President Schilling’s Board Report for October 26, 2021
The following is a report to members of the North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees
Presented by Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling, Ph.D.
on October 26, 2021
Thank you to all who joined us for the Grand Opening of our new Veterans Resource Center (VRC) and Science, Engineering, and Math (SEM) buildings on October 19. This was a wonderful event, celebrating the completion of two new buildings that will serve Cypress College students for years to come. I want to thank Marc Posner and our Communications Team, Kai Stearns and Chelsea Salisbury, Kristi Valdez, as well as all our speakers, staff, and student ambassadors for making this a meaningful celebration.
Cypress College will be hosting three Vaccination Mandate Town Halls to help detail the November 1 implementation for students and employees. These will be held on October 22 @ 10 – 11 a.m. for employees only, October 26 @ 1-2 p.m. for students and employees, and October 28 @ 4-5 p.m. for students only.
The final Vaccination Clinic for our internal and external community will be held October 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in NOCE/Cypress Room 117/118. First and second doses of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson will be provided, as well as booster shots on request.
DSS Counselor Dawn Decker, DSS Director Celeste Phelps, and DSS Student Services Coordinator Summer Justice presented at the California Association on Post-Secondary Education and Disability (CAPED) Conference in Lake Tahoe October 4-8. Their topic was demonstrating how they use the Clockwork technology to enhance the student experience through customizable modules, designed to meet our DSS students’ specific needs. Congratulations to our presenters and thank you for your support of our students.
The Pediatric Cypress College Registered Nursing Students spent October 9 administering flu vaccines to 156 school-aged children in the Savanna School District. This clinic was part of the “Teach Flu a Lesson” program sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and supported by Cypress College. This is the ninth year of our partnership for this event. Thank you to Michael Faraci and our nursing faculty for organizing and supporting this event.
On October 27, from 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., the LIFE Community, our support program for formerly incarcerated students, will host Danny Murrillo, a true leader in the field of FISI student empowerment. Murrillo was formerly incarcerated himself, and he co-founded the Underground Scholars Initiative at UC Berkeley, was a recipient of the John Gardner Fellowship for Public Service, as well as appearing in GQ Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR), Option B Stories, The Appeal Podcast, The New Yorker Magazine, Univision, and 60 Minutes with Oprah.
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk Silva visited the Cypress College campus on October 14 to present certificates of achievement to our three HACU Fellows: AnnMarie Ruelas, Gisela Verduzco, and Yanet Garcia-Padilla.
The SDMS (Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography) Foundation Sonography Student and Advanced Degree Scholarship Programs awarded a $2,500 scholarship to Megan Park, a DMS student at Cypress College. Scholarships are awarded to deserving sonography students and sonographers who have been accepted or are currently enrolled in a diagnostic medical sonography or cardiovascular technology educational program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). Megan was one of only two recipients awarded this scholarship on a national level. She is a senior (second year) sonography student who will graduate in May 2022. Congratulations, Megan!
Do not miss the fabulous Cypress College Theater Department production of The Laramie Project. This important and beautifully acted play, detailing the death of Matthew Shepard, is directed by faculty member Jennifer McMillin-Brick, and will be presented October 15, 16, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m., and October 17 and 24 at 4 p.m. in our Campus Theater. Vaccination proof is required to attend in person. For those interested in seeing this production via live streaming, we will be presenting this on October 27 and 28 at 7 p.m.
In 2020, Cypress was one of 13 community colleges nationwide to be named as a NASA minority-serving institution. This month, 17 Cypress College students successfully completed the first NASA on-campus experience. Out of the seven community colleges who participated, Cypress College had the largest number of students to complete the online course and career assimilation program. Throughout the competition, three of our students won employee of the month and two others were part of the winning team. These students will be acknowledged October 29. During the second half of the event, some of the NCAS participants will be featured as panelists and have an opportunity to share about their personal experiences.
The Legacy and Puente Programs sponsored a John Henryism Workshop for Mental Health on Monday, October 18, 2021. John Henryism (JH) is a strategy for coping with prolonged exposure to stresses such as social discrimination and other stresses that lead to expending high levels of effort, which results in accumulating physiological and psychological costs.
Now that in person events are starting to occur again, Dr. Schilling, Howard Kummerman, and Rachel Ghatikar had the opportunity to attend the Cypress State of the City/Cypress Chamber Social Mixer on October 6, along with Trustees Stephen Blount and Barbara Dunsheath. They also attended the Cypress/Anaheim Boys and Girls Club Masquerade Event on October 23 at the California Grand Hotel in Anaheim and, on November 20, they will also be supporting the Estrella Awards sponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Aligned with the college’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, this summer our student service team created three new Student Resource Guides – the Latin@ Resource Guide, the APIDA Resource Guide, and the Black Student Resource Guide. Thank you to Gisela Verduzco, Pryscilla Truong, Virgil Adams, and Paul de Dios for taking the lead in developing these wonderful resource guides for students and to Marc Posner and his team for helping to format, organize, and share with students. The official rollout of these new guides will be November 1.
Dr. Schilling will be presenting the AFHAT Transportation brief that she authored as a member of the Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce at the Trustees webinar on November 4 @ 12-1:30 p.m. and again during the CEO webinar on November 9 @ 12-1 p.m.
On November 8, our Veterans Center will be hosting our annual Green Zone Training for all interested employees, in the effort to provide more support for our Veterans and military-affiliated families.
Buen Cypress! We Take This Journey Together!