SB70: Events & Programs
- SB 70 Symposium 2012
- Career Day - 2009
- Salute to Youth – 2009, 2010, 2011
- K-16 Bridge
- High School Senior Orientations – 2009, 2010, 2011
- Exploring My Career Path - 2011
- Keystone Center
- College, Making It Happen – 2009, 2011, 2012
- Green Technology
- College to Careers (C2C) - 2010
- Second Life Virtual World - 2011
Career Day
Career Day is a program designed to communicate to students and their families the importance of early academic and career planning in order for middle and early high school students to plan for career choices. During Career Day, students will participate in career exploration activities that will assist them in connecting with a CTE career ladders and educational options. Each student will participate in the College and Career Resource Fair where they will have the opportunity to visit with numerous college/university representatives, as well as, local business and organization representatives. The students will participate in interactive activities, receive literature, and information about each organization or program represented. This is a great opportunity to start researching college and career options.
Salute to Youth– 2009, 2010, 2011
Approximately 2,100 high school and 350 middle school students from the greater Antelope Valley region attended one of two sessions of the 20th Anniversary Salute to Youth: The Career Connection event was held on Friday, 23 September 2011 at Building 704, Site 9, Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
High school students from Antelope Valley, Desert Pathways, Desert Winds, Eastside, Highland, Knight, Lancaster, Littlerock, Palmdale, R. Rex Parris, and Quartz Hill High Schools in the AVUHSD, Desert High, Boron High, Mojave High, California City High, Rosamond High, and Serrano High from other public districts, plus Bethel Christian and Desert Christian attended, as well as middle school students from the Eastside, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Westside School Districts.
In addition to attending the second session of Salute to Youth, the middle school students were treated to a morning with NASA to commemorate the final flight of the Space Shuttle, including two IMAX movies and guest speakers at the Lancaster Cinemark theatre.
Approximately seventy-five companies and organizations within California’s fifteen industry sectors provided career preparation information and activities for the students. In addition to tables and displays inside Building 704, rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, heavy equipment vehicles, fire department and rescue apparatus, law enforcement vehicles, and the B-2 Spirit of Innovation Chopper were on display.
Demonstrations were provided by the Edwards Air Force working dog team and by the Antelope Valley and Kern County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams. Two SuperScooper aircraft from the Canadian province of Quebec, along with a water-dropping helicopter from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, made water-drop runs over a nearby field.
The event was organized and staffed by a Logistics Committee made up of approximately twenty community, education, business, and government partners, as well as industry sector chairs, and numerous volunteers.
K-16 Bridge
The K16 Bridge Program was developed by classroom teachers, site counselors, high school and community college administrators to address the low number of students transitioning to post-secondary institutions after graduation. It is the belief of this founding group that the low numbers of students continuing their education is merely the results of a much greater problem now taking place in education; relevancy. The educational system as it now operates fails to create connections between the goals of the students and the requirements of the classroom. The K16 Bridge Program believes that the educational system must provide a seamless process from elementary school through college that addresses both the process of education and the relevancy of that process to the individual student. The overall objective of the program is to change the educational paradigm by partnering 21st Century technology with career and academic programs that strive to bring relevancy, relationships and rigor to every educational stakeholder.
High School Senior Orientations – 2009, 2010, 2011
The purpose of the High School Senior Orientations (HSO) is to introduce high school seniors to the programs, services, events, activities, resources and benefits of attending AVC. Students who have committed to attending AVC by way of completing their application and assessment, participate in interactive workshops that provide them with valuable knowledge of college life. The goal is to get them acclimated to the college so that they are not only familiar with the physical landscape but also the academic, social and political landscape. Students leave the orientation with a greater and broader knowledge of AVC’s various policies and procedures related to registration, enrollment, financial aid, counseling services, student development and activities, as well as, navigating myAVC. Participation in this event satisfies the orientation component of the matriculation steps. Following the orientations, counseling sends faculty to each school site to meet with students and develop an education plan. Importantly, this is the fourth component in meeting the matriculation steps for priority appointments for summer and fall sessions.
Exploring My Career Path - 2011
151 students from six high schools attended this interactive event. The targeted age group was freshmen and sophomore high school students who would be identified as at risk of not graduating.
The main goal of the event, featuring six industry sectors, was to expose students to careers, technical education career pathways, career options, the community college system, and local industry. The objectives are to provide participants with information on careers and an opportunity for career exploration. Students worked with DNA, made TV commercials, learned about finances, climbed aboard fire trucks and ambulances, and played educational Jeopardy. A presentation on “Jobs of the Future” was presented by a USC futurist.
Workshops in the following job sectors were received enthusiastically: Aerospace Engineering, Business & Finance, Culinary Arts/Bakery, DNA Exploration, Emergency Medical Response, Film & TV Production,Fire Technology, Investigations, Law Enforcement, and “Jobs of the Future” a presentation by Nathalie Gosset, Head of Marketing & Business Development at the University of Southern California.
Keystone Center
Keystone Center Conference –Two middle school instructors are sent to Colorado, annually, for a hands-on workshop and conference on the environment and science. The following is one of the attendee’s summary of the event:
“I will start by saying thank you for the sponsorship to the Keystone Center Conference in Colorado; it was by far the best, most interactive conference, I have ever attended. The facilitators were excellent in the presentation of the material, they not only gave instruction on how to teach the information to students they also showed us how to make it interesting for them, which as we know is what keeps their interest.
The Keystone conference was based on an investigative model of teaching; we in California know it as Inquiry Science. Inquiry science must be a basic in the daily curriculum of every elementary school student at every grade level. In the last decade, numerous reports have been published calling for reform in education. Each report has highlighted the importance of early experiences in science so that students develop problem-solving skills that empower them to participate in an increasingly scientific and technological world. That is what the Keystone Environmental Issues conference was able to give to me; the tools to teach the students in my care the importance of problem solving as well as to bring environmental issues to light so the students have a better understanding of how to be environmentally cautious and solve problems in any area they encounter.
The Keystone science program provided opportunities for the participants to develop understandings and skills necessary to function productively as problem-solvers in a scientific and technological world. They also showed us that elementary/middle school students learn science best when: they are involved in first-hand exploration and investigation and inquiry/process skills are nurtured. The instruction builds directly on the student's conceptual framework (that is the important part). The content is organized on the basis of broad conceptual themes common to all science disciplines, and when mathematics and communication skills are an integral part of science instruction".
College, Making It Happen - 2009, 2011, 2012
The purpose of the College: Making it Happen event is to reach 7 & 8th graders in an effort to educate them about college concepts, preparedness, and systems so that they can plan for their college and career choices, in a timely manner.
The day consists of several 30 minute workshop sessions including: Academic Survival Skills, Resource Fair, ABC’s of College Eligibility, WhoDoUWant2B (TheWhoDoUWant2B workshop is an adaptation of the statewide initiative to link middle school students with careers and college expectations), as well as career exploration in Green Energy, Automotive Technology, Public Service, Veterinary Studies, Fire Technology, Banking/Finance and Engineering. All career exploration workshops are interactive and provide a hands-on experience for students in that career pathway.
Students are able to take assessments giving them indicators and insight into their career matches.
Additionally, students have the opportunity to visit a resource fair consisting of community agencies and 4-year colleges including, but not limited to, the Boys & Girls Club, SOAR High School, Antelope Valley Federal Credit Union, AVROP, Brandman University, and CSUB.
Green Technology
The newest frontier that the Antelope Valley and Victor Valley Collaborative is breaking into is “Green” Technologies with an emphasis on Solar Power.
Through the WIP Grant, Antelope Valley and Victor Valley Colleges would like to develop a Solar Maintenance Entrepreneurial Business Program that would serve the greater Antelope Valley, Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Rosamond. In partnership with Victor Valley College, the program would be conducted through the Corporate & Community Education Unit at Antelope Valley College and students would be trained as solar maintenance, cleaning, and repair providers and managers. Another component to the training would be sales, marketing, and construction - enabling the students to create their own businesses (residential and/or commercial) in the future.
College to Careers (C2C) - 2010
This was an interactive job exploration event held at Antelope Valley College, hosted by Job Placement and Outreach. The spring event hosted 310 middle school students from the area. The purpose of the C2C event was to expose middle school students and their parents to educational and career pathways so that they may begin exploring options earlier. For the students, this was accomplished through two academic workshops: “Academic Survival Skills” and the “ABC’s of College Eligibility” accompanied by a combination of a variety of career workshops presented by the Fire Dept., Edwards AFB, AVFCU, CHP, DNA, GIS, EMT, Forest Service and Film & TV.
Highlighting the event was an evening presentation for middle school parents in which the K-16 Bridge program was presented. The history, purpose and benefits of the program were illustrated. A video was shown as to how, and how fast, things are changing in the world today in the way of technology and careers. The presentation demonstrated how the K-16 Bridge program began and the staggering affect it has had on the students who have participated so far. Additionally demonstrated, were the resources available on the K-16 Bridge website for the middle school students and the family, as a whole, as they participate in the program.
The “ABC’s of College Eligibility” was presented next. Explanations were given as to what parents could do now to help their students prepare for college. This included an explanation on the four systems of higher education admission’s requirements, cost, entrance exams, missions of each institution; financial aid, college preparation courses, special admit to the local community college, extracurricular activities and volunteerism.
Second Life Virtual World - 2011
Second Life is the largest virtual world with more than 15 million users. It is an open-access, state-of-the-art technology allowing users to interact in a 3-D world via avatars created by the participant. One strategy of the SB70 Initiative is to communicate and educate in a manner that is creative and engaging. Second Life provides the opportunity to accomplish that. Colleges and universities have established presences in Second Life for teaching (especially distance learning), recruiting, and virtual campus visits. Antelope Valley College has created a Career Technical Education region in this environment. It is comprised of an SB70 information room, 15 Career Information Centers exploring the 15 job sectors and pathways, and active links to relevant websites including “mycareerpath.biz”. Educational requirements, articulated courses, programs of study, trade-related videos, and retrievable note cards are included to aid the student on their career path. We are currently constructing a “green” region complete with windmills and a solar farm. A “green” house is on the horizon which will be built with representations from every emerging and current green industry available: mini-windmills, solar shingles, and water reclamation. We will also feature an interactive area whereby students will experience hands-on virtual learning in constructing “green” industry products.
Second Life was introduced to our HS and college faculty, administrators, staff, and collaborative members through several workshop sessions. The sessions contained information about creating avatars and general movement within Second Life, implications for teaching and learning, and CTE in Second Life.