From Left to Right: Joyce Bishop, Christine
Schultz, Mark Lieu, Jonathan Brennan, Travis
Parker, and Jane Patton
Area
A: Travis Parker, Physical Education, Cosumnes
River College
Travis Parker is an instructor of Physical
Education and coach of the track and soccer
teams at Cosumnes River College. Aside from
his roles as teacher and coach, his Academic
Senate president shares that Parker is a mentor,
tutor, and community activist. Parker hails
from humble beginnings—his parents were
sharecroppers, and had only 12 years of education
between the two of them. He now volunteers
his time with an organization he co-founded
and co-directs called the Alpha Academy, which
targets African-American male high school students
and their parents. He has also worked with
an organization which seeks to help African
American students in high school span the bridge
to college.
“
We must give our students direction by teaching
them that success is not a destination but
a process,” wrote Travis Parker.
Parker himself feels that educators must be
visionaries, guides, and motivators.
Area
B: Jonathan Brennan, English, Mission College
Jonathan Brennan has set a personal goal
of increasing statewide retention rates by
25%,
and has
started this quest on his own campus, developing
learning communities which combine basic
skills courses with student success strategies,
which helped increase his own courses’ retention
rate by 22%. Brennan believes that addressing
diversity is the foundation of student success,
and incorporates this mentality in his classroom
by utilizing texts which promote diversity
discovery. Additionally, he carries this
out campus-wide by organizing events on campus
that expose students to diverse cultural
practices. Of his commitment to diversity,
his colleague wrote, “In the classroom,
his work demonstrates a commitment to diversity
and an understanding of the needs of multicultural
students that goes far beyond the ordinary.” It
is Brennan’s stringent commitment to
increasing retention rates both on a campus
and statewide level in conjunction with his
tireless efforts to reach his students through
addressing and embracing diversity that compel
the Academic Senate for California Community
Colleges to recognize Brennan as a 2008 Hayward
Award winner.
Area C: Christine
Schultz, Political Science, Santa Monica College
Christine Schultz, professor of Political Science
at Santa Monica College, has been selected
as one of the four recipients of the 2008 Hayward
Award. Schultz’s professional passions
are students and the classroom. She is so passionate,
in fact, that she has accumulated 238 days
of unused sick leave, and has never opted to
take a sabbatical. Schultz’s passion
translates into one of the highest retention
rates in the college, with over 90% of her
students passing, and over 75% of them achieving
an A or a B. Schultz doesn’t grade lackadaisically
to achieve these statistics—rather, she
has developed a complex grading system which
involves offering 42 separate assignments over
the course of a 16 week semester from which
students may choose assignments which best
fit their particular talents and interests.
Additionally, Schultz spent 20 years developing
and growing the campus transfer alliance program
at Santa Monica College, actively recruiting
students who would be least likely to consider
going to college from surrounding high schools,
let alone joining an honors club, and maintaining
contact with them even after they had enrolled.
While Schultz reluctantly left her position
as advisor when she became department chair,
but she continues to serve in an advisory capacity,
and as a teacher in the program.
Area
D:
Joyce Bishop, Psychology, Golden West College Joyce Bishop, a Psychology professor
from Golden West College, was selected as one
of the four
recipients for the Hayward Award. Bishop is
noted on her campus for her commitment to her
students, and especially for her willingness
to tailor her teaching to her students’ learning
styles. Her colleague to wrote of her, “…I
can say, unequivocally, that any student I
have come in contact with who has been in this
individual’s classroom has nothing but
praise for her and gratitude for having had
the benefit of her instruction.” In addition
to Bishop’s passionate application of
learning techniques, she volunteers at Pathways,
a non-profit organization she founded with
her husband 17 years ago. At Pathways, Bishop
serves women who are from abusive backgrounds,
have been indigent, or are poor by federal
or state standards, among other things. Bishop’s
indefatigable devotion to these marginalized
students permeates her existence on and off
campus, and it is with this in mind that Joyce
Bishop has been selected to receive the 2008
Hayward Award.
