The ending of the school year always brings much excitement and busy schedules. On May 3rd, the week before commencement, over 650 people crowding the Gil Bishop Sports Center to honor our students receiving scholarship and leadership awards. This year we awarded nearly 500 students over $400,000.
For an hour before the program began the scholarship recipients were able to meet and mingle with the donors of their various awards. An incredible dessert buffet was served by Chef Alex Gomez and his staff.
SGA President, Danitza Romo
The program included a reflection given by the SGA President, Danitza Romo; the Scholarship Honor Roll read by Primavera Arvizu, Financial Aid Director; Department Awards presented by Mike Stepanovich; and various leadership awards including President’s Scholar and Honor Graduate Awards. Many proud parents, friends, extended family and mentors applauded this year’s group of very deserving students.
Lisa Kent and Hannah Egland
A big thank you to Hannah Egland who has coordinated this event for many years and is taking a hiatus from her position at the foundation to raise her family.
Thank you, Primavera, Shona, and the entire Financial Aid staff – they all work so hard coordinating all scholarship committees to ensure as many scholarships as possible are awarded. This process takes a few months – they start in February and go right up till this week. They also work the evening of the event checking everyone in and matching up the recipients with their respective donors (if present).
Tom Moran – donates his time and services to be the event photographer. Takes photos especially of all department award winners and leadership award winners. Here is the link to Tom Moran’s photo gallery of the event: http://tinyurl.com/ljysbhv.
I have downloaded a few for this blog.
Cindee Bart – our sign language interpreter. Thank you.
Tarina Perry & M&O staff – for coordination of facilities and set-up. Thank you.
And here is Carol Stepanovich who enjoyed the evening immensely with Mike and the two students scholars. Carol, it was a joy knowing you.
Carol and Mike Stepanovich with their two student scholars
Rudy Strong, the recipient of hte Grace Van Dyke Leadership award, with Sonya Christian
Here is an email from Annette Russ, one of our students from the 99th graduating class:
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 4:10 PM To: Amber Chiang Subject: Graduation Spring 2013
Hello Ms. Chiang,
I just wanted to give the college a huge shout out for last Friday’s graduation. I graduated from a college in northern California about 27 years ago, and have gone back to further my education. I was one of the fortunate graduates of the 99 TH graduating class and I must say it was amazing. I felt so proud of Bakersfield college in how they preform their ceremony. The instructors who were giving high fives and hugs as we walked out was truly the best part. I really felt that they cared for me, even though many did not know me. I felt they all were proud of us and that is awesome.
As part of our recently re-established priority of high school outreach, BC invited high school students and their families to come to campus on April 27th and register for summer and fall classes. The day started with students lining up at 7:00 a.m. when we were just getting set up for a 9:00 a.m. opening.
This was definitely a good problem to have. In order to keep this young crowd and their parents entertained, the BC Cheerleaders went to work. Check out their performance:
The campus had a carnival feel to it and I enjoyed listening to the radio station broadcasting from campus, smelling the great food prepared by our students and Chef Gomez, and listening to the excited conversations of students.
It took several individuals from all over campus to make this happen. The photos posted at the end of this blog will give you a sense of the employee turn out.
One of the key organizers of this event was Isabel Castaneda. Her attention to details was truly remarkable. Just today, she sent me an email giving me details of the day.
Let’s hear from Isabel:
Wow! What an exciting and satisfying experience, to see my vision of Registration Rocks come live. I was invited to attend an HS outreach meeting approximately four weeks ago by my supervisor Primavera Arvizu, the discussion was “how to increase enrollment” and possibly bringing back RegiFest. I was working with Primavera on a High School Financial Aid event, at this meeting I was asked to share my idea with the group, next thing I know I’m assigned as lead for this project! Yikes! I had not done an event since my days in the Outreach Department as a student ambassador!
The day of the event started off on adrenaline and ended that way. I arrived on campus at 7:30 and the line for Assessment testing almost reached the gym stairs. Students were eager to get things done! By 8:30 there was a line of approximately 100+ students waiting to get direction. Once 9:00 hit the staff quickly and efficiently screened students waiting in line to the appropriate department. At about 9:15am the BC cheerleaders performed two cheers for students waiting to be helped. I think this really helped set the tone for the remaining of the event, students and staff needed that extra cheer to help start off their day. STEM students assisted throughout the day with registration and campus tours!
The office of Financial Aid processed 82 Board of Governors fee waivers, assisted 60 students with new FAFSA application and FAFSA correction. The Office of Financial Aid also had an informational booth with a fun wheel of prizes!
Students: Counseling office had 208 students dropped in for individual counseling/advising appointments an 171 were seen. 52 students attended the New Student Counseling Workshop. It is hard to say how many did the online orientation.
Admission and Records/Assessment: 173 admission forms were submitted during the event. 240 students were assessed. And from 8 a.m. on Friday, through Sunday at 11 a.m., 1,203 students registered for fall and 660 registered for summer. ALL A&R and Assessment Dept staff participated during the event
Below is listed the number of students who had at least one enrollment between April 27, 2013 and April 29, 013, along with the total number of enrollments they added during that time period. At the bottom is an approximate comparison to this same time period last year.
Summer 2013
Students with at least one Enrollment during the time frame: 640
Total Enrollments added during the time frame: 801 (162 were waitlisted enrollments)
Total students who are only in a waitlisted enrollment: 112
Fall 2013
Students with at least one Enrollment during the time frame: 1,436
Total Enrollments added during the time frame: 3,130 (797 were waitlisted enrollments)
Total students who are only in a waitlisted enrollment: 220
Summer 2012
Students with at least one Enrollment during the time frame: 332
Total Enrollments added during the time frame: 443
Fall 2012
Students with at least one Enrollment during the time frame: 1,336
Total Enrollments added during the time frame: 3,011
A special thanks to the Registration Rocks committee members: Leah Carter, JoAnn Acosta, Vanessa Bell, Sue Vaughn, Sue Granger-Dickson, Primavera Arivizu, Todd Coston, Isabel Castaneda, Vikki Coffee, Danitza Romo, Amber Chiang, Food Service Department, Lisa Kent, Rudy Gutierrez, Vanessa Johnson, Student Activities, STEM students.
Saturday, May 4th, afternoon Nan and I hurried 14.8 miles from BC to the St John’s Lutheran Church to watch Ron Kean conduct his farewell concert. The same evening at 11:19 I got an email from Nan for my blog.
Let’s hear from Nan:
Dr. Ron Kean conducted his farewell concert, The Melody of Peace. The two major selections performed by the choir and chamber signers were Requiem by Mozart and his own composition, American Mass. For this performance, the Bakersfield College Choir and Chamber Signers were made up of current students, alumnae and family, including Dr. Kean’s wife Peggy , two daughters, Hannah and Sara and BC math instructor, Rick Brantley. Over the years Dr. Kean has developed countless singers and conducted many performances. Today was a capstone performance. The music was magnificent and the audience made up of community members, former students, BC colleagues and friends gave Dr. Kean and the singers several standing ovations.
The last musical selection was an Irish blessing. In that vein, as you start off on this new life journey Dr. Kean, May the wind always be at your back .
