In This Issue - College of...

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In This Issue • CoA President’s Corner: Positive Beginnings • CoA Bookstore to Close for Remodel • Breaking Barriers Lecture to Feature Pamela Cox-Otto, 3/9 • Nehanda Imara Shines Spotlight on Environmental Racism • ATLAS Warehouse and Forklift Operations Internship • New Partnership with Tesla Motors Announced • Local 34 Winter Career Fair – Port of San Francisco • CoA Student Photo a Winner • CoA Professor Practices “Street Spirit” in Oakland • Community Gathers at Perforce to Plan Innovation Studio

CoA President’s Corner We have started this semester with several positive beginnings! Below are highlights of campus happenings: Blueprint for Excellence- We are on track with responding to the accreditation recommendations. The writing teams are underway and the first drafts are being submitted this week. Our goal is to have a final draft before the end of May. Thank you for all of your cooperation and commitment to moving toward Excellence! Education Master Planning- The District has hired the Collaborative Brain Trust (CBT) to guide the revision of our education master planning process. We will hold a forum mid-March to review internal and external data that will inform the process. This will be a campus-wide effort and will require the participation of the campus community. Specific dates will be sent out in an email. Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI)- The Partnership Resource Team will be returning to campus to provide their observations and recommendations from the first visit. The team will be on campus March 16, 2016. It is an open forum and will provide the campus with an opportunity to engage in dialogue on strategies to better serve our students. Faculty Sabbatical Projects- Let's give a shout-out to Robert Brehm and Matthew Goldstein on being recommended for 2016-2017 sabbatical leaves (pending Board approval). Their proposals were exciting and will help us get that much closer to excellence. Matthew will be developing the Humanities curriculum and Robert will be creating a faculty toolkit that supports our professional development efforts. Kudos!



CoA Book Club “Pages for Change”- An email will be sent out to the campus community with the summaries of recommended books for our book of the year. Every vote counts. Make sure you are counted! The selection will be announced at the grand re-opening of the bookstore in April. Joi Lin Blake, Ed.D. President, College of Alameda

CoA Bookstore to Close for Remodel A fresh new look is coming to the CoA Bookstore! The Bookstore will be closed from March 18 – March 30 for remodeling. Please urge your students to buy their textbooks and supplies today, to make sure they’re ready for their classes. Don’t forget to stock up on snacks and logo-wear too. The grand reopening will be in April, date TBA. Stay tuned for details. Questions? Contact the Bookstore staff at [email protected] Article & graphic submitted by Mindy Sandhu

Breaking Barriers Lecture Series to Feature Pamela Cox-Otto Please join us and bring your students to the next event in the Breaking Barrier Lecture Series featuring Dr. Pamela Cox-Otto on Wednesday, March 9 from 12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the Pit, Building F. Dr. Cox-Otto is a cross-generational communications specialist. Part Steve Jobs, part Robin Williams, she brings an outside-the-box flair to everything she touches. She has been developing communications strategies for 20 years, infusing everything from branding to political campaigns with her unique, often humorous, tenor. Pam could be described as a “community college whisperer,” using her experience and knack for finding patterns to breathe new life into two-year college marketing campaigns. Pam is a founding partner and CEO of Interact Communications.

Nehanda Imara Shines Spotlight on Environmental Racism On Monday, February 29, CoA presented its final event of Black History Month. Environmental justice advocate and Merritt College instructor Nehanda Imara presented on environmental racism and environmental justice. The theme of her talk was “No Bridge Over Poisoned Water: The Fight for Environmental Justice: It’s Bigger Than Flint.” Imara began by defining environmental racism as “the social injustice represented by the disproportionately large number of health and environmental risks cast upon peoples of color in the communities in which they live. These communities are the most common victims of toxic landfills, waste incinerators, industrial dumping, uranium mining, and other environmentally-detrimental activities.” She noted, “As a practice-- whether purposeful or unintended-- it is often reinforced by government, legal, economic, political, and military institutions, because it occurs simultaneously with other racial inequities-- high poverty rate, deteriorating housing and infrastructure, economic disinvestment, inadequate schools, acute unemployment, and poor or inaccessible medical services.”



She cited multiple examples from our own back yard – pesticides used in strawberry fields near schools in Santa Cruz, Chevron in Richmond, a current proposal to move coal through the Port of Oakland. She also spoke about her heroes who laid the groundwork for the field of environmental justice – W.E. DuBois, Robert Bullard, and others. Then, she recounted the story of Flint, Michigan, a predominantly black city of nearly 100,000 residents. The governor’s passing of the Emergency Management law in 2011 began a cascade of missteps and gross negligence by city leaders that led to a crisis: The public water supply in Flint, Michigan was so bad, so toxic, so dangerous, that tests confirmed it had over 900 times the EPA limit for lead particles. Everyone knew the Flint River was polluted; GM had been dumping into it for years. To say that the predominantly white state government failed to take this problem seriously in a timely manner is a gross understatement; the city was basically left on its own for more than a year. In closing, Imara shared the text of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” – as timely today as it was in 1972 – and her own rendition of the Simon & Garfunkel classic, which she called “No Bridge Over Poisoned Water.” Pictured: Nehanda Imara. Article by Jennifer Owen-Blackmon. Photo by Randolph Belle. Definition of environmental racism courtesy of WEACT, an Environmental Justice Organization in Harlem

ATLAS Warehouse and Forklift Operations Internship ATLAS students from the Warehouse and Forklift Operations fall 2015 cohort participated in a spring pilot program with the District Office Warehouse. The program was created by Kawanna Rollins to give ATLAS students an opportunity to gain immediate work-based learning experience and put their academic training to the test. After participating in professional development training and mock interviews, two students, Mekonnen Kifle and Rōni Rubin, were chosen to participate. Both students assisted warehouse employees in making deliveries, receiving and processing goods, stocking, forklift operations, and data entry processing. In addition to the on-the-job training, Mekonnen and Rōni were enrolled in Cooperative Work Experience Education (COPED) which allowed them to earn college credit for paid work experience.

The ATLAS program would like to thank Marie Hampton, Director of Purchasing and Warehouse Operations, and Shawnee Martinez, Warehouse Supervisor, for their assistance in allowing this collaboration to take place. If you would like to learn more about the ATLAS / District Warehouse Internship, please contact Kawanna Rollins at 510-748-5256 or [email protected].

Pictured: Rōni Rubin (left) and Mekonnen Kifle (right). Article and photos by Nicole Kelly.



New Partnership with Tesla Motors Announced College of Alameda has recently developed a partnership with the innovative electric car and battery maker TESLA Motors. CoA's Auto Technology program will become one of the first participants in an internship program that they are creating in their service centers. This six-month, paid internship will partner CoA Auto Tech students with one-on-one mentors at the TESLA Service Center, the closest currently being in the Dublin/Pleasanton area. These centers are on the verge of becoming more numerous as TESLA is about to introduce a lower priced car that will have more mass market appeal - and create a need for more trained Auto Technicians in their new service centers. The internship is an exciting opportunity for CoA Auto Tech students, and an acknowledgement of the quality of CoA's Auto Tech program and COA's responsiveness in working with industry partners. It also potentially opens the door to further types of interaction between CoA students and TESLA. It is an example of the Work Based Learning activity going on at the college, bringing local businesses into the Career Technical Education classrooms and taking students into the world of business. Work Based Learning motivates students, helps their chosen career field become more “real” and boosts their ability to succeed after they leave CoA. COA is part of a regional collaboration in the East Bay between education, workforce and economic development and local businesses. We look forward to the next steps in our partnership with TESLA Motors and both expanding and deepening our connections between our students and the business community! Article by Birch Early.

Local 34 Winter Career Fair - Port of San Francisco On February 24, current and former ATLAS students chartered a bus to the 2016 Winter Career Fair sponsored by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 34. With over 200 job-seekers in attendance, ATLAS students represented CoA well! Some students have already received follow-up calls from employers, and others are using the professional development skills they learned to follow up themselves. Fortunately, the “winter” career fair was next door to AT&T Park on a beautiful sunny day in in San Francisco. Students are pictured here after attending the fair. The ATLAS program would like to thank Vivian Goodbeer and Terrell Baker for their resume and professional development assistance in advance of the event. To learn more about the career fair, please contact Nicole Kelly at 510-748-5255 or [email protected]. Article and photos by Nicole Kelly.



Update: CoA Student Photo a Winner It’s a winner! Thanks to your votes, this photo of Patsaralak “Beer” Siripaweennakorn, taken while she was a student in College of Alameda's Apparel Design & Merchandising program, was chosen to be on the cover of the American International Education Foundation (AIEF)’s Spring 2016 UScampus Guide magazine. Congratulations to Beer and to Faiza Ali, Graphic Design Specialist at the District Office, who took the winning photo. Pictured: Patsaralak Siripaweennakorn Photo by Faiza Ali

CoA Professor Practices “Street Spirit” in Oakland Over the last few months, College of Alameda professor Wanda Sabir has led a group in serving Oakland residents displaced by current housing crisis. They call themselves “The Auset Movement: Loving Humanity into Wholeness” By sharing donated goods, serving a hot breakfast, and engaging community members in conversation and music, their goal is to let those who are internally displaced or on the street know they are still with friends. In a message to the CoA campus community last month, Sabir wrote: “In this community which resides in an encampment under a freeway overpass, I have met inspiring men who are lovingly helping one another survive without judgment.” The group visited on Christmas Day, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and most recently on February 15. Of that visit, Sabir writes: “We had no music this morning at the encampment, but the rhythms of early morning stirrings, heart beats and warmth mixed with smiles and hugs and welcomes – had us all dancing to a groove thing that was delightful. Jovelyn’s Jamaican rice with peas (black beans), olives, pimento and other ingredients went perfectly with Wanda and Tabaji’s pots of plain rice and pinto beans. There was also hickory smoked beef sausage and a variety of cakes from blueberry and banana nut to strawberry and lemon. The hot coffee we served on Martin King Day was back, along with milk and juice, water and fresh fruit. We had a few more clothing items than last time: a few pairs of shoes, lots of socks, men’s boxers, a few jackets, shirts, toiletry bags, toilet tissue. A woman brought a bag full of women’s clothes which we took to our second encampment—yep, we served two encampments in one morning (smile)… Today, people sat at the tables and ate. I liked that everyone didn’t take the food away or stand and eat. It felt more like having friends and family over for a meal.” To learn more and hear the stories of the residents they served, read Wanda’s blog entry: http://theausetmovement.blogspot.com/2016/02/reflection-feb.html For more information, or to find out how you can get involved, please contact Wanda Sabir at [email protected]. Pictured: Wanda Sabir and RJ Reed at encampment in Oakland. Photo used with permission. Article by Jennifer Owen-Blackmon, excerpted from writings of Wanda Sabir.



Community Gathers at Perforce to Plan Innovation Studio On Wednesday, March 2 about 25 members of the CoA, Perforce and greater Alameda communities gathered at Perforce in Alameda. The occasion was a meet & greet to discuss future plans for the Innovation Studio, which will be housed on the CoA campus. Perforce’s Stephanie Turner addressed the group and talked about the many opportunities for community collaboration that the new space will offer. Her vision is bold and expansive: to create the space at CoA as an inclusive hub for collaboration and creativity, where classes and open labs would be offered, and individuals can work together to create. From there, spokes would extend throughout town to a variety of partnering organizations, bringing together tech companies, schools at all levels, nonprofits like Girls Inc, and many others for partnership, mentoring and co-creation – and, of course, funding. Projects will be multidisciplinary collaborations and could range from open source game development, to playwriting, to visual art, to almost anything that can be envisioned. CoA Art Professor Drew Burgess called it “a beautiful bridge to something we can’t predict.” Among the many benefits to CoA faculty and students, Dr. Blake cited: 1) an opportunity to grow and expand our curriculum to help ensure that our coursework is relevant in today’s world; 2) taking an interdisciplinary approach to support our students; 3) participating in a community of experts and leveraging their expertise in a variety of disciplines. Stay tuned for ongoing updates about this exciting project. Pictured: Meeting participants from Perforce, CoA and the community. Article by Jennifer Owen-Blackmon.

Make a Splash! The CoA Splash is now weekly! All complete articles and submissions received by EOD Monday will be included in the Friday edition. Submissions received later in the week will be published the following Friday. Please send your submissions to [email protected] and include:

• Your article or story, in 1-3 paragraphs, including the name of the person who wrote it. • A high-quality, compelling photo or two. Tell us the name of the photographer and who’s pictured. Make sure

that you have their consent for it to be published online. • A contact person whose name and phone/ email we can publish “for more information.”

Help us improve your newsletter! Send your suggestions and feedback to [email protected]

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