President Schilling Presents Annual Board Report
JoAnna Schilling, Ph.D., made her first annual presentation to the NOCCCD Board of Trustees and Chancellor on Tuesday, November 14. The report to the Trustees of the North Orange County Community College District covered the 2016-2017 Institutional Effectiveness Report and the 2016-2017 Annual Report. The documents provide an overview of the recently completed academic year.
Telling the college’s story primarily through the experiences of four new alumni and one who has since completed her bachelor’s degree, Dr. Schilling shared the successes in data, images, and a video. She opened the presentation by thanking the Board for the opportunity to brag about the “wonderful things happening at Cypress College.”
Dr. Schilling shared the stories of:
- Aldo Martinez, a recent graduate of the Toyota T-TEN program who is now employed at Puente Hills Toyota. During the 2016-2017 academic year, students earned 214 Automotive Technology certificates. In all, 1,006 certificates were granted across the Cypress College curriculum.
- Anna Rodriguez, a history major who represented Cypress College at the Honors Transfer Council of California’s 18th Annual Student Research for California Community Colleges and participated in the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program. Now attending the University of California, Berkeley, Rodriguez is one of 119 Cypress College students who transferred into the UC system at the end of last academic year. Another 800 Cypress College students transferred to a Cal State campus — that number is a 5-year high.
- Junnior Rodriguez, a first-generation college student who grew up with a strong interest in automobiles. He completed Cypress College’s (STEM)2 program with Associate Degrees for Transfer in math and physics, and is now attending California Poly, San Luis Obispo where he is studying mechanical engineering. In total, Cypress College awarded 1,144 degrees in 2016-2017, slightly below the 5-year high. More than 500 of these degrees were associate degrees for transfer.
- Jennifer Franco shared that she “might be dead” if she hadn’t come to Cypress College. Now a USC graduate, she credits much of her success to theater arts professor Mark Majarian. Franco, who started attending Cypress in her late 20s and was the 2012 graduate of the year, is now working as a stage manager at Downtown Los Angeles’ Tony Award-winning Mark Taper Forum following a stint as a stage management intern at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. The associations she made in the theater program at Cypress College continue to shape her opportunities today.
- Phong Le lived in his native Vietnam and didn’t speak a word of English just 4 years ago. He came to America with aspirations of becoming a Certified Public Accountant, earning a master’s degree, and building his own practice. He initially took ESL courses at what was then the NOCCCD School of Continuing Education (now North Orange Continuing Education) and then continued his ESL and major-related education at Cypress College. A member of the EOPS program, Le graduated in May and transferred to UC, Irvine. “Phong is an example of what this District means to our students. He also represents the importance of the pathways we help create,” Dr. Schilling said.
Dr. Schilling also highlighted the college’s Dual Enrollment Program, which provides an early college experience to high school students, discussed the leadership transition that resulted from several retirements at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, and offered her vision for the current academic year and beyond.
2016-2017 Annual Report
2016-2017 Institutional Effectiveness Report
‘Buen Cypress’ Video