This article ran in the VC Star on June 17, 2023.
Dr. Oscar Cobian
For community colleges, the pandemic stressed the need to expand the ways we serve our community. Unfortunately, that’s especially true here in Oxnard, where families were disproportionately impacted by the effects of COVID-19. That’s why a year ago, the Ventura County Community College District invested $1.5 million to help Oxnard College launch two special initiatives aimed at better serving our community’s non-English speaking families and working adults.
When I was growing up here in Ventura County, my sister and I often served as de facto translators for my parents, helping them navigate English-speaking businesses, public institutions and neighborhoods. Over time, they picked up more of the language — even taking an English class at one point — and were increasingly able to engage with the broader community around them. My parents eventually leveraged this important skill — speaking English — to build small businesses and improve my family’s economic situation.
I saw a similar transformation this past year as we partnered with the Rio School District to provide evening ESL classes to Spanish-speaking and Mixteco families in El Rio. We worked with Rio Schools to ensure the program made learning as easy as possible for these hardworking families by including on-site child care, free instructional materials, application and registration support, embedded tutors and snacks.
Just this past month, the year-long program culminated in a festive celebration at Rio del Valle Middle School, honoring our ESL students for their achievement and enrolling them in the next level of courses so they can continue their progress.
This collaboration will continue to grow and help non-English speakers develop the skills needed to navigate our community and achieve their personal and economic goals. In fact, our successful partnership with the Rio School District has garnered interest from additional school districts, and we look forward to expanding our ESL offerings both at our main campus and at neighboring community sites in the next academic year.
Of course, the pandemic also greatly impacted working adults and parents. That’s why last summer, we launched the Oxnard College PACE (Program for Accelerated College Education) program, designed to help busy adults complete an associate degree in two years.
We focused this initiative on majors that quickly lead to good-paying and in-demand careers right here in Ventura County, such as business administration, elementary teacher education, paralegal studies and psychology.
In order to make PACE classes as accessible as possible, most are available online, with others conveniently offered at the Cal Lutheran University campus in North Oxnard off the 101 freeway.
Many of the program’s classes are expedited, allowing students to complete multiple courses in a single semester. This accelerated model helps part-time students complete their educational goals in a shorter timeframe than more traditional models.
PACE also offers specialized resources to help students succeed, such as our on-site counseling and social events throughout the year.
Program graduates can enter the workforce or transfer to our partner universities with similar programs for working adults, including CSU Channel Islands and Cal Lutheran University, among others.
Our PACE program quickly became so popular that in the spring semester, we expanded its offerings and added a second location in Camarillo. We look forward to growing this program in the years ahead as we work to meet the increasing needs of our county’s adult learners.
These two initiatives, also offered at Moorpark and Ventura colleges, underscore important efforts to better serve Ventura County residents as our community moves beyond the pandemic.
Our ESL offerings and PACE program complement Oxnard College’s broader work to educate and support the community, including our dual enrollment program (which offers college-credit courses to middle and high school students) and our Dream Resource Center, which helps undocumented students access higher education, among others.
We’re sometimes known as the college with a heart, and I like to think these programs prove just that. Through creative program design, new offerings and specialized support, Oxnard College is serving the full breadth of our community and creating generational transformation for Ventura County’s families.