CAMPUS DIGEST - Merced College · Farmers’ Market in lot P2 Wednesday, Dec. 5 10 a.m. – Campus...

CAMPUSDIGEST

A Merced College News Magazine Vol. VIII Edition V Published by the Office of Institutional Advancement December 2018

President Another ban-ner year for the College Page 2

Lee Counselor follows dreams to doctorate Page 4

Dr. Thomas Motivational speaker packs the MC Theater Page 6

Honoring Those That Have Served

The sixth annual Field of Honor helped ring in the Veterans Day celebration. One thousand U.S. flags were put on display to honor veterans, active-duty military members and first responders. 0

CAMPUS DIGEST DECEMBER 2018

By Chris VitelliSuperintendent/President

Similar to last D e c e m b e r ’ s Campus Digest message, I am going to high-light some of the outstanding work and ac-complishments of our District in 2018. This has been another year to celebrate at Merced College as I am sure there are many other notable ac-complishments in each of your ar-eas. I am proud of the outstand-ing work and accomplishments completed by all of you in 2018, to name just a few:

1. Successful accreditation follow-up visit—team effort and well-deserved!

2. Hosted the next Governor

of the State of California, Gavin Newsom

3. Another energetic and posi-tive start of the year with Convo-cation and Convocation Carnival

4. Completion of the 5-Year Ed-ucational Master Plan

5. Significant work on the 5-Year Strategic Implementation Plan

6. Beginning the work of the Fa-cilities Master Plan

7. Welcomed a new Vice Presi-dent of Instruction

8. Welcomed a new Foundation leader and launched several new (and successful) funding cam-paigns

9. Welcomed a new Associate Vice President of Human Re-sources.

10. Successfully launched a se-ries of guided pathways initiatives

11. Developed new “meta ma-jors” for the College

12. Completed the Los Banos

Food Forest13. Opened new Welding Pro-

gram and state-of-the-art facility in Los Banos

14. Increased campus dialogue and communication (multiple fo-rums, listening tours, and more)

15. New innovations in teaching and learning, including enhance-ments to distance education

16. Opened the Educational Technology Training Center

Merced College continues to innovate to improve instruction and services to our students. As we enter 2019, I am confident we will continue to focus on how we can meet the needs of our diverse student population, de-velop programs that close the achievement gaps, and work as a team to institute transforma-tional change for the community we serve.

Thank you for all you do. Mer-

Another Year to be Proud Of

A line of stu-dents waited patiently in the rain while ASMC finished preparing their annual Stu-dent Apprecia-tion Meal.

CAMPUS DIGESTDECEMBER 2018

December EventsMonday, Dec. 32 p.m. – Student Workshop: Surviving Finals Week in Study Central

Tuesday, Dec. 41 p.m. – Relaxation, Medita-tion & Essential Oils Work-shop in Student Union 1374 p.m. – Merced College Farmers’ Market in lot P2

Wednesday, Dec. 510 a.m. – Campus Sus-tainability Workshop in the Merced Campus Quad 11:30 a.m. – Relaxation, Meditation & Essential Oils Workshop in Student Union 1373 p.m. – Campus Sustain-ability Workshop in the Los Banos Campus Student Lounge

Thursday, Dec. 69 a.m. – Los Banos Cam-pus Blood Drive in the Quad

Friday, Dec. 77:30 p.m. – Communi-ty Performance: Merced College Concert Band at the MC Theater

Saturday, Dec. 86 p.m. – Merced College Hall of Fame Dinner at the MC Gym8 p.m. – Community Per-formance: Merced College Chorale at the MC Theater

Finals Week,Monday Dec. 10-14

Tuesday, Dec. 114 p.m. – Merced College Farmers’ Market in lot P2;

Board of Trustees Meeting

Thursday, Dec. 13TBD – MC Women’s Bas-ketball at the West Hills Tournament2 p.m. – Merced College Staff Holiday Reception in the Cafeteria

Friday, Dec. 14TBD – MC Men’s Basketball at the Delta Tournament; MC Women’s Basketball at the West Hills Tournament7:30 p.m. – Community Performance: Merced Col-lege Community Chorus at the MC Theater

Saturday, Dec. 15TBD – MC Men’s Basketball at the Delta Tournament; MC Women’s Basketball at the West Hills Tournament7:30 p.m. – Community Performance: Merced Col-lege Community Chorus at the MC Theater

Sunday, Dec. 16TBD – MC Men’s Basketball at the Delta Tournament

Tuesday, Dec. 184 p.m. – Merced College Farmers’ Market in lot P2

Wednesday, Dec. 196 p.m. – De Anza at MC

Women’s Basketball

Holiday BreakCampus Closed Dec. 24-Jan. 1

Friday, Dec. 27TBD – MC Women’s Basketball at the San Jose Tourney

Saturday, Dec. 28TBD – MC Women’s Basketball at the San Jose Tourney

Sunday, Dec. 29TBD – MC Women’s Basketball at the San Jose Tourney

Coach Scott McCall and the Merced College men’s water polo team finished fourth in the state this season. It was the team’s first trip to the state tournament since 2002.


Photo Con-tributed by Stanislaus State

Merced Col-lege coun-selor Soua Lee has had quite a journey from Laos to earning her doc-torate from Stanislaus State.

Lee’s Journey A Testament to PerseveranceNothing about Soua Lee’s

early childhood foreshadowed her life today. She holds a doc-torate from Stan State, shares a beautiful home with her husband and four children, earns a good income at a job she enjoys and is eyeing career advancement.

But 37 years ago, and nearly 8,000 miles away, Lee was born into an entirely different scenar-io, one of poverty and hardship. It took perseverance, faith in the power of education and years of encouragement from family, ed-ucators and fellow students to overcome the circumstances of her childhood and achieve the life she dreamed of.

Her story can be traced to the mountains of Laos, where years before her birth her parents were among the thousands of Hmong people fighting communism in

what is often called the Secret War of Laos during the Vietnam war in the mid-1970s. To escape persecution and likely execution, Lee’s family fled into the jun-gle and then made the difficult trek into Thailand. In 1979, they crossed the Mekong River and settled in the massive Ban Vi-nai refugee camp. Lee was born there two years later.

For the next eight years, Ban Vinai was the Lee family’s home. Sanitation and living conditions were poor in the overcrowded camp. The Thai people wanted the camp closed, and a refugee resettlement process started.

Sponsored by a church group in Nebraska, the Lee family im-migrated to Omaha. The fami-ly lived there for a few months, then moved to Fresno where some relatives had settled. With-

out being fluent in English, they found it difficult to find good jobs in America.

“My family really struggled fi-nancially for so long,” she said. “My parents worked factory jobs and other production jobs, but the work was not steady. Pay and working conditions were poor, and they had no benefits.”

A shaman and cultural musi-cian in Laos, Lee’s father regu-larly talked about the importance of education and pointed out ex-amples of well-educated people achieving success to Lee and her five brothers.

“His hopes and dreams were for his children to have good educational opportunities,” said Lee. “He was so proud of educa-tional accomplishments. He was

Continued on Page 5


my inspiration.”On weekends, Lee helped with cooking and

cleaning. During harvest season, she joined her mother working 12-hour days picking crops.

“I had to learn English quickly because my fam-ily needed me to translate,” she said.

The family moved to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area when she was a teen. Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Concordia University and a Master of Arts in Social Work from the Uni-versity of Minnesota. She also married and had three children. In 2012, her husband retired from his career in the U.S. Army and the couple de-cided to move to California, where they had both lived before, for the warmer weather and a sense of home.

It was while working as a counselor and faculty member at Modesto Junior College that she de-cided to pursue her doctorate at Stan State. She started the program in 2015, but life threw her a curve — pregnancy.

“When I found out, I just thought, ‘I can’t do this,’ and I decided to quit,” she said. Her fellow students, however, started a campaign to get her back into class.

“My classmates texted me, ‘Come one last time, you might change your mind.’ Then my professors contacted me and told me about other students who had been in the same situation,” she said.

“Everyone just kept saying that I shouldn’t quit.”She finally decided everyone was right. She

caught up on the course work she missed and con-tinued with the doctoral program. She successfully defended her dissertation in March and received her Ed.D. in May with a 4.0 GPA.

“After I defended my dissertation successfully, I called my father and said, ‘Now people can call me doctor. I completed my studies successfully,’ and he just started crying,” she said. Shortly before her hooding ceremony, however, her father lost his battle against a longtime illness. “He couldn’t come to my ceremony because he passed away, but he knew I achieved my doctorate.”

With her final degree in hand, Lee has her eye on the future. She would like to move up the ca-reer ladder of higher education leadership. For now, she is continuing in her work at Merced Col-lege, helping students plan their futures.

“Sometimes, they think I have a crystal ball or a test that will tell them what to do,” she said. But a career plan is never perfect or final. Lee encourag-es students to view their first job as an extension of their education, a place where they will learn job and people skills.

“Life is fluid and people change. Your dream job might not stay your dream job forever, and then you can make a change,” she said. “Believe in yourself.”

-- Stanislaus State Stan Magazine

LEECountinued from Page 4

People all over campus stopped by to snag a donut and con-tribute to the Foun-dation’s Giving Tuesday campaign.


Dr. Eric Thomas stared intently at the packed Merced College Theater and told the audience to write down five names of loved ones.

The nationally-re-nowned motivational speaker told the 400-plus students, staff and members of the com-munity in attendance that jotting down those names everyday would help keep them fo-cused. It would serve as a reminder of whom they were attempting to achieve their goals for and provide motiva-tion on the days where there was little to be found.

The Hip Hop Preach-er spoke for an hour as part of Merced Col-lege’s #MCHATEFREE fall speaker series, touching on subjects like privilege, opportu-nity and accountability. Thomas then signed copies of his books and posed for photos with fans that stayed behind to meet him after the show.

“Just giving them hope is the main thing, and then a blue print that it’s possible,” Thomas said. “It’s not just going to happen because you say it’s going to happen, but if you’re willing to put in the work, if you’re will-

ing to dream, you can do anything that you want to do.

“That’s the message. When you want to suc-ceed as much as you want to breathe, you’ll be successful.”

Included in the crowd were the CalWORKs department and their students, whom helped bring Thomas to the campus, most of the Merced College athlet-ics teams and the Mer-ced and Golden Valley High football teams.

Having grown up in difficult circumstances in Detroit, including a couple years spent liv-ing on the streets, and a 12-year journey to finish

his Bachelor’s degree, Thomas’ story and mes-sage resonates with a number of our students. He said that was part of the appeal of coming to Merced.

“It’s so amazing, all the people you meet,” Thomas said. “Special people all over the world that have your same background, your same values. People that are doing what you’re trying to do.

“So this was a phe-nomenal event, and I’ll be honest, it really felt like home. It reminded me of the small college I went to and I really hope it won’t be my last time back.”

Thomas Delivers Poignant Message

Dr. Eric Thomas poses with Mer-ced College staff and members of the CalWORKs program after his speaking engagement in early November. Thomas spoke to a near capaci-ty crowd at the MC Theater.


Medieval-looking construc-tions of every shape and size lined the Merced College prac-tice soccer fields on the after-noon of Wednesday, Nov. 14.

Basketballs routinely took flight as the Physics 4A class-es competed in the Physics Department’s bi-annual Siege Weapons Competition, putting their designs and skill to the test.

“We introduce the concept of the competition on the first day, and watch student interest grow from there,” Physics Pro-fessor Lana Jordan said. “They learn the kinematics necessary to make the mechanisms work, buy their own supplies, and spend a month building.”

Students earned an A for the exercise by firing a basketball 15 meters. To win the competi-tion, however, students needed to sets their goals a little high-er. The competition consisted of 65 physics students broken into groups. Once the groups are formed, they study YouTube videos and draw blueprints in an effort to find the best angles. The teams build prototypes, often trebuchets or catapults, dedicating significant time and funds toward erecting the best structures for the competition.

Student Natalie Nuñez ex-plained that the practice stages can be both humbling and en-tertaining.

“We meet for four hours, two

days a week, and we’re just trying to see what works best.” Nuñez said. “Sometimes, cata-pults break, which is awesome to watch, but it helps us to test the different methods.”

Professor Jordan agreed that troubleshooting is often the best part of watching the students compete.

“Watching them is pure joy,”

Jordan said. “They’re trying to fix things on the spot, and it gets tools in the hands of stu-dents who may not have ever built something. It really works well for everyone.”

This year’s winning team had a launch of 53 meters.

-- Alessandria Pedretti

Physics Principles Come to Life

Members of the winning team look to make an adjustment to their design during the Physics department’s bi-annual Siege Weapon Competition.


With a series of post-er boards, a number of campus maps and a whole lot of colorful stickers, the entryway to the Merced College Bookstore resembled a Candyland board gone wild.

The College and Gensler, a design and architecture company based out of San Fran-cisco, teamed up to host a Vision Session on both the Merced and Los Banos campuses on Thursday, Nov. 15. The goal was to attain vital information from students, staff, faculty, administrators and the public regarding their impressions of Mer-ced College and their hopes for its future.

It was the latest step in the College’s cre-ation of a new Facilities Master Plan.

“This is just an en-gagement activity for the students, commu-nity, faculty and staff,” Gensler Designer Syd-ney Wallace said. “It al-lows us to get a better understanding of their experience on campus. We were at Los Banos from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then Merced from 1-5 p.m. We’re kind of

getting a gauge on how much time you spend on campus, what is your commute like, as well as your favorite and least favorite plac-es on campus.”

Gensler set up eight different boards, spread across the Bookstore lobby. Each board had its own set of instructions and par-ticipants used colorful stickers to express their answers in a clear and visual way. The boards dealt with things like time spent on campus, commute, culture, ac-

tivities, the top study spots and what people thought the College was badly in need of fixing or adding.

“Because Los Banos is such a small cam-pus, they’re responses were pretty consistent and straight forward,” Wallace said. “They’re basically looking for better food and enter-tainment options.

“Merced’s campus is much more spread out, so you’re seeing a little more variety in the answers. We can see the paths that are

most commonly used, where people go when they’re on campus. And then we have the open board, where people can kind of put their wish list of where they’d like to see Mer-ced College go in the future.”

The data collected, along with the new Ed-ucational Master Plan, will be used to help the College formulate its new Facilities Master Plan, plotting a course for the campus facili-ties over the next five years.

Facilities Master Plan Takes a Big Step

Merced College student DeShaun Allison looks over one of the Gesler boards during a recent Vision Session for the Facilities Master Plan held in the Bookstore lobby.


Celrebrating the 40th Anniversary

of the Year of Champs


The Adult Education & Non-credit Program, previously known as Continuing Education, offers close to 100 noncredit sec-tions each semester at over 20 sites throughout Merced County and the surrounding area. Our noncredit courses are as the title suggests – community college courses with no credit associat-ed to them, which means free tuition to our students. Students 18 and over who enroll in non-credit courses do not receive grades, can repeat the course as many times as needed, and benefit from a stress-free envi-ronment. Course offerings range from ESL and basic skills cours-es to Sewing and Mature Driver courses.

Please make sure to pick up a copy of our Horizons Schedule

of Classes to learn more about us and help us spread the word to our community. If you live within our service area, please look out for our brochure in your residential mailbox in January. Copies will also be available in our Program Office, which is lo-

cated at the Downtown Business Resource Center (BRC). A digi-tal copy is also available on our website (http://www.mccd.edu/offices/noncredit/schedule.html).

On behalf of the Adult Educa-tion & Noncredit family, we wish you a happy Holiday season!

Adult Education & Noncredit on the Horizon

Merced College proudly partnered with the Merced Sunrise Rotary Club to host the sixth annual Field of Hon-or on the Merced College front lawn from Nov. 11-17.

One thousand U.S. flags were put on display to honor veterans, ac-tive-duty military members and first responders from the area and beyond.

The breathtaking visual display continues to grow each year, serving as a source of community pride and a reminder of the commitment and sac-rifices made in order to ensure our country’s freedoms.

People Flock to Field of Honor

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