Early College Newsletter

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Summer 2021

Providing Summer Enrichment Opportunities

The Summer is a great time for high school students to take advantage of Early College opportunities for enrichment and academic advancement. On top of offering more Dual Enrollment / Early College sections in partnership with our high school partners than ever before, we were very excited to be able to offer some lab courses in person, following COVID safety protocols, this Summer. These pictures show some of our students taking BIOL B11 with Erica Mullins at the new Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) in KHSD, and students taking ELET B70 in BC’s electronics lab with Roy Allard. We were so happy to see our students in the classroom again and for them to have this great opportunity for hands-on learning and enrichment.

Over 2,400 high school students enrolled in at least one college course, totaling to over 3,200 enrollments for the Summer 2021 term. That is more participation than ever before for a Summer term, and a 23% increase from Summer 2020. Many students took advantage of one of the 70 different Dual Enrollment/Early College sections that we offered in partnership with their high school district, while the rest enrolled in courses offered at one of our many college locations, or online, through Concurrent Enrollment.

We are thrilled to share our wins with you and hope you enjoy reading our Early College highlights from this Summer. Please subscribe to our newsletter to see what we have in store for Fall 2021!

Student Highlight:

Bella Rivera

INDA Summer Academy Student

Bella Rivera is going into 10th grade at Bakersfield High School and attended the Industrial Automation Early College Summer Academy. Overall, she thought the experience was extremely beneficial and it showed her aspects of engineering she was never exposed to before. She thoroughly enjoyed the class where she was able to have a hands-on learning experience with engineering tools and how to use them in various situations. Through the site visits she was able to see engineering jobs in action along with listening to supervisors and managers talk about what they look for in prospective employees and what they can offer the employees who work for them. Her favorite site visit was the Walmart distribution center. She felt the staff was very welcoming and the company offered a lot in the field of industrial automation. The Summer Academy reiterated her interest in the field of engineering and showed her possible jobs that she had not thought of prior to completing the program. She plans to continue dual enrollment through BC and wants to complete the Industrial Automation pathway. In a male-dominated field she is excited to pursue an Engineering career and give more representation to women in the profession.

Student Highlight:

Francis Daigan

INDA Summer Academy Student

Francis is about to start his 11th grade year at Stockdale High School. He is currently completing the Industrial Automation dual enrollment pathway and attended the summer academy because he is interested in engineering. Overall, he really enjoyed his experience with the summer academy. He enjoyed attending the class on campus rather than just spending the summer sitting at home. He was able to get out of the house and experience and learn new things. His favorite site visit was going to the Walmart distribution center. He was impressed with the amount of automation the distribution center used and liked seeing all the machines in action. The program and the site visits showed him what other opportunities are out there and he hopes to continue his education at a university and is thinking of possibly going abroad.

Industrial Automation Early College Summer Academy

Thanks to our BC Foundation and the generous support of Phillips 66, our Summer term started with a bang! Phillips 66 donated funds to allow the Early College and Career Education teams to collaborate on a summer opportunity that would introduce students to the field of Industrial Automation.

After a great deal of planning between the departments and collaborations with industry partners, the Industrial Automation Early College Summer Academy was created. This academy accepted 42 high school students who would be enrolled in a key course from the Industrial Automation pathway that met four days a week for four weeks in a BC electronics lab with a BC instructor, and then get to visit an industry partner to see Industrial Automation in action each Friday. All materials for the course, as well as transportation and food for the industry site visits, were covered by the generous donation from Phillips 66.

A total of 31 students completed the BC course and attended the industry site visits. In addition to this, each student met with an Educational Advisor to build a customized educational plan and see how they could complete an entire bachelor’s degree in Industrial Automation at BC.

We hope you enjoy these pictures of our students from the Industrial Automation Early College Summer Academy on their field trips to visit industry partners.

Community Highlight:

Phillips 66, INDA Summer Academy Sponsor

We would like to give tremendous thank-you to Phillips 66 for their donation of $25,000 that fully funded the Industrial Automation Early College Summer Academy. With this generous donation we were able to provide each student with school supplies including textbooks, materials, and awesome backpacks. We were also able to provide transportation and food for the students as they went to and from the industry site visits, which the students really enjoyed (even in the heat!).

Thank you, Phillips 66!

College Department Highlight:

Industrial Automation & Career Education

The following people also deserve our gratitude and recognition for their dedication to the Early College program and the world they did to make the Summer Academy program possible.

Tony Cordova, Dean of Instruction at Bakersfield College for his leadership
Roy Allard, Instructor of ELET B70 for inspiring students
Carlos Media, Job Development Specialist for arranging site visits to the industry partners and chaperoning the field trips
Berenice Arellano, Educational Advisor for developing education plans and chaperoning field trips
Dylan Jensen, Advisor Industrial Automation, for introducing students and parents to the Industrial Automation program at our Orientation
Cynthia Quintinilla, Industrial Automation Counselor for connecting early college courses with BS programs and pathways

Early College - Academy Orientation 2021 _1_.JPG

High School Partner Highlight: McFarland High School Early College welcomes 232 new Cougar-Renegades and makes plans for new Industrial Automation Baccalaureate Degree Pathway

This Fall, McFarland High School Early College will welcome a new incoming class of 232 new Cougar Renegades. The BC and McFarland teams are excited to get started right away with helping each and every student complete a college application so that they can earn college credit while in high school. These students will be able to choose from the following existing pathways:

Spanish AS-T
Agriculture Business
Public Health
Education
Media Arts
Logistics
Office Technologies
Welding
And our newest, Industrial Automation BS!

We are very excited to extend our partnership with McFarland High School to include an Industrial Automation pathway that will allow students to earn a certificate, an associate degree, AND a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Automation in just 5 years. Students in this pathway will complete all lower level and upper level requirements of the program by taking courses scheduled for them at McFarland High, BC’s Delano Campus, and BC’s Main campus during their 4 years of high school, and then 1 year after high school graduation.

Talk about daring to dream! Way to go, McFarland Cougar Renegades!

It's not too late for students to sign up for Fall 2021

Bakersfield College offers hundreds of Early College/Dual Enrollment courses each term at several high school locations, and students have access to even more college courses through Concurrent Enrollment.

If you are interested in knowing what course opportunities your student has on their high school campus, please talk to your high school counselor or administrator. We also have course offerings listed on our Early College website.

If your high school does not offer the courses that you are looking for, don’t worry! We have Concurrent Enrollment options for you. High school students can enroll in most* of the courses offered at one of our many campus locations. To see what we are offering at all locations, please visit our BC Class Schedule. High school students can get cleared to register for one of these classes by following these simple How to Enroll steps. Students must get parent and high school approval before they can enroll.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at earlycollege@bakersfieldcollege.edu or join BC’s Student Information Desk and ask for an Early College representative. We are also hosting workshops every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00pm to assist students with Dual or Concurrent Enrollment. Students can register to attend one of these workshops.

*High school students may not enroll in Physical Education courses, non-transferrable Math or English courses, or any courses that require students to have a high school diploma.

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