SDCCD: Community Engagement: Working With Others For The Benefit Of All

Press release from San Diego Community College District:

March 1, 2022

Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is
‘What are you doing for others?’ ” When it comes to the work being done by San Diego
College of Continuing Education (SDCCE) Dean of Career and College Transition Stephanie
Lewis, the answer is: a lot.

At the start of the pandemic, shortly after arriving at SDCCE, Lewis, whose responsibilities
include oversight of seven career centers that support Workforce and College Transition
efforts, as well as San Diego Promise and Gateway to College programs, helped launch
an Apprenticeship Readiness Program in March 2020. The program, which focuses on enrollment
of underserved populations, including women, formerly incarcerated, veterans, and
homeless students, saw its second and third cohort classes come through during the
2020-21 academic year. The 12-week program’s aim is to train students and qualify
them for a union apprenticeship in the Building and Trades industry within the San
Diego region.

“SDCCE’s Apprenticeship Readiness Program is creating equal access for minority populations
and for more women to enter the building and construction trades,” said Chancellor
Carlos O. Turner Cortez, Ph.D.

Lewis and her team have been focused on creating key partnerships with workforce leaders,
including the San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council and others, like Gafcon,
that are longtime members of the District’s Corporate Council, to drive the success
of the program and get students placed in apprenticeships. 

“It has been a hit,” she said. “In our second cohort, we had 24 students and 23 of
them are now in the union or in an apprenticeship with one student making the decision
to further their postsecondary education at one of our sister colleges.”

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis and her team, like so many others throughout
the District, were challenged to think differently about community partnerships.

“During the pandemic I learned how hard employees will work to support students,”
she said. “So many students came to us saying ‘I just need a job to survive,’ so we
had to identify and create partnerships outside of our traditional CTE pathways with
companies like Amazon, Target, and Macy’s to identify jobs that would allow us to
support students immediately.”  

For the Apprenticeship Readiness Program, which is typically very hands-on, new processes
were put in place to help keep students engaged and motivated in a virtual classroom.
Each student received a laptop and hot spot to connect to online classes. Employees
and leaders from community partners, including SDG&E, Clark Construction, and Pure
Water, participated in virtual discussions, and students were provided Safe Zone Training,
macroaggression workshops, and math instruction with a focus on construction math.

“We are constantly changing and evolving so that it works for the students and our
community partners,” Lewis said.

Throughout the pandemic, where in-person events continued to be cancelled, the District
created new ways to stay connected to the community.

- SDCCE’s Educational Cultural Center campus, in partnership with the County of San
Diego, hosted a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site. The center opened in March
provided 500-1,000 vaccinations to community members each day with both appointment
and walk-up services available. Students from various nursing programs throughout
the District worked at both testing and vaccination centers throughout the county
as a way to earn clinical hours while still learning remotely. 

- Rather than marching through Hillcrest, the SDCCD community came together to participate
in virtual events for San Diego Pride.

- Throughout the SDCCD, community engagement was seen when the colleges hosted a variety
of virtual programming, including movie screenings, guest speakers, presentations,
and musical performances, to celebrate various cultural awareness months, including
Hispanic Heritage in September, Black History in February, Women’s History in March,
and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage in May.

- Partnerships with Feeding San Diego and the San Diego Food Bank allowed all of the
District’s colleges to continue distributing fresh food and nonperishable items to
students and community members in need via drive-thru events throughout the pandemic.

This press release was produced by San Diego Community College District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.