Strengthening Student Success Conference
Breakout Session 5
Thursday, October 8 | 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm
Retention Lives in Relationship: Strengthening Student Support at Mendocino College
Strand: Humanizing Professional Learning and Leadership
Room: Garden 1
Over a three-year partnership, Mendocino College and the Career Ladders Project worked to strengthen the college’s capacity as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by focusing on equity-minded practices, servingness, and relationship-centered student support. Through professional learning sessions, student journey mapping, and cross-campus collaboration, faculty, staff, and administrators examined how institutional culture, mindsets, and everyday practices impact student belonging, persistence, and completion.
This session will share the structure of this work, lessons learned, and examples of small but meaningful practice changes that improved the student experience. Participants will engage in interactive activities and leave with tools and strategies to support culture change and improve student success on their own campuses.
Presenter: Byron Reaves, Career Ladders Project
Supporting Student Motivation in Co-Requisite Math Courses: Lessons From Citrus College and Motivate Lab
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom
Room: Garden 2
Motivation and learning mindsets play a powerful role in student success, particularly in corequisite courses. This session highlights how research on growth mindset, purpose and relevance, and belonging can be translated into practical classroom strategies.
Presenters from Motivate Lab and Citrus College will share how math faculty implemented practices from the Motivational Learning Course (MLC) to strengthen students’ learning experiences in gateway math courses. Participants will explore examples of classroom strategies, messaging approaches, and course design practices that support student motivation and belonging. The session will also share early insights from implementation and discuss how mindset-supportive teaching practices can contribute to more equitable student outcomes.
Presenters: Robert Chen and Claudia Ramirez, Citrus College; Chris Hulleman and Antoinette Magee, Motivate Lab
Combined Session
Beyond the Brush: Cultivating Student Success Through Collaborative Art and Courageous Care (30 minutes)
Strand: Creating Support Systems for Students and Employees
Room: Garden 3
The Porterville College mural project offers an example of courageous care, demonstrating how creativity, collaboration, and student voice can advance student success across diverse lived realities. The college’s first student-created mural, the initiative began as an Art Club concept and expanded into a campuswide, community-supported endeavor guided by Fine Arts faculty and instructional leadership. With support, students shaped the mural’s octopus motif to symbolize versatility, adaptability, and the Pirate spirit central to Porterville College identity.
This workshop frames the mural as more than visual enhancement; it functions as an equity-centered mechanism for belonging, resilience, and authentic expression. Presenters will share strategies for bridging institutional silos, engaging community partners, and elevating students as co-creators. Participants will leave with practical approaches to embed artistic collaboration and inclusive care within campus culture.
Presenters: Jackie Buttice, Kallie Cordoba, and Michelle Miller-Galaz, Porterville College
Reclaiming Joy: How Studio Q at Evergreen Valley College Drives LGBTQ+ Student Success and Belong (30 minutes)
Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions
Room: Garden 3
Studio Q Pride Center at Evergreen Valley College demonstrates that affirming, intersectional student spaces are not peripheral to student success—they are central to it. This session presents an equity-driven model for strengthening LGBTQ+ student belonging, persistence, and achievement across the California Community Colleges system.
Drawing on student testimonials, Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) data, course success rates, and persistence data, participants will examine how Studio Q’s Ally Ambassador Program and Safe Zone Training create intersectional campus-wide cultures of inclusion. Through interactive discussions and an individual action planning activity, participants will leave with concrete, transferable strategies for building joyful, affirming, and equitable LGBTQ+ student success initiatives at their own institutions.
Presenter: John Ruys, Evergreen Valley College
Conditions for Completion: How Campus Environments and Intersectionality Shape Success for Students
Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions
Room: Garden 4
How do campus environments impact the success of historically marginalized students? This session presents preliminary findings from the statewide Conditions for Completion survey, exploring how factors like campus climate, “racelighting,” and institutional belonging influence academic outcomes.
Grounded in an intersectionality framework, research highlights the unique experiences of students with intersecting identities (e.g., parenting, LGBTQ+, students of color). Joined by college practitioners, the panel will bridge data with practice, sharing first-hand perspectives on environmental facilitators and barriers to success. Participants will engage with evidence-based tools and solutions designed to move campuses beyond enrollment metrics toward fostering equity-driven, race-conscious environments. This interactive session provides actionable strategies that attendees can take back to their institutions to intentionally affirm every student’s path toward achieving their educational goals.
Presenters: Frank Harris and Marissa Vasquez, Community College Equity Assessment Lab; Katie Brohawn and Darla Cooper, The RP Group
- Listening to Student-Parents: Using Student Voice to Improve College Supports
Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions
Room: Harbor
Student-parents represent a growing population in community colleges, yet often face barriers that impact persistence and completion. This session shares how Bakersfield College conducted mixed-method research with a comprehensive survey and student-parent focus groups to better understand these experiences and inform institutional improvements.
Presenters will describe the design and implementation, including recruitment strategies, discussion prompts, and methods used to capture student feedback. Preliminary findings highlighting barriers, service gaps, and student recommendations will be shared.
The session will emphasize the role of student voice in equity-minded institutional planning and demonstrate how mixed-method research can inform improvements to services and communication for student-parents. Participants will leave with practical tools and strategies for engaging student parents and incorporating their perspectives into institutional decision-making.
Presenters: Sooyeon Kim and Lysander Ramos, Bakersfield College; Kristin Rascon, Kern Community College District
Keeping Learning Human in an AI Age: High-Impact Practices for Student Engagement
Strand: Navigating Disruption in a Shifting System
Room: Pacific
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping teaching, learning, and student expectations, raising important questions about engagement, equity, and the role of human judgment in education. This interactive session explores how human-centered, high-impact practices can sustain meaningful student engagement in an AI-enabled environment. Grounded in 3CSN principles of effective professional learning and informed by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office HUMAN framework for responsible, equity-centered AI adoption, the session models a practitioner-driven approach that builds community, centers student experience, and supports intentional instructional design.
Through reflection and collaborative inquiry, participants will explore how to design learning experiences that foster connection, reflection, and purpose while helping educators reconnect with joy in teaching. The session also addresses how AI-related practices, if implemented without attention to equity and inclusion, can unintentionally reproduce racial inequities. Participants will leave with practical frameworks and facilitation tools adaptable to their own contexts and post-conference learning. Those interested in deeper application are invited to continue this work in the Keep Learning Human in an AI Age: High-Impact Practices for Student Engagement post-conference workshop.
Presenters: Kimberly Rosenfeld, Cerritos College/3CSN; Diana Bonilla, LA Mission College/3CSN
- Humanizing Through Action: Centering Students & Building Collective Capacity Through Professional Development
Strand: Humanizing Professional Learning & Leadership Development
Room: Salon 1
Golden West College’s Center for Innovation and Learning has transformed our professional development culture, achieved widespread buy-in, and realized tangible outcomes through centering students’ experiences inside and outside the classroom. Participants in this interactive and engaging session will benefit from our best practices (and lessons learned) and use these to inform their own institution-specific enhancements.
Our student co-presenters will feature their experiences, and we will share practical strategies, tools, and examples in these areas: leveraging existing assets and shared governance structures, identifying funding sources, sustaining momentum, incorporating data literacy, and upskilling equitable and inclusive approaches across constituencies. Participants will also receive behind-the-scenes insight into our in-house approach to building and facilitating high-quality, engaging, well-attended, and student success-centered professional development.
Presenters: Nagham Almerie, Erin Craig, Sacha Moore, Puthipanhavath Songtheary, and Uyen Tran, Golden West College
Building a Student Services-Based Case Management Model: Turning Data, Outreach, and Care Into Action
Strand: Creating Support Systems for Students & Employees
Room: Salon 7/8
A Student Services-based case management model can transform how colleges guide students through their first two years. At Cosumnes River College, Success Coaches built a structured, equity‑minded framework that blends data, proactive outreach, and personalized care to support students from onboarding through their second year. This session will share how the team created clear goals, intentional touchpoints, and scalable workflows across nine Career and Academic Communities (meta‑majors), even while managing high caseloads.
Presenters will highlight how housing case management in Student Services creates seamless access to counseling, financial aid, basic needs, and other supports that shape a strong student experience. Participants will leave with practical strategies for turning caseloads into careloads and building a student‑centered foundation on their own campuses.
Presenters: Gurpreet Bhatia, Katherin Mize, Hong Pham, Linda Vang, Choua Vue, and Houa Vue, Cosumnes River College
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