March 27, 2023

Please join me in congratulating your Solano College speech and debate team on winning the prestigious California Community College Forensics Association State Championship. On March 8^th - 13^th, your Solano Falcons competed at this year's state championships and took home the Jim Miller Perpetual Sweepstakes Award and 2nd Place Overall Sweepstakes. The Jim Miller award is a cumulative award of points from years of competition and is the result of decades of students that have contributed to the program. Solano has not won this award in over 20 years. This award is truly an accomplishment of the entire Solano Community.

In addition to overall team success, our students had a fantastic weekend! Sarah Campi and James Baird won gold medal in Championship Parliamentary Debate. Shavon Odom won Silver medal in Speech to Entertain. Sarah Campi also received a Silver medal in Individual Public Debate. James Baird also received a Silver medal in Informative Speaking to compliment his gold medal in the same event from last year.

The speech and debate team is now preparing to head to Washington, D.C. for the Phi Rho Pi Community College National Championships in Bethesda, Maryland in April. If you are an alumnus of the team or have had a hand in of our various successes in any way, we would love to see you. Please contact Dr. Douglas Mungin if you have any questions or would like to reach out. douglas.mungin@solano.edu. 

Join us for the final week of celebrating Women's History Month. Just three events remain. See above and we'll see you there.

Writer and SVR feature author, Nancy Au was our guest reader on March 21.

Nancy Au’s debut full-length collection, "Spider Love Song and Other Stories" (Acre Books 2019) was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award for debut short story collection, and the Community of Literary Magazine and Presses (CLMP) book award for fiction. Nancy's short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays often center on the experiences of the elderly, the young, Chinese immigrants, as well as with characters who struggle with mental health issues. She teaches at CSU, Stanislaus and SF State. 

Ms. Au read selected pieces of fiction followed by a Q&A.

During February and March, Solano College Arts' Digital Media department hosted three field trips for groups of graphic design and digital media high school students from Napa County.

The Napa Valley Office of Education approached Solano during the pandemic to establish articulation pathways for digital media students. Thanks to the articulation agreement established in 2021, students at New Technology High School and Vintage High School have an established relationship with the Digital Media Arts department at SCC, and can receive college credit for our DMA 09: Introduction to Digital Design class. 

DMA Instructor Rachel Smith took the lead on coordinating the tours, with support from SCC faculty and staff, including Multimedia Lab Tech Rei Leal. 

The tour began with Rachel Smith and Sarah Wasley-Smith in the 1315 DMA (Digital Media Arts) lab. 

Students created a design in Adobe Illustrator, which would later be laser cut onto a key tag in the Makerspace. 

Students then walked over to our PrintShop, where instructor Jeanne Lorenz led an interactive workshop. Each student was able to screen print their own tote bag. 

After the PrintShop tour and activity, it was time to check out Solano's robotics department with instructor Doug Green, showcasing our state of the art equipment and facilities. 

We ended the tour in the Makerspace, where Drafting Instructor Karen Cook helped our guests laser-cut their designs onto a custom keychain. Students could watch as the machines etched their designs, and got to take home an object they'd made themselves - a meaningful end to the tour!

Thank you to all the instructors, administration and staff who helped facilitate and put this event together! 

If you know of a school or group that is interested in this tour, please contact

Rachel.Smith@solano.edu. 

Monday March 27 11:30am-1pm

Athletics Director Honor Roll Ceremony Faculty Lounge

Record 80 student athletes recognized for completing 12 units with at least a 3.0 GPA in Fall of 2022

Friday March 31 11am-noon (Room 1739)

Dating Violence Awareness Training (Chief Travis and Officer Daniels)

Athletic Home Schedule for March 27- April 8. Due to rain and make-up games, check www.solanoathletics.com for updates.

Tennis

April 6, 7 and 8 Big 8 South Conference Tournament Co-Hosted with DVC, Times TBA

Baseball

Thursday, March 30 vs Contra Costa 2:30pm

Thursday, April 4 vs Napa Valley College 2:30pm

Friday, April 7 Napa Valley College 2:30 pm

Softball

Tuesday, March 28 vs Los Medanos, noon and 2pm

Thursday, March 30 vs Mendocino, noon and 2pm

As a Solano Community College community member you can access The New York Times for free by creating a student/staff account through the library's link below. You will have free (renewable) subscription for a year through SCC, and you may access it on any device, at any time. Be sure to use your solano.edu email when you sign up though -- that school email account activates your free subscription.

Step 1: Navigate to https://nytimesineducation.com/access-nyt/

Step 2: Search for and select Solano Community College. You will be redirected to the NYT registration page.

Step 3: Click Create Account and complete fields; you must use your @edu email

Step 4: Verify your account (you will receive a confirmation email)*

*The confirmation email may be routed to your spam folder. You must click the link in this email to complete the registration.

Our subscription also includes access to The New York Times:

• Archives (dating back to 1851)
• Podcasts (including the Daily podcast)
• NYT Videos
• Newsletters (there are a variety of newsletter topics)
• The NYT educational resource provides the following features:
• Discipline-specific areas of study
• Classroom discussion prompts
• Suggested learning outcomes
• General Instructional Strategies to promote student achievement
• Co-Curricular Activities, including events, discussions, and contests

To gain entry to the Education site (whether faculty, staff, or student), simply complete a short registration https://nytimesineducation.com/register/. Be sure to use your .edu email address.

The French Club went to Le Marais French restaurant and to the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco recently. Students got a chance to converse in French with the waitress and docent. 

As SCC continues its move of our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, Banner, to the cloud, one of the upgrades also taking place is the replacement of My.Solano with Ellucian Experience. SCCIT will be providing more info as we move along with this part of the project. Click the following link for a quick glimpse of what Experience looks like and can provide: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCZB_6xkTU

Thanks to Sarah Barsness, the Wellness Center Staff Retreat started off with a bird watching tour right on our own campus, March 3rd. We enjoyed learning about birds and taking in all the tranquility of the morning’s fresh air, greenery and various fun conversations along the way! We now have added Breakfast with Birds to our Wellness Center list of activities. The overall retreat theme was to try to things—experience a new adventure—take time to laugh, in addition to reviewing progress made at the Wellness Center.

So, we landed in Livermore and ate Thai food that was delicious! Followed by hours of discovering new desserts from other cultures not native to us, we asked questions and can’t wait to return to eat some yummy food and dessert.

Remember Charlies’ Angels? Well, we named ourselves Wellness Center Bird Watchers that day, as this trio laughed, tried on glasses that reflected our alter-egos and made a few purchases for ourselves and loved ones as well. And of course, we ate some more and reviewed the wonderful progress at the Wellness Center and how we can continue to meet the diverse needs of participants while balancing or own self-care. Twelve hours later (oh yes, they got steps in) we returned to campus and look forward to doing it again quarterly with the rest of the Wellness Center Staff, including interns.

Abby, a Wellness Center Lead says it best, “ Sometimes we help others so much, we forget to live, ourselves, to refuel. The Wellness Center Retreat taught me to have a good and healthy time- and that it is mandatory- for

being able to be our best selves to help and be there others. Thank you, Dr. Cabrera for teaching me this valuable lesson. Having a fun and healthy time is a small price to pay when the result is keeping sane, whole, and happy.”

Thank you to all the staff at the Wellness Center that continue to provide a space that is fun and promotes wellness in many ways. You all rock for sure!

Solano Transportation Authority is hosting, “Bike to School” and “Bike to Work” events in May. They would love to receive Bike Champion of the Year nominations from SCC staff and students. Bike Champion of the Year nominations are being accepted until March 31.

Nominate someone at: 

https://bayareabiketowork.com/event-information/bike-champions-of-the-year-2023.

Visit the STA Bike Month website for the most current information: 

https://www.solanomobility.org/bikemonth2023/.