Area Report for Board of Trustees

Winter quarter is off to a strong start, with more students on campus and in classes. In the midst of that busy-ness, I want to celebrate an opportunity for reflection and connection facilitated by faculty members Monica Lemoine, Karen Fernandez, and Deb Moore: the faculty/staff book club. The book club meets monthly. Faculty and staff are invited to choose from a list of books to read, and the organizers take pains to invite colleagues to propose books. Once a month, readers gather in Building 8 to discuss their chosen book. No grades, no points, no scores, no assessment. Participants get a list of questions they can use–or not–and the discussions go where they will. Given scheduling challenges, a second meeting time has been established for winter quarter. Big thanks to Monica, Karen, and Deb for inviting us to read a book for pleasure and connect with other readers in a low-key and wonderful way.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

• The Early Childhood Education Department is crossing its 10th year of offering Early Childhood Education classes in Somali. It is celebrating 12 years of providing Early Childhood Education classes and certificates in Spanish. This program has opened the door for hundreds of small business owners, early childhood education opportunities, and the building of community. Having classes in Spanish, Somali, and Arabic for a while, we are increasing access to employment, education, and community building. We are excited to continue building these cohorts.
• Sunday library hours Fall Quarter were popular with students. The number of students utilizing the library on Sunday increased each week during Fall Quarter, as more students were made aware of the expanded hours. As a result of this usage, the library will continue Sunday hours each quarter.  Hours of operation for Winter Quarter are: Sunday 2pm-6pm, Monday-Thursday 8am – 6pm, and Friday 8am-2pm.
• High School Engagement and Success Programs offer high school completion options for students ages 16 and older. HSEAS currently:
• has 124 youth enrolled for winter 2025
• has 38 adult learners enrolled for winter 2025
• is working closely with contracted partners to make certain on site supports are in place for students with IEPs. This work ensures that we are fully aligned with OSPI and state wide expectations for Open Doors Programs.
• has faculty and staff participating in district led trainings to support Multi-Language Learners in our youth programs.
• Is working in partnership with our contracted partners and with the support of OSPI and SBTCT to increase our graduation pathways for students under the age of 21

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• EdTech is supporting completion and retention in online courses by helping faculty deliver a better online experience for their students. There are two initiatives underway this year:
  • A community of practice in collaboration with the Learning and Teaching Center, in which faculty explore ways to build community and foster relationships in online classes. A sense of community and belongingness is particularly important to students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
  • A revised process for faculty to learn about, and the college to review, instructor-initiated Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI). RSI is a federally-mandated criteria for weekly interactions in online classes. Through the process, faculty are learning and demonstrating high-quality interaction techniques, and the college is ensuring that we’re in compliance with these regulations.

• On January 2nd, the Learning and Teaching Center (LTC) hosted the first Winter Wellness Day. On this day, eight faculty had the opportunity to engage in activities to refresh for winter quarter and to prepare for the upcoming classes.  Some wellness activities included stretching exercises to reduce stress and starting a gratitude journal; class prep activities included guided instruction in making sure class syllabi are inclusive and accessible, crafting emails to advisees, and planning regular and substantive interaction for online classes.  While these activities were done individually, participants had two opportunities to check in with the LTC faculty-in-residence on Zoom.  In addition to the LTC curating the day, Zoe Harris, Gabrielle Bachmeier, and Katie Fiorello and EdTech helped to create some of the activities.
• Climate Justice Grant: Highline College received a $19,000 allocation from SBCTC to support the design and implementation of climate justice curriculum. HC Led by faculty member Woody Moses, HC will leverage this allocation to enhance climate justice education through the development of a cross-disciplinary, hands-on learning curriculum. This initiative will be anchored by a faculty community of practice tasked with reviewing, revising, and expanding existing climate justice curriculum modules while also developing new ones. Faculty members will receive compensation to review existing modules, identify new faculty implementers, and facilitate implementation in key courses for the 2025 and 2025-26 academic years. To support continuous learning and engagement, faculty who incorporate these modules into their courses will present at forums such as Opening Week, Professional Development Day, or Climate Justice Task Force events. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected to evaluate the impact of these modules, ensuring an inclusive, practical, and career-connected curriculum for underrepresented student populations.
• Achieve, in partnership with the Highline College Foundation, received a $50,000 grant to develop paid internship opportunities for Achieve students. The first 2 internships are starting on campus this quarter.
• MaST Center Aquarium is holding two classes (Biology 110 and ENVS 101) for Maritime High School students Winter quarter. These students are attending Highline in part due to the partnership with Maritime and the MaST Center and are brand new running start students who will be taking 10 credits per quarter for two years.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

• The Continuing Education department’s partnership with Seattle Children’s (SC) Hospital enters its third successful year, reinforcing our shared commitment to supporting pre-health and pre-nursing students on their healthcare career pathways.

Program Overview:
The primary goal is to support students in earning their CNA (Cert certification and transitioning into temporary/permanent CNA roles within SC’s inpatient acute care units.  SC pays for everything, including tuition, all supplies, and both the WA State NAC application and testing fees.  There is no cost incurred by the students.

Program Outcomes:

2023 Cohort:

• Applications Received: 145
• Students Selected: 12
• Retention & Job Offers: 11 students retained, all offered permanent roles
• Diversity: 80% racially diverse, 30% from underrepresented groups
• Current SC Employment: 5 students remain employed

2024 Cohort:

• Applications Received: 77
• Students Selected: 15
• Retention & Job Offers: 13 students retained, all offered permanent roles
• Diversity: 92% racially diverse, 53% from underrepresented groups
• Current SC Employment: 9 students remain employed

Student Impact:
Participant feedback underscores the transformative nature of the program:“This program has confirmed that I chose the right career path because I genuinely enjoy coming to work and helping out the patients and their family. I get to see the direct impact that the bedside nurses and medical team has on improving the health of the patients.” — Shaniya Alex

This partnership continues to be a vital resource for students while meeting SC’s staffing needs and promoting workforce diversity within the healthcare field. We look forward to further strengthening this collaboration and supporting our students’ career aspirations.

• Highline College is collaborating with TRAC Associates to provide college navigation services for TRAC’s Department of Commerce WorkFirst Regional Programs Nursing Pre-Requisite cohort grant. The intention of this pilot grant is to create a cohort environment for students who are on TANF and to provide them with tutoring and support services so that participants may complete Highline’s nursing prerequisite courses with grades at, or above, a 2.5 GPA.  The first cohort of 11 students completed their second quarter, fall quarter.  72% of the cohort passed the quarter with an average GPA of 3.67.  Recruitment for the second cohort, which will start Summer Quarter, has begun.
• Highline’s MaST Center Aquarium ended 2024 with one of our strongest years of supporting our community and being a very public face of HC. Highlights included:
• 76 total programs which reach over 3600 participants including
  • 32 formal educational programs which reached 461 participants
  • 11 informal educational programs which reach 507 participants
  • 27 outreach programs which reached 2535 participants
  • 6 speaker series which reached 52 participants
  • 5 weeks of summer camp done in partnership with HC CE and Green River College CE
  • Groups included Adelaide Elementary, Bonnie Lake HS, Maritime HS, Life Academy of Puget Sound, Saghalie Middle School, King County Library, UW School of Oceanography, UW School of Museology, Williams-Mystic College, Vincennes University, Des Moines Coffee with a Cop, Des Moines Coffee with the City Manager, Redondo Community Association, a booth at the WA State Fair, King County Department of Public Health, HC’s CollegeCon, HC Career Fair, HC Orientation, HC Advising, HC Black and Brown Summit, HC PDD, Thunderbird Soar, among others
• Over 14,000 community visitors during our weekly Discover Day (Saturdays 10-2). More than ⅔ of visitors are from Highline’s feeder areas.
• 137 community volunteers donated over the equivalent of 2x full time employee in hours worth over $150,000 in community support.
• Nearly 11,000 followers on Facebook (tripled in 2024), with over 150,000 reached in the last 30 days. Majority of followers live in the south King County area.
  • Several Facebook video posts went viral including
    • Gumboot Chiton with 26.4 million plays
    • Thick horned Nudibranch laying eggs with 2.6 million plays
    • Hungry, hungry Hooded Nudibranch with 288,000 plays

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity for transformation

• We are excited to announce our new Director of Faculty Advising, Beth Carter. Beth started December 16, and has spent her time over Winter Break getting her feet wet learning about our college, our wonderful students and amazing faculty.  Beth joins us from Green River College, where she spent seven years in international programs working as an advisor and as academic director of the Madeleine K Albright Young Women Leaders Program. Beth’s years in Higher Education advising, project management, teaching and international programs make her a great fit for our team developing and strengthening advising supports for our faculty and campus.
• We are pleased to have Mary Howland join the Workforce team as the Program Manager for Workforce Pathways. Mary has been at Highline College for fourteen years working for various programs within Accessibility Resources. In her new role she will be supporting both the Dean for Workforce Pathways and our Professional Technical faculty and students.   In her free time, she enjoys creating art, primarily with watercolors, cooking, gardening, and spending time out-of-doors. She also volunteers at The MaST Center where, among other things, has the privilege of being part of the octopus enrichment team.
• During Fall Quarter, 17 Academic Affairs deans, Division Chairs, LTC Faculty-in-Residence and staff reviewed over 250 randomly selected syllabi as part of the annual syllabus review process. This annual review is conducted as part of the college’s accreditation requirements.  The syllabi are reviewed to ensure that the course information on the syllabus matches what is in our course catalog.  Syllabi are also reviewed to see how closely they are following the inclusive syllabus template.  Division Chairs followed up on syllabi where the course content didn’t match what was in the course catalog.

Division Honors and Awards

• Congratulations to this year’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement grant awardees! Committee members Oussama (Sam) Alkhalili, Karen Fernandez, and Angie Meyer selected the following faculty to receive funding:
  • Ellen Bremen, “Interpersonal Community for Pre-Nursing Majors: Practicing Competent & Confident Clinical Interactions in Health Care Settings”
  • Robin Martin, “Innovative OER Curriculum”
  • Jacob Selander, “Bringing Science to the Community”
  • Galia Sion, “Beginning Grammar Course ESOL”
  • Laura Sposato, “CHEM& 163 CURE Development”
  • Lisa Voso, “AI Doesn’t Talk Like Me”

Thanks to the Highline College Foundation for supporting these grants and to Academic Affairs for providing supplemental funding.

Report submitted by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Emily Lardner