Tag: Academics

Sierra College Elevates Amy Schulz to Executive Dean, Workforce and Strategic Initiatives

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Schulz Will Focus on Building Connections With Local Employers, Implementing New Workforce Development Programs

Sierra College has promoted Amy Schulz to a newly created position of Executive Dean for Workforce and Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Schulz will focus on regional workforce strategic planning, building connections with local employers, and the implementation of new workforce development programs.

“Workforce development is critical for regional economic growth, and Amy is uniquely qualified to cultivate the necessary partnerships with employers, economic development groups and educators at every level from high school through university to make it happen,” said Sierra College Superintendent/President Willy Duncan. “Through this role, Amy will expand Sierra College’s leadership in workforce development which will increase equitable access to high paying, rewarding jobs for our students.”

Previously, Schulz served as Dean for the Business and Technology Academic Division, where she oversaw 13 academic programs, including business, computer science, IT, human development, public safety, advanced manufacturing, welding, building industries and mechatronics. Schulz also oversaw Career, Continuing and Technical education programs, including managing CTE funding for Sierra College’s 21 Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

As Executive Dean for Workforce and Strategic Initiatives, Schulz will take on an expanded strategic and relationship role for the college, while continuing to oversee CTE programming and funding as a critical element of regional workforce development. She also will continue to oversee Sierra College’s Learning Independence for Future Employment (LIFE) program, which provides training, support and community integration programming to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition, Schulz will coordinate sector and employer engagement to identify skilled workforce needs and implementation of guided academic pathways for students, including dual enrollment with local high schools, transfer and degree completion efforts, as well as related grant-funded workforce programs.

“Sierra College is in a special position to provide individuals at all stages of life and career with the training and skills needed to secure good-paying jobs, matched to the evolving needs of our local employers,” said Schulz. “Partnerships are the ‘secret sauce’ to making sure we are providing practical, relevant education and building the workforce pipeline that will keep our regional economy thriving. I’m thankful for the tremendous advantages in this region, where education, industry and community are willing to work together to create many different, equitable pathways to quality jobs.”

About Sierra College

Sierra College is rising to the needs of our community. Sierra College serves 3,200 square miles of Northern California with campuses in Rocklin, Grass Valley, and Truckee. With approximately 125 degree and certificate programs, Sierra College is ranked first in Northern California (Sacramento north) for transfers to four-year universities, offers career/technical training, and classes for upgrading job skills. Sierra graduates can be found in businesses and industries throughout the region. More information at www.sierracollege.edu.

Sierra College Fall 2024 Semester Begins with Largest Enrollment in Five Years

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Exciting Start to the Fall Semester

Sierra College is proud to announce the start of the Fall 2024 semester, which began on August 19, with an impressive enrollment of over 19,000 students – an 11% increase from Fall 2023 and the highest enrollment since 2018.

“It’s an exciting start to the fall semester,” said Willy Duncan, Sierra College Superintendent/President. “We are pleased to have our fall enrollment reach levels we haven’t seen in five years, and we are prepared to support our students on their path to success.”

To kick off the new academic year, Sierra College held Welcome Day events across the Rocklin, Nevada County, and Tahoe-Truckee campuses. These events provided students with an opportunity to connect with peers, explore Sierra College’s programs, and learn about available services.

At Sierra College, students have access to comprehensive services designed to support both their academic goals and personal well-being, whether they are enrolled in a six-week certificate program or pursuing a two-year degree. Students are connected with a team of staff members, including a counselor, support specialist, and financial aid professional, which provides continuous support throughout their academic journey. Students can also utilize the resources available through the Basic Needs Center which can assist with housing, food, employment, health and wellness, transportation, and financial assistance, allowing them to focus on their education. This wrap-around support system is designed to help students navigate their educational path to completion with confidence. For more information about student services, please visit: https://www.sierracollege.edu/student-services.

In collaboration with local and regional transportation partners, Sierra College has made getting to all four campuses easy and accessible. Students can take advantage of free bus transportation by simply showing a current Sierra College ID when they board any Roseville Transit, Placer County Transit, Auburn Transit, Nevada County Connects and/or Tahoe Truckee Area Regional Transit bus. Sierra College is proud to offer an additional way for students to safely travel to and from campus in the evenings via a subsidized, on-demand student transportation partnership with Uber. More information is available at https://www.sierracollege.edu/ridefree.

With these comprehensive resources in place, Sierra College looks forward to fostering an environment where all students can thrive both academically and personally in the coming semester.

About Sierra College

The Sierra College District is rising to the needs of our community. Sierra College serves 3,200 square miles of Northern California with campuses in Roseville, Rocklin, Grass Valley, and Truckee. With approximately 190 degree and certificate programs, Sierra College offers career/technical training, and classes for upgrading job skills. Sierra graduates can be found in businesses and industries throughout the region. More information at www.sierracollege.edu.

Sierra College to Create Seamless Pathways into the Sacramento State Black Honors College

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Sierra College Expands its Partnership with Sacramento State as One of 25 Community Colleges to Create Seamless Pathways into the Sacramento State Black Honors College

Diverse group of leaders posed for a photo in front of a Sacramento State banner.

Sierra College and Sacramento State have a long, and strong history together and we recognize Sac State as the largest transfer destination for Sierra College students.

This agreement will provide a strong pathway for Sierra College students to continue their education locally at the nation’s first-ever Black Honors College! 

Sierra College was represented at the signing event on June 13, 2024 during the CSU Juneteenth Symposium by Vice President of Student Services Lucas Moosman.

Learn more about the Sacramento State Black Honors College and view more details on the Sac State Facebook and Sierra College Facebook pages.

Bhc Signing Juneteenth Symposium 6 14 24 6 15 24 Ap 41
Sacramento State President Luke Wood and Sierra College VP of Student Services Lucas Moosman.

Four Sierra College Students Awarded with 2024 Emerging Journalist Fellowship 

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California Humanities 2024 Journalism Team
From left to right: Aidan Puentes, Jeralynn Querubin, Miranda Ricks, and Greg Micek.

Achievement Marks Third Year Sierra’s Journalism Program, Student Fellows Have Been Awarded

Sierra College students Miranda Ricks, Greg Micek, Aidan Puentes, and Jeralynn Querubin were named recipients of the 2024 Emerging Journalist Fellowships. They were among 22 recipients from six California Community Colleges to receive the fellowship from the California Humanities Foundation.

Sierra College was awarded fellowships for four students, the maximum the grant allows. This was the third year Sierra College students have been awarded funding from the California Humanities Foundation.

Presented in partnership with California Community Colleges, this statewide initiative provides financial support, professional training, and mentorship to student journalists as they conduct in-depth reporting projects on subjects and issues of importance to their campus and community. 

For this year’s project, Micek said, “Our team from Sierra College are working on a series of pieces on the state of Fentanyl in our local Northern California community.”

The team project aligns well with Rick’s future plans as a journalist.

“My hope is to be involved in harm reduction through journalism, destigmatizing drug use by sharing stories and covering news regarding the opioid epidemic in California,” Ricks said.

The Emerging Journalist Fellowship program first launched in 2019 as part of the national Democracy and the Informed Citizen initiative, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The fellowship program has since grown to include partnerships with community college campuses throughout the state.

California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, promotes the humanities—focused on ideas, conversation, and learning—as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect people to each other to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975.  

Sierra College Showcases 2023 Cohort of Innovators

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i3 Students Proudly Presented Their Ideas, Celebrated Their Accomplishments

Innovation and entrepreneurship are in-demand skills that students want to hone and employers want to hire.

At Sierra College, students are building them through the pilot Invention and Inclusive Innovation (i3) cohort and student showcase, an exciting finale where they present their ideas to faculty, community business members and entrepreneurs. 

Sierra’s cohort enrolled in three classes that integrated specific skill sets: Social Entrepreneurship, 21st Century Skills, and Rapid Prototyping. The showcase event – held in December – featured four unique team presentations, each addressing a special community need or social venture with the support of the Western Placer Waste Management Authority (WPWMA). 

The presenting teams were: 

  • “Ghost Power,” with Vincent Amihan, Jeffrey Serpa, Manual Hernandez and Duncan Arnett; 
  • “Recycle Think,” with Andrea Gutierrez; 
  • “Styrofarm,” with Claudio Aravena, Emily Combs, Killian Lesher and Simon Leonard; 
  • “Clean & Go,” with Christiaan Myburgh, Caleb Caudill and Jean Bikindou; and 
  • “Datewise,” with Rel Schoonover and Sorayda Maldonado. 

“It is inspiring to see the i3 Program students so excited about innovation and manufacturing creative solutions for tackling some of the problems in the waste and recycling industry,” said Emily Hoffman, Public Information Assistant at WPWMA. “We were honored to give these students a peek behind the curtain as they toured our facility to learn how waste is sorted, processed and recycled in Placer County.”

She added, “There’s a very bright future for our region with programs like i3 at Sierra College.”  

The i3 program is a collaboration between the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Lemelson-MIT Program, modeled after the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams. The InvenTeams are groups of high school students, educators, and mentors that invent technological solutions to real-world problems of their own choosing. 

Schoonover of the Datewise team encouraged other students to participate in future cohorts by saying, “Keep an open mind, let go of barriers. This is a great opportunity.” 

Caudill of the Clean & Go team added, “If you want to be an entrepreneur or run a business, this is [the program] you need to take.” 

Sierra College is one of only four California Community Colleges in partnership with Lemelson-MIT to offer this program, which invites students into the world of social entrepreneurship and innovation while helping them grow their workforce readiness skills. 

Gutierrez of the Recycle Think team said, “You don’t need to forget who you are to be who you are. You can draw here and you can create here.” 

“The best part of this year’s iteration was to watch how a group of diverse and incredibly talented students can come together in a learning community within a 16-week period, grow exponentially, and create complex, viable prototypes to solve an urgent community problem,” said Denis Bushnell, Sierra College faculty member and i3 program coordinator. 

Starting in fall 2024, the i3 learning community concept will transform from a cohort model into an individual, formal non-credit Certificate of Completion class called Entrepreneurship for Makers. The certificate will consist of three courses: Starting a Small Business; Essential Skills (formerly 21st Century Skills); and Rapid Prototyping.   

More information about the i3 program at Sierra College, visit sierracollege.edu/i3. 

Sierra College Car Club Takes Laps at Sonoma Raceway with Their Notta Miata 2002 Mini Cooper

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Students Put Their Automotive Skills, Knowledge to the Test

The Sierra College Car Club has been working hard to reinvigorate and revitalize the club to expand its membership. As a way to build momentum and excitement, they decided to set a serious stretch-goal to garner more interest and participation in their club. The goal? Build and race a race car.

Putting pedal to the metal, the club set their sights on competing in time for the 24 Hours of LeMONS event held Dec. 1 and 2, 2023 in Sonoma.

The event is an endurance racing series that is, according to the organizers, a competition using a car that is “bought and track-prepped for $500 or less (not including safety equipment, brakes, and wheels/tires).”

But first, the club had to find a low- or no-cost car somehow.

Green-lighted

Their goal began to unlock when a 2002 Mini Cooper was donated to the club. This sounds like a strong start, but because it was an abandoned car that no longer ran, they had a lot of work ahead of them. Nevertheless, the club members were elated. In fact, since they knew most lower budget race cars competing in the event tend to be Mazda Miatas, they decided to name their “new” pride and joy, Notta Miata.

From there, serious effort went into getting the car race-ready.

The work ranged from the engine, which had to be replaced with one from Pick-n-Pull due to a rod bearing failure in the original, to adding a safety cage being student-fabricated and installed in the car with the help of more than 100 student welding hours. The project required expertise and dedication from students and faculty.

“We had to take an interdisciplinary approach when preparing the race car for the LeMONS,” said Matt Casinias, student president of the Sierra College Car Club. “The project not only included car club members, but also required collaboration between the Engineering, Welding and Robotics clubs as well.”

Together, the students had a car ready in time for the LeMONS race. Check out the before and after pictures of Notta Miata.

Off to the Races

At the event, they successfully passed a rigorous safety inspection and soon had Notta Miata – race car number #115 – on the racetrack. It completed 53 running laps on its first day. Not bad considering that prior to the race, the car had only done a few laps around the parking lot at the Sierra College Rocklin Campus. But the first day wasn’t without challenges, including stuck starter solenoids, burned wiring and damaged alternators. Undeterred, the students took care of the minor issues, including changing the starter, replacing damaged wiring and rotating the tires.

There was so much energy and excitement in the team’s success on the first day that it spilled over onto other teams as the club walked around the paddock talking with and checking on competitors’ status. This turned into an evening of helping others. In fact, several teams who were preparing to leave due to hard failures were able to return to the track on Sunday with support from the Sierra College students. 

Teamwork Pays Off

This willingness to help others led to the team being given the eBay motors “Heroic Fix” award. The award is usually given to a team that overcame an obstacle with their car, but the Sierra College team was recognized for helping others up and down the pit row to overcome their obstacles and keep racing.

The racing weekend ended Sunday morning for the race car on its 16th lap when the car met the wall on turn 11. Thankfully, no one was injured, but it did end the race for Notta Miata.

“The camaraderie and teamwork that helped get us to the track was seen by everyone there and was an incredible representation of Sierra College,” said Roy Ingram, Sierra College Mechatronics instructor and Car Club advisor. “It was an incredible weekend and what a way to show how a community college can contribute to their community.”

Casinias added, “Just being involved in this club has opened a lot of doors and opportunities that I wouldn’t have been able to find on my own.”

Support the Car Club

While the cars may sometimes be free, the price tag to build a race car is expensive; however, the experience for students is priceless. If you want to support the Sierra College Car Club, follow them on Instagram @sierracollegemotorsports to find out when you can see their work and their cars.

Sierra College Nursing Program Ranked #1 in California by RegisteredNursing.org

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Sierra College is proud to announce the recognition of the Sierra College Registered Nursing (RN) program as the number one program in the “15 Best ADN (Associate Degree in Nursing) Programs in the Western Region for 2024,” by RegisteredNursing.org. 

RegisteredNurse.org ranked the top nursing schools in California by analyzing several factors, including current and historical NCLEX-RN “pass rates,” academic quality, the nursing school’s reputation, and affordability. Programs reviewed include schools that offer an associate in nursing (ADN/ASN), BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing), or Direct-Entry MSN Degree.  

The complete methodology for the ranking is available at https://www.registerednursing.org/rn-ranking-methodology/ 

“Nursing students at Sierra College start from the first semester practicing board type questions, making them think critically,” said Nancy James, MS, RN, NP, Dean, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Sierra College. “Critical thinking is imperative to effective nursing, and this recognition shows that Sierra College nursing students are ready when they leave our campus to immediately contribute as employable nurses.”

The Allied Health Pre-Nursing program is one of the most popular at Sierra College with more than 1,500 students each year, with many students earning their degree in Registered Nursing and going on to pass the NCLEX-RN to become registered nurses. 

“Our program’s continued success relies entirely on our dedicated nursing faculty, who ensure excellence both in the classroom and clinical settings, and the smart, intuitive and committed students who value so highly, the role of the registered nurse and the importance of patient advocacy at every level,” added James. 

More information on the nursing program at Sierra College is available at https://www.sierracollege.edu/nursing

About Sierra College 

The Sierra College District is rising to the needs of our community. Sierra College serves 3,200 square miles of Northern California with campuses in Roseville, Rocklin, Grass Valley, and Truckee. With approximately 125 degree and certificate programs, Sierra College is ranked first in Northern California (Sacramento north) for transfers to four-year universities, offers career/technical training and classes for upgrading job skills. Sierra graduates can be found in businesses and industries throughout the region. More information at www.sierracollege.edu 

Diane Wittman-Punteri: 62-Year-Old Sierra College Graduate, Overcoming Obstacles and Making Plans to Pursue Further Degrees

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I graduated from Folsom High School in 1972. I always wanted to go to College. Sierra College was the College I wanted to attend, however I had different circumstances and just did not have the courage to apply and go. I ended up moving to the Bay Area-Oakland in particular because I had to work and help to support my Mother.

I was recruited to learn to be an Escrow Officer at a major Title Insurance Company – Transamerica. I always wanted to return to live in Sacramento and go to Sierra College. My parents separated and my Dad who retired at Mather Air Force Base, left my Mother and four children. She was forced to go on Welfare and I had to finish my 12th year of High School. I did leave and move and continued for many years to come back to Sacramento to see and help my Mother.

It was not until thirty years later that I decided to move back with my three kids and go to Sierra College. I lived in the foothills near my sister – Nevada City/Grass Valley and started in Spring of 2003. I took an Art class because I thought it would be fun. Then I realized that I was afraid of learning due to a disability of processing and reading. It took me going to Sierra College until 2010 before I went into the Disabled Student Services to be tested for learning disabilities. I was tested and given services. The primary problem I have is having enough time to read and being an auditory learner. This meant that I received books on tapes for my classes and extra time with exams in order to read at the slow difficult pace I had. The good news is my reading did improve, but the disability will be something I will always have to work extra to overcome.

At the beginning I had three children as young as 5th grade and oldest in 9th grade, so it was difficult going to school and working full time. It was not until I got really serious and took more than one class that I knew I would attain an Associate of Art degree in 2015. I also was admitted to UC Davis for the fall of 2016 as well, however my husband was transferred to Tucson Arizona. I am now going to school to finish a Bachelor of Studio Art – BFA in the Spring of 2017. I will continue on – God willing and work to get a Masters level as well…

Sierra College is such a great Community College and through the years I have met so many great teachers. I did end up at the Rocklin campus finishing the last of my transfer units. I was so excited to graduate at the age of 62 in May of 2016.

Thank you so much Sierra College and the staff that helped me through those years of doubt and lack of confidence! I shall always be forever grateful for all that you have done for me.

Diane Wittman-Punteri at the NCC Commencement in 2016
Diane at the NCC Commencement in May, 2016 – PHOTO SUBMITTED BY DIANE WITTMAN-PUNTERI