-Coordinators, Carlos Rodriguez Dominguez and Fadhil Al Salihi. Other PTK members who were instrumental in the Brother Beno's project included William Collins and Marina Arellano. A special thank you to English faculty member, Daniel Ante-Contreras for his guidance with the HIA project.
