Area Report for Board of Trustees

We are preparing for a successful beginning to Fall Quarter. Most faculty are on well-deserved breaks, though Department Coordinators and Division Chairs are watching enrollment and making changes in the schedule in response to student demand. Staff are working to get things in place prior to the start of the quarter.

Those of us on campus on August 30 enjoyed a Midsummer Merienda from 3pm – 4pm, outside on the plaza between Building 7 and 8 with amazing Italian sodas and an array of sweet and savory treats. As promised, Gerie Ventura, Library Director, also set up an “Introvert Table” complete with puzzle to facilitate quiet connecting. To celebrate our new Mission Fulfillment Report, Gerie also informed us that “if you must connect this with a Core Theme, it’s Core Theme 3, Objective 2, Indicator 2. Look it up.” Many thanks to Gerie and others who created this welcoming and restorative event.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS

Achieve Program

Highline’s Achieve program exceeded our enrollment target of 50 students for the 2022-23 academic year. 59 students have been accepted into an Achieve certificate program. Of the 50 students, 41 are co-enrolled in a local school district. 2022-23 school district partnerships include: Federal Way Public Schools, Highline School District, Tukwila School District, Seattle Public Schools, Mercer Island School District, Issaquah School District, Kent School District and Summit Public Schools.

High School Engagement Team

In partnership with Federal Way Public Schools, Dave O’Keefe and Josh Gerstman, our High School Engagement team is working to secure the Regional Challenge Grant. The Regional Challenge Grant grants will support local or regional partnerships among K-12, colleges, and community-based organizations and has a total of $22 million dollars, to be used over three years, for eligible applicants across the state.

Grantees will seek to:

• Implement or expand innovative interventions to increase college enrollment and completion.
• Support high school students or adult learners.
• Eliminate opportunity gaps for marginalized populations.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING

New NSF grant

NSF has awarded Highline and PI Dr. Aleya Dhanji nearly $600,000 for a study “Advancing Culturally Responsive Team Learning for Underserved Students in the STEM Classroom: Motivation and Engagement Across Different Class Modalities.”   Dr. Eric Baer and Dr. Yayhyung Cho will serve as co-principal investigators. Dr. Dhanji shared this about the project: “We hope that results of the work will amplify the work of Title III, GP and the Equity First strategy, and lead to innovative practices in the classroom. We actually ended up applying for the ‘Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-year Institutions of Higher Education’ … so PD (professional development) for faculty and implementation of culturally responsive group work practices will be an integral part. We would love to share more in fall quarter once we start preparing to begin the work.”

Aviso update

Liz Word, Marc Lentini, and Tim Wrye are leading the implementation of the student success software system which will support student advising, among other functions. Aviso was recently purchased by a company called Watermark Insights, and has announced plans to re-brand the Aviso product as Watermark Student Success and Engagement. The project team is working on Highline-specific branding in light of the new name.

The implementation team has completed the following tasks in the last few weeks:

• Begun implementing Academic Plans.
• Completed Part 2 of the Early Adopter training. Recordings will being shared soon.
• Continued configuration of the text messaging tool; identified a pilot group for testing.
• Continued constructing and refining data feeds for academic planning tools.
• Initiated development of training resources for the fall launch.

In the coming weeks, the Implementation Team will be making the following decisions/updates:

• Continue to work with additional departments on alert handling and meeting scheduling options.
• Scheduling open Q&A time to assist early adopters
• Complete construction of data feeds for academic planning tools.
• Reviewing and validating roles and permissions.
• Implementing Highline-specific branding to align with the new product name.

Big thanks to Marc Lentini for filling in on behalf of Shawna Freeman, and to Carmen Leung and Michael Murphy for assisting with entering education plan data into the Watermark system.

ELCAP update: After almost 2 years of not doing CASAS testing (our federally required test used to measure performance and therefore an indicator of how much grant funds we receive), we have achieved a department average of getting 75% of our total summer enrollments tested for CASAS. This includes our remote classes that were not required to be on campus, so students made the extra effort of coming to campus to get tested. Emmy Nielson, a part-time faculty member in ELCAP, had the highest percentage of students come in and test with 88% of her students CASAS tested.

MaST updates: In August, the MaST Center gained a School to Work volunteer who is a part of Highline’s Community & Employment Services program. While volunteering at the MaST Center the student is assessed in a working environment to help obtain skills that will be used in future employment. The volunteer assists with tank maintenance, animal feedings, and facility care.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Library Represented at Highline’s Midsummer Q Center Pride Picnic

Gerie Ventura, Library Director, represented the Highline College Library at the Midsummer Q Center Pride Picnic on August 6. It was a great opportunity to be alongside Women’s Programs and Counseling staff, building community with many students and their families. The effort was library-wide, with library employees in Circulation Services and Reference Services collaborating to recommend and gather books of interest to Q Center students. Students and their families were super interested in the library display and definitely stopped by, made positive comments about the beautiful book display, and asked questions about library services. A few even sat and read a children’s book or two!

MaST updates

• July 1 & Aug. 12, Sea Critter Story Time by King County Library, hosted by the MaST Center, reoccurring monthly program.  Approximately 60 pre-k/kindergarteners virtually joined us for stories and an educational program in the aquarium.
• July 15^th, The Low Tide Trek Volunteer Social Event on July 15th was a success with 8 volunteers catching new critters for the tanks and completing a sea star wasting disease survey!
• July 30^th, the MaST Center was a host site for the Microsoft Intern Games! More than 80 Microsoft interns stopped in to view the specimens on display and marine animals in the tanks. For many of them, this was their first time interacting with marine animals or the Puget Sound!  Microsoft will be making a donation to the MaST Center.
• July 31^st, the MaST Center hosted the first Underseas Technician Alumni Event. 14 Alumni attended with 25 total guests.  Alumni graduated from Highline between 1973 and 1983 from the Underseas Technician program which was housed at the MaST location from the late ‘60’s to early ‘90’s.  A Facebook group started by an alumnus is growing and there was interest in repeat next summer.
• August 13^th, over 360 visitors joined us for Dogfish Days of Summer! The visitors learned about how pet and human waste can lead to water quality issues, the different ways humans impact local wildlife, and what sharks call Puget Sound home! During the event, the public was able to see shark specimens, test their shark knowledge, and visit the aquarium! Participating organizations include: Poogooder, Public Health Seattle & King County, Washington SCUBA Alliance, Friends of Saltwater State Park, Highline College – Continuing Education, The Hub – Federal Way Higher Education Center, and Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group.
• August 27^th, Sleeping with the Fishes overnight event for volunteers, including professional development, fun and games
• Exhibits at the MaST
  • July was the final month for the exhibit “We are Puget Sound”, a photographic journey through the region.  Interactive display “Stars and Stripes: Seastars and striped animals of the Sound.
  • August is featuring underwater photography by local divers showcasing local marine life.  Interactive display, Sharks of the Sound.

Puget Sound Welcome Back Center

On Sunday, September 18 from 2 – 5 p.m., Jewish Family Services in partnership with The Puget Sound Welcome Back Center will host a professional networking event at Highline Community College for clients in our Refugee & Immigrant Services (RIS) program. The focus for this event is on job preparation through resume writing help, mock interviews, and connection to industry partners.

Division Honors and Achievements

ACHIEVE

Achieve student Mahad Dahir has been elected as ASHC Vice President. Mahad is in his second year of the Achieve Comprehensive Transition program. He was referred to Achieve at Highline College by Open Doors for Multicultural Families. At the end of this report is an article Mahad wrote for Think College at the Institute on Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Community and Employment Services (CES)  

Employment Consultant, Maxwell Doggett was recently appointed to the Microsoft-CBRE Global Workplace Services Advisory Council where he will serve as an advisor to leadership for the next two years.  This is our department’s second staff member to serve in this role.

Highline CES students and Achieve graduates featured in an article about the Microsoft Support Employment Program in the Global Diversity and Inclusion section of their website. Achieve graduate Andrew Scott is on the cover and CES student Axel Marroquin‘s photo and professional contributions to quality improvement are noted in the newsletter. Additionally, there is a story about the value and benefit to business and managers CES developed Best Practices workshops bring to the Microsoft and employer community.

MaST

MaST Center hired Adam Schare as our new full time Lead Aquarist.  Adam will be starting 9/7.

MaST by the numbers for July and 1^st half of August

• 20 New volunteers
• 354 hours – Total hours
• 1632 Total visitors for July.  By end of August, MaST will have had over 9,000 visitors in 2022 and on track for over 15,000 visitors for the year.

Think College Article, By Mahad Dahir

Greetings one and all from Seattle, Washington a city of opportunity whose population is diverse. Unfortunately, the opportunities for BIPOC communities are finite from leadership to economic woes to human rights violations spanning decades. There are challenges that Seattle just like the rest of the nation is facing, but with solidarity with each other’s struggles we can really achieve true and joyful liberation across global boundaries from this capitalist system. Before I delve into my plan for that goal, here’s a story about yours truly.

My name is Mahad Dahir and I was diagnosed with autism at an early age which impacts my ability to communicate with the people around me. I’m also the son of a refugee whose community has stigmas regarding mental health and disability awareness. Growing up in Portland and Seattle, I was put in special education classes with other students from various backgrounds. I attend Highline College in Des Moines, WA just south of Seattle. This college has one of the most diverse student populations in the country. It has therefore been at the forefront of social change and human rights awareness for all its students. But there are a set of students who feel like their needs are not centered in the policy-making process. That’s why there is a special program that not only meets these students need but also train them in order to prepare them on how to interact with society. This program is called Achieve and it centers students with disabilities. It really connects them with resources along with how to contribute their time and energy to their communities. I got accepted into this program with the help of this amazing organization dedicated to service immigrant and refugee communities and their loved ones with disabilities. Open Doors for Multicultural Families partners with the college to ensure that students in its Pathway to Graduation program not only get into the college but ensure that they too can be model citizens for their communities in order to create the change that we’ve all been fighting for.

I’ve recently been elected vice president of the Associated Students council at Highline. I’m the first person from the Achieve program to ever been elected to the student body government. It is an honor to be in this role at the same time it allows me to become a voice to speak up on issues impacting students with disabilities. These students have been historically silenced when it comes to the decisions that impact them in a major way. It is super imperative that a student of color with a background of uplifting my fellow students with disabilities represent communities like mine because they need to have someone advocating for their needs and interests. I’m going to my position to create policies that will have a tremendous impact on students with disabilities at Highline College. I will also partner with organizations dedicated to fighting for immigrant rights ensuring that students with disabilities that come from immigrant backgrounds not only be educated about the issues that impact their lives but also help them advocate for what they believe in. As we move forward, there are a couple of principles that has to be in place, number one, the education of issues that are of importance for our students of color with disabilities and number two, giving them the platform to speak up on their views and beliefs. By following these values along working together, we can truly achieve liberation as a united front for all students with disabilities not only in education but in other fields such as legal, employment and medical services. Legislation is also key to holding our elected officials accountable to enacting these policies that enable this type of liberation. With that said, I have contributed in passing landmark legislation allowing immigrant parents better understand how their children especially those with disabilities are performing in school. This legislation is known as, “Language Access in Public Schools” or Washington state House Bill 1153 (HB1153) and it really empowers immigrant families through the interpretation of critical documents such as an IEP to make better informed decision on how to move forward with their children in terms of their educational career. That was a part of a series of bills that empower immigrant families and their loved ones with disabilities to create the change that we’ve all been fighting for in our country.

In closing, I hope that what I’ve wrote here can serve as an inspiration for your journey into advocacy and liberation in your communities. As you do though, please continue to educate the people in your communities about the issues that impact immigrants and refugees because it is not about us here in the Greater Seattle Area, but all of us as a nation to move forward on a liberation agenda that uplifts everybody. As you go about your day, remember to let love lead the way!!!!

Report submitted Sep 2, 2022, by Vice President Dr. Emily Lardner