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Oct. 13, 2022 - Vision in Action No. 91 

APPLICATIONS DUE OCT. 31 FOR THE CALIFORNIA MEDICAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM, A COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO MEDICAL SCHOOL PATHWAY

Hospital room with patient dummy in bed, one worker standing by the bed and one worker hanging an IV drip to a cart

Community college students interested in becoming primary care physicians can now apply to the California Medicine Scholars Program (CMSP), a streamlined pathway assisting students on their journey from community college to medical school. Information sessions are being held this month prior to the application deadline on Oct. 31.

The CMSP, housed at and fiscally sponsored by the Foundation for California Community Colleges, aims to increase the number of primary care physicians from underrepresented backgrounds and also address the shortage of medical professionals in underserved rural and low-income communities that face the most health disparities. 
Medical schools at UC Davis, UC Riverside, UCSF Fresno, and UC San Diego are each receiving a $540,000 grant annually for three years to establish Regional Hubs of Healthcare Opportunity.

Each hub includes community colleges, four-year universities, medical schools, health employers, and community organizations collaborating to assist students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. 

Participating students will receive assistance as they transfer from community college to a four-year university and then apply to medical school. They also will receive advising, mentoring, academic support, and professional development opportunities.

Each hub is recruiting 50 students to begin the program in January 2023. Over 30 community colleges from across the state are participating.

  • Led by UC Davis, the Greater Northern California Regional Healthcare Hub includes the College of the Redwoods, College of Siskiyou, Los Rios Community College District, Mendocino College, Shasta College, and Yuba Community College District. California Tribal College, Sierra College and Solano College will begin participating for Fall 2023. UC Davis is hosting an information session and application walk-through on Oct. 24, from 4:00-5:00 p.m.
  • Led by UCSF Fresno, the San Joaquin Valley Regional Hub of Healthcare Opportunity includes the College of the Sequoias, Merced College Community College District, State Center Community College District, West Hills Community College District, and Yosemite Community College District. In-person and zoom presentations are being delivered to classrooms at these participating colleges. If you are at a SJV college and would like to have a presentation for your students, please send your request to info@california-medicine.org. Virtual information sessions for students, faculty and staff will be held this month.

Click this link to join the session on Wednesdays from 12-12:30 p.m. 
Click this link to join the session on Thursdays from 12-12:30 p.m. 

  • Led by UC Riverside, the Inland Empire Regional Hub for Healthcare Opportunity includes the College of the Desert, Riverside City College, and San Bernardino Valley College. View a video tutorial on the application process.
  • Led by UC San Diego, the Region X Hub of Healthcare Opportunity includes Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Imperial Valley College, Mesa College, MiraCosta College, Miramar College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, and Southwestern College. For more information, please contact Dr. Jacob Bailey at jbailey@health.ucsd.edu.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to share this information with students might be interested in this opportunity. Visit the CMSP website to learn more about the Regional Hubs of Healthcare Opportunity and explore the program requirements and the application process. 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN: EQUITABLE PLACEMENT AND COMPLETION: A RACIAL JUSTICE IMPERATIVE

Registration is now open for the “Equitable Placement and Completion: A Racial Justice Imperative,” a joint effort between the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and The Puente Project. Our featured speaker, Dr. Christopher Emdin, is the Robert A. Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum Theory and Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, and author of many titles, including STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream; Ratchedemic: Re-Imagining Academic Excellence; and For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood and the Rest of Y’all Too. The webinar is Friday, Oct. 21 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
 

Participants will come away with an understanding of how to move racial justice work forward through Equitable Placement in support of student success in the California Community College system. The webinar will also introduce the 2022-23 Puente Communities of Practice (ComPs) for California community college educators, which will include the following strands:

  • Linguistic Justice Across the Curriculum with Michelle Gonzales and Kisha Quesada Turner, Las Positas College 
  • Math Justice for Student Empowerment with Karla Rojas, Sacramento City College and Hal Huntsman, Antelope Valley College 
  • Instructional Design with Corazón/Heart with Fabiola Torres, Glendale Community College and Kristin Land, Chabot College 
  • Placement + Support of Marginalized Students through a Justice Lens with Luke Lara, MiraCosta College and Juan Pablo Carreon, Pasadena City College  

The event is open to everyone, including students. We especially encourage the participation of part-time faculty, counseling faculty, and faculty teaching transfer-level Math and English. In addition, classified administrators and professionals, educational and executive administrators and trustees are encouraged to attend.  Register here.

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System Guidance/News/Webinars

The sixth annual Undocumented Student Action Week (USAW) kicks off the week of Oct. 17.

USAW is a joint effort by the Board of Governors, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Foundation for California Community Colleges, and Community College League of California, in partnership with many statewide advocacy organizations. 

This year’s theme is “Juntos Podemos (Together We Can): Collaborative Ecosystems that Support Undocumented Students,” which recognizes that we must continue to advance best practices, ensure authentic, campuswide collaboration and advocate for policy solutions to support long-term success.

Registration for the USAW webinars is now open. Register here to participate in the series of daily webinars. If you are unable to attend, you will be able to access recordings of the daily webinars in the Vision Resource Center. 

More information regarding USAW systemwide webinars can be found on our website.

Please join John Burton Advocates for Youth for two “how-to” webinars to assist those working with homeless youth and foster youth to successfully complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or California Dream Act Application (CADAA). The webinars will review the FAFSA and CADAA, page by page, including detailed instructions on how eligible students experiencing homelessness and eligible foster youth can qualify as independent students for the purposes of maximizing financial aid. 

The webinar to help support homeless youth is Wednesday, Oct. 19 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register here.

The webinar to help support foster youth is Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Register here.

The next Chancellor’s Office System Webinar is set for Wednesday, Nov. 2 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.  

If you haven’t registered for the 2022 System Webinar series, please register via this link. If you have already registered there is no need to register again. 

The inaugural annual COLEGAS Conference, Pa'delante Juntos Podemos (Together We Move Forward), will be held Nov. 3-4, 2022, in Long Beach and will focus on providing a Latina/o/x affirming space for California community college professionals to build community, share emerging practices and exchange resources in the service of Latina/o/x students and their communities. This year's theme calls on us to build solidarity as a collective through group learning, critical consciousness and shared agency to ensure that Latina/o/x people can thrive in higher education. 

Find a full list of events, prices and registration information at this link.

Student Supports

The California University and College Ballot Bowl, developed by the California Students Vote Project (SVP), is a friendly competition in which all of California’s major higher education institutions—the California Community Colleges, California State University, University of California and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities —are invited to compete to register the most students to vote.

The process is simple and takes only five minutes to complete. Students must visit registertovote.ca.gov in order for the registration to count towards the competition. 

For more information on the Ballot Bowl, visit the Secretary of State’s website or access the Ballot Bowl outreach toolkit.

Items of Interest

The California Education Learning Lab recently announced the release of a new grant opportunity to promote the buildout of critical data science educational infrastructure. Through this RFP, Learning Lab’s Grand Challenge seeks to incentivize public higher education institutions to embrace data science as an opportunity to build new pathways, modernize majors, attract historically underrepresented students into STEM, and deepen both civic and interdisciplinary learning. Through this RFP, Learning Lab intends to award the following categories of grants:

  • Pathways Development (Up to 3 awards)
  • Faculty Development (Up to 5 awards)
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration (Up to 9 awards)
  • Grand Challenge Cohort Coordinator (1 award)

Find more information on the application process, timeline and FAQs at the Grand Challenge website.