BC gets high marks for being top school for Latinx students
Bakersfield College ranks No. 3 in a list of top institutions for Latinx students to earn certificates and degrees, and No. 4 among institutions with the highest Hispanic enrollment in California.
The rankings are based off the newly-released California Briefing on 25 Years of Hispanic Serving Institutions by Excelencia in Education.
According to a news release from BC, the college has worked diligently to align a series of initiatives focused on improving student outcomes, reducing achievement gaps and increasing access for students using a Guided Pathways approach.
Since the implementation of Guided Pathways at BC in 2014, the college has seen universal growth and improvement across various student success metrics, the news release stated. Two examples of those growth areas are students experiencing a better transfer rate to California State and University of California institutions, and students expending fewer resources to complete their degrees or certificates to enter the workforce faster and more efficiently.
BC is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution with a student body of 70 percent Hispanic/ Latino/a/x, the news release stated. In recent years, BC has achieved parity in enrollment and completion for such students, with 70 percent of Associate Degree for Transfer earners identifying as Hispanic/Latino/a/x in 2019-20.
Free, locally focused webinars set for today and Thursday will provide updates on various sources of public money set aside for businesses trying to survive the pandemic.
The first, set to run from noon to 1 p.m. today, will discuss $1.5 billion available to qualified businesses through the California Relief Program’s fifth round opening Thursday. It will be led by Kelly Bearden, director of Cal State Bakersfield’s Small Business Development Center.
The event will include information about other government relief programs for small businesses. It will also feature comments by Morgan Clayton, president and CEO of locally based Tel-Tec Security Systems Inc., on results of a recent community survey and a program aimed at helping underserved local businesses.
Participants can sign up to attend at www.tinyurl.com/BusinessRelief54.
Thursday’s webinar, presented by the local SBDC in cooperation with the Kern County Black & Hispanic Chambers and Mid State Development Corp., will feature comments by Corey D. Williams, a spokesman for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Disaster Assistance.
Williams expects to talk about the Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance, through which eligible small businesses in low- to moderate-income communities can apply for a grant of as much as $10,000.
Anyone interested in attending may sign up at www. tinyurl.com/EIDLhelp.
California Avenue will be closed in both directions starting this evening and into Thursday morning between Easton Drive and Marella Way.
According to a news release from the city of Bakersfield, the closure will be implemented between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. to lower a bridge that will help carry eastbound traffic on the Centennial Corridor freeway.
Traffic will be routed using Oak Street to Truxtun Avenue to Mohawk Street if traveling west and Mohawk Street to Truxtun Avenue to Oak Street if traveling east.