Faculty Development Breakouts

February
1999

The Faculty Development Committee at the Fall 1998 Session provided three breakouts that focused on diversity in teaching, service learning and student peer counseling. All three breakouts provided participants with valuable information and insights in new ways to offer instruction.

The breakout, Diversity in Teaching and Learning, was conducted by Toni Forsythe from DeAnza College and Neelam Canto-Lugo from Yuba College. Emphasis was placed on the need for more aggressiveness in addressing diversity in all aspects of college curriculum and staffing. The participants were provided information regarding the Center for the Study of Diversity in Higher Multi-cultural Collaborative Learning Communities Consortium and the initiatives through the Chancellor's Office and DeAnza College to provide numerous colloquia and workshops for California Community College faculty in 1999 to discuss teaching strategies that can lead diverse student populations toward successful performance outcomes.

Ed Connelly from Ameri-Corps/AmericaReads, currently working with the state Chancellor's Office to promote service learning throughout the California Community College system, was the presenter for the breakout entitled Building a Systemwide Service-Learning Vision. Participants were provided an overview of the current status of service-learning within the California Community College system and the Chancellor's Office efforts to establish a systemwide clearinghouse for technical assistance and professional development. There is currently a Chancellor's Office task force which is addressing such issues as service learning through AmeriCorps, AmericaReads, Fund for Student Success and future plans for developing a Service-Learning Budget Change Proposal. Service-learning is a college activity that connects students through specific course work to in-service work activities with the private sector and community service agencies.

Student Services/Peer Program was presented by faculty from Cerritos College, Virginia Romero, Sylvia Gardner, and Chris Sugiyama. This breakout was presented as a model program from Cerritos College designed to assist counseling faculty through the employment of students as peer counselors. These student peer counselors then direct and assist other students by providing general college information, clarifying admission and registration procedures, distributing forms, supporting counseling faculty workshops and making referrals to counselors oncall. Students from the Cerritos program provided insightful testimony to the success of the program and the enormous benefits obtained by both the peer counselors and those they served.