I am humbled and honored to help launch a new initiative at Santa Barbara City College: the School of Extended Learning. This new school is intended to offer more comprehensive community extended learning options, with both fee-based and tuition-free programs. As Extended Learning’s interim vice president, I’ve had the luck of the draw with a team of award-winning leaders at the college to help me. With incredible support and commitment from our superintendent/president, Dr. Anthony Beebe, and the Board of Trustees, our team is working behind the scenes on a strategy to bring the community one of the most robust and balanced programs. We are working to create more tuition-free, state-funded programs that bridge to credit degrees and transfer opportunities, that expand career skill training for job seekers and those seeking job advancement, and to grow tuition-free programs in life skills and life enrichment.
The School of Extended Learning encompasses all of our existing community-based offerings, including all fee-based classes and our tuition-free vocational programs in health, culinary arts, construction technology, environmental horticulture, and English as a second language. Extended Learning brings into the fold our Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG) initiatives, our Santa Barbara AEBG Consortium, our Career Skills Institute, and the Center for Lifelong Learning.
We conducted a community informational meeting at our Wake Campus in June and have two more planned. The next one is October 16 at the Schott Campus Auditorium, where we will bring the community up to date on our progress. Our third community information meeting will take place in spring 2018. We are planning an Extended Learning Ambassador program, comprised of community representatives from all of our diverse populations, that will meet to provide feedback in the development of new programs to ensure we are creating programs that are relevant and meet the needs of our community. I hope you reach out to me or my team with questions and support and perhaps to join us as an ambassador. We can’t do this without you!
At SBCC, Melissa Moreno has helped conceive and launch Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Career Skills Institute, and the Jack and Julie Nadel School of Business & Entrepreneurship slated to open in September, and is working on the off-campus SBCC Cosmetology Academy, which opens this summer at 525 Anacapa Street.