Area Report for Board of Trustees

Spring quarter feels like the busiest quarter of the year–bringing the academic year to a close and celebrating accomplishments while also planning for the next year. New programs are being launched, faculty hiring is taking place for next fall, end of year reports are in process, while plans to align actions with next year’s goals are in the works. The Academic Affairs division–faculty and staff–continue to do extraordinary work in support of our students and the communities we serve.

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

• A new part-time nursing program will start up in the fall. This program will offer classes in the evenings and weekends that will be targeted towards non-traditional students in our area to achieve their dreams despite the many barriers they face to make their nursing dreams a reality.  The program is also working with other community partners to create pathways that start in high school through a college degree that is supported by local health care institutions.
• A new certificate in case management, co-designed with Catholic Community Services, will start in summer. The certificate in case management will prepare frontline staff in the housing and homeless services sector for opportunities to advance professionally as leaders and pursue a postsecondary education. The certificate is designed to acknowledge and respect the lived experience and professional responsibilities of the adult learner; invite learners to be producers of knowledge, research issues of interest and make policy recommendations; and build a transformational partnership between Highline College and the housing and homeless services sector centered around student success.

• Highline hosted its 4th annual Spring Expo in April. The event showcases our programs for high school seniors, and highlights our ability to create amazing programming as a community. This event was made possible with the help of faculty, who did a wonderful job of representing our pathways, and over 40 volunteers from HSEAS, the Transition Success Center (TSC), WES, CTE dual credit, Career Start, LTC, the Center of Cultural and Inclusive Excellence, the Outreach Department, Retention & Completion Services, the Highline College Achievement Program (HCAP), the Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct, Running Start, Academic Affairs Workforce Outreach and Recruitment, Access Services, the Service and Mentorship Engagement Consultant, Financial Aid, Public Safety and Facilities. Congratulations to Vice President Gerstman, Ashley Kerr, Foundation and the Highline Expo planning committee that consisted of Bianca Acuario (Outreach & Recruitment), Fuifui Ah Kuoi (Center for Cultural & Inclusive Excellence), Joel Esqueda (Cohort Learning Communities), Kaitlen Taoipu (High School Engagement), Angela Thao (Entry Advising), and Donna Enguerra-Simpson (High School Engagement) for coordinating an amazing event. Much appreciation to the staff and departments that showed up to present at the resource fair. Lastly, to Tony Johnson and Kelly Wong, the marketing and designs that went into this event were absolutely outstanding.

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

• Our Fall 2023 nursing cohort passed the NCLEX on the first try. This is a measure of program quality, national accreditation, and state approval. An annual average of 80% is the benchmark.  Speaking with faculty who have been here for 20+ years, it seems we have not reached 100% first time pass rate since 1995.
• A second cohort of faculty has been selected to author modules for The Math You Need, When You Need It project (https://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed/geomajors/index.html ). This project, funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Highline College, is developing modules to support the quantitative skills of Earth Science majors nationwide.  The modules will help Earth Science students use logarithms, read graphs, calculate probabilities, and track uncertainty in their courses.  The project is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Eric Baer (Geology).
• The Pure and Applied Science Division celebrated our five fantastic laboratory technicians during Lab Technician Appreciation Week, April 14-20. These amazing professionals are the invisible hands that make us look good as we teach science making sure chemicals are safely prepped for student labs, teaching areas are prepared for students to work effectively, and collaborating with faculty to support student learning. In particular, some of our lab techs have recently taken on a good bit of the responsibility for STEM community outreach, which has and will greatly impact the whole division.  We celebrated Stephaney Puchalski (Lab Coordinator for Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics and Engineering), Steve Marfiak (Chemistry), Mariola Kulaweic (Biology), Heather Levin (Biology), and Cindy Lee (Biology). Additional thanks go to Dr. Nate Means (biology faculty) for organizing the celebration.

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

• Highline College is hosting the 8th Annual Native Student Success Summit on May 21st. Information can be found here: https://nsss.highline.edu/ We are anticipating 120 registrations for this event with Native students from Kent, Renton, Highline, Federal Way, Puyallup Tribe and other locations.
• Two nursing faculty (Christine Couch and Ronda Durano) have been invited to UW to present at a nurse educator conference.
• Gabrielle Bachmeier participated on the Education Panel at the Seattle Southside Workforce and Education Summit. It was great to see Highline represented side by side with Chris Reykdal, OSPI, Dr. Ponce Pedroza, Superintendent of Tukwila School District, Juan Lozano, Principal of Puget Sound Skills Center and Arlen Harris, SBCTC, Moderator. Gabrielle’s comments were on point and generated positive feedback from attendees.
• The Pure and Applied Sciences Division was well represented at the Federal Way Public Schools STEM night. Representatives from Math (Terry Meerdink), Engineering (Cait Cramer), Geology (Jacob Selander), The Highline Women in STEM club, MESA, Computer Science and CIS (Syeda Nizami, Aaron Hayden), The MaSTCenter, and the Bring Your Kids To College outreach events (Stephaney Puchalski) each had tables at the event and engaged hundreds of students and families. Highline was a Gold sponsor of the event.

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

• Highline College is part of a Washington community college pilot with Whatcom, Skagit Valley, Bellevue, Bates, Clover Park, Renton Technical College and Lake Washington Institute that seeks to increase the number of faculty and educators in Western Washington who are equipped to deliver Microsoft AI skills to students and can then empower them with the tech skills needed to succeed in an AI-driven job market. They are doing an AI Bootcamp for Educators along with two 4-hour virtual trainings on how to deliver Microsoft AI courses and enhance or develop an AI training program to build capability for educators to integrate AI training into their existing curricula. CIS Faculty that are participating in this include: Emma Kong, Aaron Hayden, Ederly Beausilien, Ron Godfrey and Skyler Fulton (business department).
• A big thanks goes out to all of the wonderful students (and faculty and staff) who came out to celebrate Math Week and π Day! This was the biggest and most successful Math Week ever with many students turning out to learn more about how math works in the real-world, get help on finding their math pathways and building community through hands-on activities before finals week. Departments across campus collaborated on a range of activities including 5 Reasons Biologists Love Math (Mariola Kulawiec), Spin the Pi with Entry Advising (Kenton Westerfield and Karla Perez), Library Math Puzzles (Gerie Ventura), Physics of Electricity and Magnetism! (Aleya Dhanji), Geologic Math Activities! (Jacob Selander), Movie! – “Hidden Figures” (Katie Baker), and a Cookie Decorating Contest, Tutor Celebration and Potluck Bash (Dusty Wilson). Plus, how can we forget the Math Pizza Party + Pi Digits Contest? We have winner in the contest to list the most digits of π correctly. A big congratulations to STEM student Evan Takayoshi who correctly knew 315 digits!
• The Learning and Teaching Center held Highline’s very first teaching and learning Symposium with the theme being the impact of generative AI on student learning, workforce preparation, and equity and access in technology. A total of 59 faculty and staff participated in at least one workshop or event. The symposium culminated in a keynote address “The Three Es of Teaching With AI: Ethics, Equity, and Empowerment” by Flower Darby, author of The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching and Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes. A big thank you to our courageous student panelists who participated in “Learning in a World With AI” for sharing their experiences, insights, challenges, and ideas about what faculty can do to better support them in the classroom and in preparing for future careers.

Faculty/Staff Honors and Awards

• Eric Baer (Geology), along with co-author Kaaje Kraft from Whatcom C.C. presented “Creating More Equitable and Inclusive STEM Pathways by Reducing Barriers and Engaging a Broad Array of Stakeholders” to the Council for the Study of Community Colleges Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA on March 23, 2024.  They showed the results from a successful workshop on transfer for Washington state undergraduate geology students and offered insights for others wanting to model similar activities in other states.
• Cait Cramer (Engineering) was named a Pure and Applied Sciences Division Rock Rock Star for her amazing support of students in engineering as well as her significant and amazing contributions to the long-term growth of the Engineering program. She was also recognized for her work coordinating with Dean Liz Word and Zoe Harris on Engineering Transfer Pathways
• Laura Soracco (English) received an award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Scholarship from the Online Learning Consortium. She was specifically recognized for actively engaging in transformative pedagogical practices and advocating for anti-racist and inclusive teaching methods in online learning environments.
• Gerie Ventura (Associate Dean for Library and Learning Resources) has a poem, Apo Green’s Adventure, featured on public transit through the King County’s art in public places initiatives.

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