Pasadena Sister Cities Senegal Committee Speaker Series 9/15/21
The Dakar-Plateau Subcommittee of Pasadena’s Sister Cities Committee, led by chair, Boualem Bousseloub and Pasadena City Councilmember John Kennedy, organizes their student exchange program and keeps community members engaged through a monthly Speaker Series. This month’s guest is the committee’s own, Dr. Ayesha K. Randall. Ayesha K. Randall holds a doctorate in educational leadership and serves as a tenured faculty member at LA Trade-Tech College where she is the faculty co-chair of the Accreditation Steering Committee and an advisor for the campus Umoja program. Randall designs curriculum and is on the education task force of the Dakar-Plateau subcommittee, helping to develop the preparation program for the exchange experience. Randall has a history of service and holds membership on various boards and community organizations, including Foothill Family, where she is a board member, LACCD Black Faculty & Staff Association, and the National Congress of Negro Women. In her presentation, "Getting the Best Academic Bang for your Buck: Leveraging your Resources within the California Community College Promise Program Pathway through an African American Lens,” Randall stressed the importance of more African Americans taking advantage of California College Promise. Each community college has unique features, but all provide free tuition and mentoring. “Once students get into college,” Randall said, “we want them to stay there and finish.” To help students toward that end, she discussed the benefits of culturally-responsive student support programs such as Pasadena City’s Ujima and the LA Community College’s Umoja and other resources such as remedial skills courses and programs for students with learning disabilities. When students finish, there are still resources to help them obtain a career or transfer to a 4-year institution. Randall’s colleague, Trade-Tech counselor in Automotive Transportation and Manufacturing pathway, Maurice Burnett, talked about the various trades and high wage job opportunities. Randall talked about guaranteed admission to over 35 participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—including Bethune-Cookman, Clark Atlanta, Fisk, Grambling, Texas Southern, Tuskegee, and Xavier—for students who complete 30 or more transferable units and certain academic requirements. Guests included Dr. Linda Cole, counselor, instructor and former director of LATTC Gain/Cal Works; Pasadena City College Board of Trustees, Berlinda Brown and Linda Wau, both of whom are alumni from Pasadena City College and the LA Community College District; Dakar-Plateau Committee member, and former NAACP Pasadena president, Gary Moody; and LACOE Foster Youth Services coordinator, Allisonne Crawford. For more information about the California College Promise Program, visit the website of the community college of choice. To learn how to serve on the Pasadena Sister Cities Dakar-Plateau Committee, visit passcc.org/city-profiles/Dakar-plateau-Dakar-Senegal. |
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