San Diego City College hosted the Mexican American Business and Professional Association’s monthly luncheon meeting March 13 in the Corporate Education Center, located on the first floor of the MS building.
“It’s all about how can we collaborate better across the board. And how can we do a better job in terms of building our workforce development system thinking about things broader than just San Diego, but looking at it more regionally, including TJ (Tijuana),” City College President Anthony Beebe said.
The theme of the month’s lunch meeting was “Transforming Educational Access.”
“It’s about building relationships and seeing how we can take it to the next level,” Beebe said about the purpose of the luncheon.
San Diego Community College District Chancellor Constance M. Carroll was in attendance along with a representative of San Diego Continuing College and Beebe. Together, they were the only representatives of the district and City College, respectively.
MABPA President Josie Calderon-Scott gave the call to order and introduced speaker Paula Cordeiro.
Cordeiro is the dean of school of leadership and education sciences at the University of San Diego. She spoke about the benefits of community colleges, the value of such an education and the relationship between a community college and the community it’s in.
“One of the things we do in my school is we prepare people to be community college professors;” she said regarding what part of her work is about.
Carroll’s speech accompanied her PowerPoint presentation titled “San Diego Community College District: Organization, Mission, Access and Diversity.”
The purpose of the presentation was to show attendees how the community college district is a valuable and vital part of the San Diego community and gave more information about Senate Bill 850.
Senate Bill 850 was passed in 2014, which created a pilot program for bachelor’s degrees to be offered by community colleges. This bill was authored by Sen. Marty Block, who was the special guest speaker.
“I was asked to speak because they’re interested in education as training for jobs and we’re interested in a bachelor’s degree,” Carroll said.
The program of the meeting also included reports from San Diego city and county government representatives in attendance.
