Beaver Break with President Lisa Cardoza

Join us for conversation and light refreshments at our second Beaver Break with President Lisa Cardoza on Wednesday, April 3 from 10:00 to 11:00 am in the Language and Communication HomeBase (inside the Learning Resource Center). This is an opportunity to start a conversation, share feedback, an exciting accomplishment, or update, or to just join us in community!

Upcoming Beaver Breaks:

• Thursday, April 18, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Public Service HomeBase (HEED Rm: 715)
• Tuesday, April 30, 1:30 - 2:30 pm, Manufacturing, Construction and Transportation HomeBase (Tech Ed West Rm: 404)

Student Spotlight 

ARC Beaver Theint Theint Thu has been selected as one of only 15 students to receive Phi Theta Kappa’s 2024 Hites Transfer Scholarship, the Society’s most prestigious and largest scholarship! Hites Scholars are selected based on outstanding academic achievement, leadership, and engagement in college and community activities. The selections are made by a panel of independent judges from among 3,000 national applicants. 

Theint came to the United States in December of 2021 from Myanmar(Burma) following the military coup earlier that year. She had been planning to start medical school in Myanmar until the pandemic closed local universities in 2020 and still plans to pursue her education in the STEM fields. Theint has applied to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and several private universities where she plans to major in Molecular and Cellular Biology while also planning to explore bioengineering.

After starting at ARC in 2022, Theint has worked as a tutor at the MESA and Math Learning Center, where she gets to help students, many of whose stories and struggles reflect her own. Her time at ARC has been filled with support and encouragement.

“ARC has been a refuge for me. I have received so much love and support from the community that I did not feel out of place even though I had to restart everything again from the ground up. My professors have been really supportive – in class with lectures or out of class with recommendation letters. Supervisors I met through my on-campus jobs have been amazing – always understanding and accommodating that we were students before we were employees. And, I have made genuine friendships which I hope to carry on even if we are no longer bound by ARC. Long story short, I can confidently say that I would not be where I am today without the support from each person I have met to this day!”

In addition to school, work, and other commitments, Theint has been an active part of the ARC AMSA club. AMSA received an Innovation Grant from the Office of Philanthropy this year to support a free CPR certification event. The event has already reached capacity and will proactively make our campus and communities safer.

Congratulations, Theint!

External Scholarships for Los Rios Students!

Did you know that Los Rios Community College District consistently receives valuable scholarship information from organizations outside our colleges? These scholarships are often overlooked by students, but they could be the key to unlocking thousands of dollars in financial assistance.

Encourage a student to take a moment to explore these external scholarships – you never know where it might take them!

Make Your Documents Accessible with the Los Rios

A-Team!

Accessible documents level the playing field, providing equal access for all learners to access the same materials and resources regardless of their background. That's why we're excited to introduce the Los Rios Accessibility Team (A-Team), an internal document remediation service dedicated to ensuring all students have equal access to educational resources.

Here's how it works:

• Submit a request at: employees.losrios.edu/ateamdocs 
• Upload your files
• Sit back and relax – we'll take care of the rest!

Program Review

Support and celebrate the 2023-24 Program Review cohort on April 3 and 4 from 1:00-3:00 pm. Programs completing Program Review this spring will present their program's equity accomplishments and strategies for closing racial equity gaps. All members of the ARC community are invited. Program Reviewers will present in person in the ARC Board Room, and audience members have the option to join in person or via Zoom. Check your Outlook for calendar invitations with details sent to all employees by PIO Kaitlyn Collignon.

Office Stretch 2024: Building Adaptability in The Body and Mind

Tuesday, April 2, 12:00 to 1:30 pm, Kinesiology Building, Room 231A

Join us to learn stretches and breathing techniques that help counter the imbalances of our day-to-day working environment while building adaptability and resilience in the body and mind. 

This event meets State PD Guideline B; ARC Strategic Goal 4; ARC Competency: Effective Communication.

Interfaith Literacy Series: Overcoming Antisemitism and Islamophobia to better support Muslim and Jewish students

Thursday, April 4 and Thursday, April 11, 1:30 to 3:00 pm, RSVP for April 4 or RSVP for April 11

What can you learn about overcoming Antisemitism and Islamophobia to better support our Muslim and Jewish students and colleagues? Despite being surrounded by religious diversity, we may not always (or ever) feel empowered to navigate it successfully in public higher education. Nor are we alone in this struggle.

Fortunately, Religious Studies programs have changed dramatically in the last 15-20 years as scholarship, public life, and employers wrestle with the questions of navigating religiously diverse 21st-century American democracy. Yet, public perception has not caught up with these changes. A great irony of intellectual life in the United States is that although we are among the world’s most religiously diverse democracies, we are also among its most religiously illiterate.

The Interfaith Literacy PD series will bridge these gaps by connecting our campus community to the latest scholarship and federal resources from the US Department of Education to help recognize and overcome Antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Please watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk entitled The Danger of a Single Story on YouTube prior to attending this session. 

This introductory 1A workshop will be repeated multiple times throughout the Spring 2024 semester. 2A and 3A workshops will be offered separately to continue our conversations and address more specific and complex topics, like the crisis in Israel and Gaza. Attendance of a 1A session will be required to attend a 2A or 3A session.

Attendance will be capped at 15 to facilitate conversation in the group.

Universal Design: Addressing Variability through Flexibility

Thursday, April 4, Noon to 1:00 pm, Zoom

Variability is an important element of universal design, but can be viewed as incompatible with instructional design in higher education. Another element of universal design is flexibility, which can be misconstrued as “reducing rigor” or “not holding students accountable.” What if both variability and flexibility increase student agency without compromising rigor or instructional quality, and positively increase student success? Our students come to us with varied disabilities, varied needs, varied barriers, and varied levels of self-regulation and motivation. Universal design offers solutions to the variability of our students through varying our courses and how we deliver them to students. Learn how you can build variability and flexibility into your courses to meet the needs of your students at this workshop!

Priority Deadline for Financial Aid Extended to May 2

The priority deadline for submitting your 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or California Dream Act Application (CADAA) has been extended to Thursday, May 2, 2024. For the 2024-2025 award year only, the priority filing date has been extended from March 2, 2024 to May 2, 2024. 

If students have not submitted their 2024-2025 FAFSA or CADAA Application yet, please encourage them to do so ASAP. If they have received confirmation of a submitted 24-25 FAFSA from the Department of Education or confirmation of a submitted 24-25 CADAA from the California Student Aid Commission, then they do not have to complete it.  

Attend Sacramento State Spring Sting 2024!

The Office of Admissions and Outreach will be hosting Spring Sting in person at American River College on Wednesday, April 10, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Spring Sting is an event where we bring Sacramento State departments and support services to your community college. Prospective transfer students will have the opportunity to meet with the Sacramento State community in order to help facilitate the transition from community college to our campus.

Internship Info Session: Mercy Volunteer Program

All Los Rios students are invited to attend an informational session on Tuesday, April 9, from 3:00 to 4:00 pm, to learn about Mercy Hospital of Folsom's Volunteer Program. This hybrid event will take place at FLC's main campus in Lilac Hall FL5-111, and will also be streamed remotely via Zoom.

This is a fantastic opportunity for students to learn more about how they can contribute to the community while gaining valuable experience in a hospital setting. By volunteering, they’ll have the opportunity to work alongside doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals and gain valuable skills and knowledge that will help them in their future healthcare careers. 

Register is required so secure your spot ASAP! For any inquiries, please contact Ashley Slovak.

The Parrot

Squawk! Squawk! Issue #179 of The Parrot ESL Newsletter has had a fast and furious March to help you fly into April! Check out the incredible, truly unbelievable work of The Parrot staff and the ESL students of ARC!

In this issue:

• “Parrot Eggs” in Star Wars
• Taylor Swift at ARC
• Celebrate “The Year of the Parrot” with Zelda
• Weird College Courses that Really Exist
• Wisdom from the Sages of the Ages
• The History Behind the History of La Bamba
• Davies Hall Grand Re-opening
• The Old Oaken Bucket (a revised version from the Board of Health)
• and much, much more . . .