JOY LEWIS: Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us. We're so thrilled to have you here and participating in this Healthcare Pathways Community of Practice. While we're waiting for all of the attendees to come, just as a way to learn who's here and build community, it would be great if you could add your name and your role or in the consortium or institution in the chat just to, yeah, if you could share that with everyone, that'd be great. There's still people rolling in and coming into the waiting room. So let's just start with that, and we'll get started in a few seconds here. 

OK, great. See folks are adding that if anyone's new and just coming in, please, if you can, you'll see others doing, add your name and role in consortium or institution in the chat. So start with introductions. We have a couple representatives from the WestEd and the IRC team. My name is Joy Lewis. I'm a program manager with WestEd Center for Economic Mobility, and I've been helping to support these communities of practice over the last, I don't know, a year and a half or so since we've been doing them, but we know there's some new folks here today from the round three. So welcome. And I'll turn it over to my colleague, Debbie. 

DEBI PEZZUTO: Hi all. I'm Debbie Pizzuto. I'm the senior program associate for adult education, workforce development and post-secondary education at WestEd. And Meghan McBride is here in spirit. She's hopefully going to join us a little bit later. But she, as per usual, is running to her next thing this time out in Alabama, not out in California to see all of us. 

But Meghan and I are half of the programmatic technical assistance team for ELL Healthcare Pathways. And in a second, I'll go over the project overview, but I'll pass it over to Anne to introduce herself from IRC. 

ANNE PETTI: Hi, everyone. My name is Anne Petti. I'm a senior program officer for workforce development with the International Rescue Committee or IRC. And together with my colleagues Amber Shevin and Cora Quigley, we are the IRC team that's supporting this health pathways technical Assistance Project. So glad to be with all of you here today. 

JOY LEWIS: Great. OK. Today, we're going to after these introductions, we're going to just wanted to let you know, we're going to just introduce the topic, which is supporting students in the wide variety of transitions that occur in your programs. And then after a very brief introduction about the topic, we're going to turn it over to our fellow grantees. 

There are three grantees who've said they'd be willing to share some of their experiences and supports. And so you'll be spending most of the time here hearing from them. And then we're going to have a discussion and questions and answers. So stay tuned for a lot of great information. And then we'll have a wrap up in closing. 

Before we are finished here, we plan to finish up just before 1 o'clock today. So please stick around. And just really quickly, especially to those of you who are new, this community of practice kind of became, which started back with round one and has continued about quarterly since then. And so I know there's some new faces. So when we started this group, we kind of came to these sets of norms. 

So just wanted you to take a moment to look at them, being curious if possible, especially when we're talking or in smaller groups. Keep cameras on if you can. Of course, we understand if you can't. Listen so everyone's heard. And then of course sharing is every community of practice, we have folks coming to share. So we're so grateful for those, and we might look to others to share for future communities of practice. 

So stay present and listen to what they have to share. And certainly, if you have a resource or you mention a resource or about a resource related to anything we're talking about, this is meant to be a shared space to hear from one another. So feel free to drop those things in the chat. And yeah, as you hear things today, think about what's one idea or strategy or challenge that's been overcome that you could take back to your own program? 

So that's the spirit of our community of practice. And I'm just going to move on to the next slide, where Debbie's going to share a little bit about where this part of our technical assistance sits in the larger effort. 

DEBI PEZZUTO: All right. So we just had our statewide convening. Can you all give me some kind of reaction if you went to the statewide convening? Like give me a rocket ship, or like fire, or something exciting? That was a great event. Thank you, everybody who came, and if you couldn't come, don't worry. We can share all of the stuff that we did. But you did kind of miss the party. 

We are solidly in that statewide convening onto the technical assistance side. But the best part about this work that we do is we are going to continue providing things like the special topics webinars. We're working on potentially having one in November. Our communities of practice, which are quarterly, will continue. 

And the virtual office hours, which are monthly. So give me a reaction. If you've been to our really super thrilling virtual office hours before. If you haven't, at the end of this session-- Oh, yeah. Oh, Yeah. Sonia's been there. Josh has been there. 

ANNE PETTI: That was Josh and Susan. 

DEBI PEZZUTO: We'll share with you the next dates. But keep in mind that the virtual office hours are for all-- Oh, yeah. Mandilee's already on it. They're for all technical assistance for Healthcare Pathways. So it's the programmatic side. It's the data and accountability side. So you can come as you are and ask any questions that you have or just listen to the questions that other people have, and it's not recorded. 

We also have a newsletter and a toolbox that are just ongoing resources for you guys, so that we can be here to connect you to each other. We can connect you to resources, get you help, or just be here to listen. Sometimes, that's what the virtual office hours are. It's just to listen. 

And I see a lot of new people here today. Can you give me a reaction if this is your first time at one of our COPs? I don't care what the reaction is. It could be like balloons. It could be a clown face. OK. Yay. New people. Welcome. These community of practices are recorded. They are quarterly. They are for you and your team. 

So if you've got people on your team that aren't here today, bring them to the next one. I always say, like, bring your emotional support person. Megan's my emotional support person. I bring her with me everywhere. She brings me with her everywhere. So make sure that you're bringing other folks so that they can hear from grantees out in the field. Because it's not just us talking, even though I've been talking this whole time. 

All right, Joy. What's next? OK, good. I get to talk more. 

JOY LEWIS: You could talk more. Go. 

DEBI PEZZUTO: So the topic of this community of practice is about student transitions. This is those outcomes that we have for ELL Healthcare Pathways. And really the reason why we do our work is to help our students transition into-- go ahead to the next slide, one of these options. Whether it's on to the next stackable credential. Because we know that with Healthcare Pathways, an accelerated learning model can be a bridge program. 

Give me your reaction if you're doing a bridge program of some kind. We've got like bridges and boot camps. I literally read through everyone's work plan. So I know we've got some out there. Good. Heather had some too. As we've talked to people out in the field, we've heard of students going from the bridge programming into the next credential, whether that's a non-credit program or transitioning into for credit program somewhere else that's aligned with what the bridge class was teaching. 

We've also got students completing the Healthcare Pathway credential, actually earning and completing, completing and earning a recognized credential by the end of their program. Obviously, moving on into employment is one of our major goals. It's one of the major policy levers of the Healthcare Pathways, is to get people into new employment for upward economic mobility, but then also to address the health workforce needs in California. And generally, we want our students to do the work that they want to do. 

If they're taking these classes, it's because they're interested in this work and they really want a career in it. Increased earnings tags along with employment but sometimes isn't necessarily associated with a new occupation. It may be that they complete a certification or a bridge program or something that leads to increased earnings in that same healthcare field or occupation. 

And then last but not least, transitioning into a two or four-year post-secondary institution, that non-credit to credit transition. So these are all options for our students and all options for us to look at when we're thinking about how we move our students forward. So they're not stagnating in our programs. Or our worst case is they take one of our health pathways programs and then nothing comes of it, and they just fall back into that English language learner classes. Anybody experienced that? Heather's nodding. Me too. 

Before I worked at WestEd, I was a student services coordinator for about 8 and 1/2 years. And I built programs just like this. And it was hard when I had students who I'd put through this really rigorous, accelerated CNA class, and then they wouldn't transition into a job. They'd just go back to level six ESL. And I was like, we're going to get you into a job. You can't just be doing this. All right. Go ahead, Joy. 

So I wanted to bring this back to the convening. So if you were there, and if you weren't, sad. But if you were there, you got to see our student panel. These are all students that participated in ELL Healthcare Pathways at different schools close to Irvine. And they all shared the same type of story, that their programming led to employment or transition into a new program. 

So we had Raquel, who's the gal on the very left. I should have picked a better picture where her face is actually to us. But Raquel finished a program as a CNA and was able to get a better job within the school district that she was already working at. And so even though she's not a CNA, she's utilizing the same skills and the qualifications in order to get a better job within the school district. 

And then she's going to use it later on. She talked and almost made us cry. I mean, some people were crying. I was trying not to cry. But she talked about how it's going to help her in her future goals, to open like a group care home and take better care of her son who has significant disabilities. 

Asia, the gal who's holding the microphone, she talked a lot about her externship experience and how that led to her actual job placement. And Jennie as well. Again, she completed her school work. She completed her certification. And then she got a job placement. And Olivia, who I'm not going to talk too much about. But same story with Olivia. I don't want I don't want to talk about her because I don't want to spoil it. One of our grantees is going to talk about her later. But she did the same type of thing, completed a program which led to employment. So all of our students are out there. This is proof of life, proof of the work that we're doing. And let's keep going. Next slide. 

JOY LEWIS: OK. So we are going to move into our section of the community of practice, where you get to hear from the grantees all around the state. So I'm just going to mention everyone here. And then the plan is we'll turn it over to each one. And they're going to share. And after they're finished sharing, we're going to have a brief question and answer time. 

So if you have a question, while Eric or Sonja or Heather are speaking, you can put it in the chat. We'll make sure to come back to it when we are at the Q&A part for their session. And or you hold on to it and please unmute yourself and ask. We really want this to be a dialogue. We really want to have an opportunity for you to speak with each other and hear from one another, not just in a one way sort of ways but in the question and answer. So there will be time to do that. 

So we've got Eric Saavedra, principal of Oxford Adult School. And he's going to share with us first. And then we're going to have-- Sonja help me with your last name. Is it Wyche? I should have asked. 

SONJA WYCHE: No, no problem at all. It's Wyche. I'll take any pronunciation. 

JOY LEWIS: OK, great. South Orange County. And then we're going to have Heather Peterson from the Grossmont Health Occupations Center last. So without further ado, I'm going to pass it over to Eric. Thanks again, Eric, for joining us. And I'm going to mute myself and turn it to you. 

ERIC SAAVEDRA: Hey, thank you. My name is Eric Saavedra, principal of Oxnard Adult School. This is my second year here, but the school actually has had-- it's round three of the grant. So fortunately, we have the other two rounds under our belt. But what I can say is that along the way, not just growing and starting our programs. 

But I think now around three, the focus is adding more rigor. And especially with curriculum that really meets the needs of the employers and their demand for skilled workers. So I'll talk a little bit about how we're meeting that demand in a few minutes. But Oxnard is located in coastal Ventura County, and it serves-- 

We're part of a Union High School District. So we also serve the cities of Port Hueneme and Camarillo. And the combined population is 280,000. So it's quite large population that we draw upon. The traditional local economy, the backbone of this area was in agriculture. And we still have a lot of agriculture. If you if you drive by this area, you'll see a lot of fields. 

And we have plants that get the agriculture ready for packing and distributing. And like we have one company called Mission. It is actually the largest distributors of avocados in the world. So anyway, a little Wikipedia knowledge about our area. 

We have Maritime. Activities being on the Coast. And so Port Hueneme itself ranks in the top 10 busiest port for automobiles and fresh produce. And we have two major navy bases in Port Hueneme and Point Mugu. But we also have a rising pharmaceutical industry and tech industry. 

So all that makes for a wide socioeconomic range and income. Our population is heavily Hispanic, 75%, 15% White. And mostly an Asian, Filipino population, 5%. There's a lot of social mobility. However, the Latino population is what makes up a lot of the field workers and lower skilled laborers. 

And so they're in need of the most basic resources health, social services, especially housing. I mean, the houses are crazy. So you'll see a lot of multifamily units or families in the same house. There's a large ADU business here, just to meet the housing need. 

So you see very people at the top of the income ladder, but you also see the, the poorest in our nation as well. Like most adults, we serve this population of the farmers working poor. But we also have a mix of people or partners or spouses are serving in the Navy. So it's a little bit diverse. But still, our biggest population is Latino and ESL, I mean, lower skills. And we also have a large high school diploma and high school equivalency population. 

Some of our students or a lot of our students are working and that come to our CTE classes. And so they're looking to upskill. Some of them have pretty decent jobs, but they still want to upskill or obtain extra certifications or training programs that bridge them to college. 

And what we're offering in our CTE right now is pharm tech. It's full. I mean, we had a waiting list when the fall began. We have students complete 240 hours to receive a certification to the CDPH. And they are also eligible to pursue national licensure for the NHS test. And we have a teacher that prepares them for that national certification. 

Medical assistant is actually was full when we started as well. By the way, the pharm tech runs over two semesters to fulfill the 240 hours. The medical assistant, we have two cohorts. So one per semester. Last year, we only had one. But the demand is huge. So we're adding another cohort this semester. 

And so those students receive their certificate of completion. And we would like to become an NCC testing center site. So students could benefit from this national certification as well. And we're planning to bring back the CNA program. We lost a teacher. And kind of a lot of times, as you know, when the teacher leaves, it's really hard to find a replacement, especially for CTE. 

But we're trying to bring back that position as well as at a phlebotomy class this year. And then we have a caregiver class. So I'm going to use the caregiver class as a starting point to talk about our IUT model. So first of all, coming in here, I'm working with staff of all programs to change the culture and the culture of saying and really showing and through our interactions and our program and our curriculum most of all, that all students are capable of obtaining the CTE credential. 

Even if they come in with ESL level one skills, we want to make sure that we are encourage them to like get there one day if they so choose to get into CTE. So upon coming in, students receive CTE career information up front from a counselor. So the higher level students will have ESL one on one. 

We have two counselors, but our population is so big. So we have one on one counseling with the higher levels. But we have group counseling upon entry orientation with the lower levels. So we do that push-ins in class. But in the lower levels, students identify pathways that they're interested in. And that could be towards the Yale Healthcare Pathway, which is our biggest CTE pathway. 

And so they're continually receiving presentations and support from the teachers. The counselors also provide wraparound services, housing, mental health. We work with the school districts to take-- So if our parents have children in the schools, they receive counseling with us and with their site to make sure that we meet the whole family. 

And we have on site a food pantry and career closet that we maintain as well. Because we'll make sure that to keep them in, we got to make sure that we address the barriers and needs and especially in those type of resources that are in need. We also work closely with our partners. If we can't provide the specific type of resource that they need, we have a group of partners otherwise that will fill in and receive. 

And social services that will give our students a special services like special counseling, other food options that we don't have and so on. So in order to change the culture, we wanted to start digital upskilling in class as early as the first and second level. So thankfully, we got a job from the Economic Department Consortium, EDC. 

So what we do, we have a grant. And upon successful completion of a class. Beginning students can receive a Chromebook. So that's a great motivation and incentive. We were running these classes side by side with ESL classes, but we found what we're doing this year is we are pushing in. So that means in our classes, our one or two ESL 1 or 2 classes, a CTE instructor and basics computer will go in and teach a six-week course, not every day but twice a week. 

And our classes, ESL classes, meet for four times in the evening. 5:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the evening. So for six weeks, these CTE basics computer will push in. And twice a week for six weeks, the computer teacher will support-- ESL support from the teacher in there will co-teach that computer basics class. Again, the CTE teacher we're paying out of the grant. 

Anyway, so for six weeks the teacher will be in the class with the ESL teacher. And at the end of the class, all the students will get a computer basic certificate for completing. And it's basically the bare fundamentals. But towards the end, the students set up. They go through Google to learn to send emails and to navigate the Google platform a little bit, the basics, and learn how to explore on the internet. 

It's a great starting point for a lot, but it's tremendous that the students get these skills. They get the certificate. Of course, they're very happy when they receive the Chromebook. But more than anything, it sets them up for potentially success later on in CTE classes when they really need these skills. 

So we're trying to make sure that upskilling is covered early on. And also, by the way, it also helped the other teachers in the higher level. We use Burlington English as one of our platforms. So that will help the teacher. So they don't have to spend so much time teaching new students every time how to use, how to use basic how to use the basics of a computer. 

And then at the caregiver and the other CTE classes, we have the IT model. So we don't push in on that. But we have, say, for example, the caregiver, which is a great pathway class. We make that available for intermediate students. Like level 3, with a teacher's approval, but level 4 for sure, they can go to the caregiver class. So they get the career part of it separate. 

And then we have, parallel to that, the ESL support specific. So that's a great place for them to get the language. Of course, that's the intent of it. But the caregiver class is also a great class that introduces students to different medical careers. So what's great about it is there's a lot of need for caregivers. 

There's weekly job fairs, and the caregivers are always there. The private providers of caregiver at every-- and we have them wanting to present to a class because they need caregivers. So it's such a demand and in need job out there. 

So basically, if it fills a need, if a student wants to go in and start working right away, they'll have that certificate in background. But it's also great class where they introduce to the language, the medical language, terminology, and some basic skills that they can use if they want to pursue the other medical pathways that we have in pharmacy, tech, medical assisting. 

And then like again, we're going to hopefully add this semester next semester CNA lobotomy. So they get the ESL support and the caregiver class. We align the curriculum to include a co-op. So that we get 243 ILC funds to give us more extra income to continue to run and offer more CTE as well. 

I think the key part, again, this is a third year, and I came on two years-- this is my second year. Well, I think what key to our success is that we have a really great partnership with the workforce development board and other WIOA participants. We're a member of the West Ventura County Business Alliance. So that is important because it's a gateway into the private sector. 

In fact, we were Business Alliance Partner Educational Partner of the Year. The first award they gave out for that. We got that. So I mean, that's great for adult ed because we provide so much of the workforce that the private sector. And sometimes, even our own school districts don't often realize, right? So it's great that we got the award. 

So the partner are important because a lot of them come in. And if it's not monetary funds, but it's like the other things that they do. They come in and get class presentations. They attend the job and career fairs that we have. So they provide motivation and employment opportunity. They make the goal seem not so far off and realistic to a lot of our students. 

And of course, for employment, that's one of our goals, of course, for having this. So we work directly again with the Workforce Development Board, any agency that helps employment. We have, on our site, twice a month workforce on wheels. So workforce on wheels. It's a big old bus type van. And they have computers set up. 

They have two or three people manning the van. So you could meet with them. Students can work on a resume build-up, job searching, and job presentation skills. And so it's really the park right outside our campus or on our campus actually. And so it's a great asset to the community. And all the people in the surrounding community could attend as well. So it's great to have that, so that we can really-- that's the goal, to have employment for students and reduce barriers. 

But I think one of the most important assets or what our part that our partners give to us is that they gave a lot of positive feedback that impacts our curriculum and best practices. So right now, in all our CTE classes, above caregiver. So they're talking about medical assisting and pharmacy tech. 

We embed AI into the curriculum. It's a component of our curriculum. And in that class, we have a CTE instructor that pushes into the classroom. Not every class, but what we do is every two weeks or so, the CTE instructor will combine the CT classes of pharm tech and medical system will combine. 

So one huge room. And so he's giving the CTE instructor for AI, is giving lecture and curriculum to improve AI skills. Because the feedback from the private sector is you have to have these skills to be competitive and get the job. So basically we want to change the dialogue that AI is a tool, a powerful tool that's needed to enhance productivity in employment. So if you don't have this tool, you're at a disadvantage with the workforce that does have these skills. 

So anyway, all CTE have an AI component. Students also do projects that include Google Suites. So we're talking about Word, Excel, even putting things on Canva which sounds like Google Suite. So we want them to have those tech skills and to be able to not only gather data but to put it together and to present it as well in different modes. 

So all our teachers post content using Canvas LMS, again, digital skills and will help the transition if they want to go on to college, which all community colleges are using Canvas these days. So all our students will have that skill going into college. And all classes meet online. And not all the time but every so often. I can't give you the exact number here. 

And that is purposeful. One, I think it's a good break. We have a lot of working adults. So it kind of helps sometimes, you know, travel costs, gases, expensive. But more importantly is because we want students to become proficient in using and presenting in this mode because it's becoming more and more common, and we'll give them that skill and maybe a one up on other applicants for jobs. 

And finally, we have another key in our partners with the Workforce Development Board and private sector is we have various MOUs for externships. there's. Quite a few local pharmacies that we have MOUs with, and we're working on our biggest MOU with the CVS pharmacies. They're really, really interested. There's really a need. And so they are really going to take a lot of our students for the externships. So really looking forward to that. 

For medical assisting, we have MOUs with Goodwill Industries. And we're working on MOUs with Clinicas Ventura that serve a lot of the population in need. So Clinicas does that. And also Dignity Health. So we believe, fulfilling the hours. You could say our class is very I think we've really improved the rigor, but we really want to make sure that it's purposeful. 

If we can cut down the hourly time it takes to class. We can't underperform 6,240 and get students into externships right away. That's our preferred way of running the class because we feel that externships are valuable. And by the way, there's so much more training. A lot of private sector is saying, hey, get these basic skills, and we'll train up. So we're trying to get them these basic skills and then let them train up during the externships and when they get the jobs. 

One thing that we're working on, I think this is an area that we need to improve on, is working for college transitions. I know this round, to get the ELL health grant. We're planning just to have the counselors from the college work with our counselors. Like their college counselor will come in maybe one day a week. And our counselor will actually go to the college. We work with mostly Oxnard College, but we also have Ventura College. 

But at least at the Oxnard College, our counselor will go on site. And any of our students that are there, he'll be there to help them, so that the handoff is a really, really warm handoff, right? So he'll make sure that they're attending if they're not attending. Because they don't have the resources or the time on the college. And we want to make sure that our students, they really need that warm handoff. 

But most of all, I think the encouragement and help navigate the new system. So our, the plan is to have our counselor go there at least one day a week to meet those students and have a cohort there. And by the way, we'll serve other students, not just CTE students, but other the students that transition from ESL and high school diploma and HSC as well will be there for-- that counselor will be on Oxnard College campus for them as well. 

So our plan is to work more closely with the college for that warm handoff. But also looking at to align line of curriculum more closely. I don't know about our full on articulation right now. But at least I would love to pursue credit for prior learning. I know maybe that's a way that we can have our students get some of the classes. Because I think we're getting a very quality program. And since they're expanding credit for prior learning, hopefully, they'll take on and they'll assign credits to some of our students in the CTE programs as well. Anyway, that's a little bit about us here if you have any questions. 

JOY LEWIS: Eric, thank you. That was a lot of great information. And you covered a lot of ground with all kinds of different relevant things about your work with students and your programs and your, obviously, work to get them set up for transition. So I'll pause for a moment or two and see if anybody has any questions for Eric. Feel free to unmute. Put it in the chat. This is informal. 

POLO VALDOVINOS: Hi, there. My name is Polo Valdovinos, and I'm at West Contra Costa Adult Ed. And one thing that we've really struggled with, I think, is to figure out how to engage with employers. And you mentioned the work that you've done with the Business Council in Oxnard. How do you first start and make those connections to begin to happen? And then how do you maintain them? How do you grow them and have them turn into curriculum, or job opportunities, or internships, or how does that ecosystem get created with employers? 

ERIC SAAVEDRA: Well, our coordinator is great. Jennie Cardona actually reached out like before I got here. So I'm not exactly sure. But I think it was just out reaching out and making contact with them. And so I think they see the value. The Business Alliance was actually, it's the name for our Chamber of Commerce. It's called the Business Alliance. 

But it's a Business Alliance because it also includes surrounding cities of Camarillo. So they should be separate, right? So now, they're all together Port Hueneme and even Ventura. So it was a reach out and a contact. And they were really welcoming because they realized that we have businesses here, and there's a need for skilled workers and to close that gap. 

And so they were very happy to fill a need in some of those emergent industry sectors that are coming up. Like I mentioned, pharmaceutical and tech, but also for skilled labor. And like working in a plant, for example, you could work your way up to be manager and stuff like that. 

So they're really interested in working with us as well. But to maintain that, we're a member. I can't remember. It costs like $1,000 or something to be a member. But I think what we get out of it is we go to some of the meetings, and they actually hold meetings and sectors that are pertinent to us. 

Like the last meeting they had, the leaders of Dignity Health, Gold Coast, which is a insurance provider for most of the Medicare. And it's kind of a mix. They have some private insurance as well and Dignity Health as well. And so just making connections. And I think those connections what led us to like, with Dignity, possibly set up, and Clinicas Ventura, set up MOUs. I think that that's where really the payoff is, to make those in-person contacts, and they go really go a long way. So I think it's just to make contact and then and then and then participate in their workshops and things like that. 

JOY LEWIS: Great. Thank you. 

ERIC SAAVEDRA: I don't know what they have in your areas. I don't know if it's Chamber of Commerce or-- but it's really worked out for us. 

JOY LEWIS: Amazing. And also Eric, I put Jennie's contact information in the chat, so others could grab it. And obviously, I'm sure they would talk to you too. But Jennie will be able to share any more, and she's a good person to reach out to find out a little more. But I'd like to move on, if that's OK. Huge thank you to Eric for all of your great information. We're going to transition over to Sonja, who's going to introduce herself and her program and all of their work. 

SONJA WYCHE: All right. Well, thanks, Joy, and thanks, everyone, for letting me talk about our programs. And as Eric was speaking, so many of the things he was mentioning I think resonate with what we're doing over at SOCRC. Externships, that warm handoff, that really kind of a high touch strategy with the students are all important in our consortium too. 

So my name is Sonja Wyche, and I'm a program coordinator specifically for ELL Healthcare Pathways at Saddleback College. We're part of the South Orange County Regional Consortium down here in South Orange County. And my position was actually created when the college or the consortium applied for and accepted the grant. And then Saddleback College used grant funds to create this position. So a little background on that. 

The South Orange County Regional Consortium has 10 members. Four of them are participating in ELL Healthcare Pathways, just to give a little background, before we jump into student transitions. And the four that are doing ELL Healthcare Pathways are Saddleback College. Irvine Valley College, which is our sister community college in the district. And then we have two adult schools, Coastline ROP and Costa Mesa, and College and Career Advantage, or CCA as we call them, in Mission Viejo. 

So I think one of the things that maybe I can share about as we think about student transitions is just our consortium does have this mix of community colleges and adult schools doing the program. And I think it looks a little different depending on which lens we're looking through. 

And then our consortium has made a concerted effort to work together. So our agencies try not to be silos, but we try to collaborate and work together to serve the students in this ELL Healthcare Pathways program. So I think that's another thing our consortium has done well, and there's been successes and challenges in that. 

So as a consortium, we have six different Healthcare Pathways programs. Those would be CNA, phlebotomy, pharmacy, technician, dental assistant. And then a ACNA is acute care nursing assistant, which is something Saddleback College added on as additional training for the CNAs. 

And we're going to focus on that a little bit more as we talk about student transitions. So I am kind of going by a little mental outline here. I just want to talk about some common transitions our students see and then what strategies and supports we have in place, what partnerships we're using, and then sort of successes and challenges with that. 

So I would say, and since I am a Saddleback College employee working with the consortium, I'm going to focus on Saddleback College as we get into transition, just because that's what I kind of have my finger on the pulse of right now. So even consortium-wide, I think common transitions are into our programs and then into employment are probably the two biggest ones. 

And the areas in which we've really kind of focused on how to support students through this. So in terms of navigating students into the program, one thing we found is that this population of students, the emerging English learners and speakers, oftentimes, this is their first experience at a community college and sometimes at an adult school too. 

But at Saddleback College being a community college, we can be big and scary. And also, Saddleback College, I should mention as well, our health and wellness school had health programs in place already. So of course, that was super helpful as we started ELL Healthcare Pathways because we already had a CNA program. And so that program just needed to be adapted and modified to fit the needs of the ELL Healthcare Pathways program. 

So some things we've done in terms of getting students into the program are orientations, workshops to help students enroll. It can be a little bit of a bear of a process. Because if a student comes to us and says, I want to join the CNA program, sometimes, it feels like we're telling them, well, first, you have to fill out CCC Apply, and that's a really long application. 

And then you have to fill out-- our School of Health and Wellness has another application for their programs. So we've tried to mitigate that by doing some handholding. And I think like Eric said, that high touch, kind of warm referral process. Our students come to orientations where we sit down with them, and our adult ed staff helps them fill out applications for the college. 

And then we do really targeted info sessions, where the students are learning about the programs and learning about what's required. And something new that we've added on for round 3 is we're doing ESL assessments as part of our information sessions. Because one of the pain points I would say is that students would be entering the programs who maybe were at a lower ESL level than was really needed to succeed in the programs. 

And this is part of, you know, just being honest. This is part of a learning curve for us, working with the School of Health and Wellness on our campus, who's kind of previous perspective was kind of like, well, you know, we take students. We want the best to succeed. It's sort of the best of the best. The cream of the crop is going to graduate because we want these skilled members of our health care workforce. 

And so there was definitely some navigating and just working together to say, well, hey, these students are going to be amazing health care workers, but they might not look like that right now just because they need some assistance with the digital side. And Eric, what you were saying about the computer skills being worked into the ESL class sounded amazing. That sounds like something that we could incorporate more. 

Because just getting students to that place where they are OK being in a classroom and using Canvas and all these technologies that the faculty expects them to use in the health class. So we really try to scaffold that with the workshops. And I have a program specialist in the School of Health and Wellness that works with this program too. So we have staff support. 

And part of that was the decision to allocate some of the Healthcare Pathways funds for this classified staff support for the program. We do leverage our counseling office too to support students. But I would say that really, it's mainly the staff support that kind of knows the programs really well and helps the students with orientations and things like that. So that's kind of getting into the program. 

Once the students are in the program, we do partner ESL classes with the health class. So that support is woven into the program. And then as we look into that second piece of student transitions, which would be transitioning out of the program into employment, I think there's two really important pieces, looking at Saddleback College and then in our consortium in general. 

The first would be faculty. So the faculty really have played a huge role in helping our students just both succeed in their health classes because they're really dedicated faculty who really love working with these students. And I think that's just taken some maybe some time to build that faculty base. And yes, we need more CNA instructors too. 

So we kind of have a department chair who's sort of teaching all the classes right now. And so burnout is real. So I think just finding enough CTE instructors is definitely a huge piece for us as well. And then the second piece with the faculty is the externships. So the clinical externships are a part of our programs for the general population and for the ELL students. We partner with a few. Just a few partners would be Hoag Hospital, Providence Hospital for CNA. Via Valencia Healthcare, Huntington Valley Health Center. For ACNA, Saddleback Memorial has been the hospital that took all of our ACNA students. 

So partnering with these clinical partners has really been a key piece of allowing our students to have those externships and then to make those connections in the workforce. Now, being a community college, we do have that infrastructure where even pre-existing, we had clinical agreements with these partners. And so that's one of the pluses of having the community college structure. 

But in our adult school partners like CCA and Coastline, they are really doing more of that connection just by picking up the phone or going out there and finding clinical partners. And I know their faculty have done an amazing job with that as well. So it's like the CTE faculty that they bring in, have connections in the workforce already and can place their students because of the partnerships that they've created. So there's kind of two different models with that, I'd say, adult school versus community colleges in our consortium. 

But the clinical externships are really kind of the key piece that gives students that workforce experience. And we do, in terms of additional partnerships, we do have a Career Center at Saddleback College, also at IVC. And I think it's a bit of an underutilized resource. It's something that we'd like to expand going forward because the Career Center is there to help students transition into jobs. 

But I think that just on the whole, we just need to do a little additional work to tailor our programs to the ELL Healthcare Pathway students, which I think need a different kind of support than here's a list of things you can do on LinkedIn, or here's a connection to Handshake, an app that gives you access to job postings. 

But we have done some workshops with our career centers in the past. And this is just, you know, total honesty, sharing, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think that sometimes our Career Center just looks at our population of students as other populations that the college serves. And I think just more specific support would just the efficacy of the Career Center with our students. 

So that being said, so I want to share, actually going back to Olivia, who Debbie mentioned earlier. She was in the photo there. Olivia can kind of illustrate this pathway of getting into the program and then transitioning into potential employment. So Olivia came to the CNA program a few semesters ago, and she took advantage, definitely, of leaning on additional support. I know Michaela, the program specialist, and myself, helped her the college application, applying to the School of Health and Wellness, making sure that she did get to the orientations and all those sort of nuts and bolts pieces of getting in the program. 

CNA is really a strict program and that the students can't miss even a single hour, which is always such a bummer when a student misses that-- last week of class, they get sick, and they miss a class, and then they have to come back to repeat the program. Because just the way that the hours are set up with the CDPH and how they have to report their classroom hours, they can't miss any time. 

So by the time those students get to the end of that CNA process, they're rock stars, and we're just so happy that they're ready to take the CNA exam, which they do take on the campus. So we are a licensed testing facility for that CNA exam. And then they transition hopefully out into employment. 

After having done externships, many of the CNA students are hired by the care homes that they did their externships in. So we built this ACNA piece, which is a 1-- actually, it's an eight-week program that gives students additional training to work in an acute setting. So like a hospital setting, for example. 

It's not a certificate program. But the great thing that happened with our ACNA program is that Saddleback Memorial took all of our small group of ACNA students, so only five of them, but they all got placed there at Saddleback Memorial. And then the faculty, Professor Vias, who taught ACNA, she really worked with the students and the site to set up interviews for each student. 

So she had that connection with the clinical partner, who was able to get that additional piece for our students. And the great thing about Olivia is that, she's such a wonderful, caring person if you meet her and she's just perfect for health care. But she didn't want to do the interview at the end of the ACNA program because she was intimidated, and it was scary, and she didn't feel confident about her English. 

But after seeing the other students in her cohort go through the process, and they were excited and nervous about their interviews, and they were gung ho to do them, she actually changed her mind kind of in the final hour, and she asked her professor if there was any way that she could do an interview anyway, even though everything had been scheduled. 

So the faculty member reached out to the clinical site. Saddleback Memorial said, OK, you know, we'll make space for one more interview. And Olivia ended up, the faculty helped her apply. So there was a process for that too. Kind of sat with her and helped her get that piece done. 

And then Olivia interviewed, and she actually got offered a job as an CNA at Saddleback Memorial. So we were just so excited for that. And she's just a great illustration of how with the extra support and the support we're able to offer through the grant. We offer stipends to our instructors for working together, working with the ESL instructor. 

The additional workshops, sometimes additional skills lab time. I don't think that she would have found that a ACNA position on her own. And then the extra piece of that is due to personal factors and things going on. Olivia actually didn't end up taking the job. So it's sort of like there's a future possibility. 

But just to illustrate how, as Debbie mentioned, sometimes, our students go through a program, and then they end up not entering employment at like actually taking the employment at the end. So I think there's different factors going on with that. But the more scaffolding that we can give, the more likelihood there is that they'll finish the program and then get into employment. 

And for additional considerations for the ELL students, I would just say that confidence piece because I think Olivia is representative of a lot of our students who just don't feel confident about their English. I talked to a phlebotomy student who felt the same way even after completing the program. So I don't think I have the answer for that, but just some thoughts or just additional supports with the ESL instructor, working with more conversation. 

We try to bring in job-related tools and skills into the ESL class. So it's not just medical terminology focused. And I think that that piece helps. And just having a cohort go together through the program. The students really end up supporting each other. And we find that they kind of become a unit at the end. 

So they have the support of their peers as well, which they don't have if they're just entering the CNA or phlebotomy program surrounded by native speakers, which is also scary. Because you're the person who's like, oh, I didn't quite catch that, but I don't want to ask instructor to slow down. So just having that cohort experience I think helps. 

And so I think just to wrap up successes and challenges. Things that definitely work, the externships, the high touch philosophy of the program. The faculty. I think hiring the right faculty is so important. And that sometimes, we just kind of get we get lucky, and we do our recruitment as much as we can. 

And then some barriers that still exist are just the confidence, the language, wanting our clinical partners to recognize that being multilingual is a skill and a benefit, not a hindrance. And I think that that has just been, as we send more students out to the clinicals who do well, I think that perception changes of over time. 

And then just one last thing I'll mention with our phlebotomy students, there's just kind of logistical things with phlebotomy with phlebotomy after they complete their training with us. They take the exam on their own. We're not a testing site for phlebotomy, and they have to get their transcripts evaluated because they need proof of a high school diploma. 

So if you completed your high school in a different country, you have to get transcript evaluations. That's still something we're working on. We've offered workshops in the past, but they're still tends to be a little lag time between the student finishing phlebotomy and being ready to apply and get their license and then apply to jobs. So how can we kind of fill in the gaps maybe with some additional training, workshops, or a little skills workshop before they enter employment? So yeah. 

JOY LEWIS: Thank you, Sonja. That was amazing. You covered a lot of ground also. No, that was great. Thank you. So I want to allow questions for Sonja, but before we do that, I'd like Heather to get a chance to share. So I'm going to just pass it over to her. And there's some great questions in the chat I don't want to lose too. So we will make sure we get to those in the last few minutes after we're finished hearing from Heather Peterson. 

HEATHER PETERSON: Hi, everybody. I'm going to try to stick to the time that we were given, do the best I can here, since we've got a pretty big program. We are Grossmont Adult Education. So we are East San Diego. And so just location-wise, I like visuals. Sorry, I know they read. But here's where what we're doing here. 

These are the programs listed for the ELL grant. We actually have a lot of additional programs. We do a ton of continuing education for health care providers too here. So very big program that we have just number-wise, just so you could get an idea. Last year, we had about 1,900 students unduplicated that came through our programs here at HOC. Just completion rate, about 90%. We're usually about 85% to 89% and then certification rate 2. 

And we had 502 IET students last year. So we have been doing IET for about 10 years. So we were actually not included in the first two rounds of the grant. Not that we're bitter about it. But we did get the third one, but I kind of understood because we have already been doing a lot of what was being asked and a lot of the first and second year we're planning. It kind of makes sense that we were not included in that first round of it. 

But we are really excited to be on board and expand the things that we're doing now. So we're pretty excited to build on a pretty strong foundation that we have. I will say uniquely, here in East San Diego County, we do have a unique population. You can kind of see that our ethnicity details there. But you see that big white bar is the bulk of our students in Grossmont Adult Ed. 

But really, truly, 80% of that are students who come the Middle East or North Africa. So we have a very, very large Middle East population here in El Cajon, one of the biggest in the United States. And so that really is the bulk of our students. Our ESL programs are about 97% Middle Eastern. We're really excited to see that we're going to be able to mark that soon and actually be able to account for the difference in ethnicities. 

So how we do IET, we do a couple different versions. So we do do classes where that ESL instructor is in there the whole time. We have a patient care aide class, where they get the National caregiver training. That's kind of our soft place, as we call it, our soft landing place. And so they often start there and move up. 

We are going to be expanding and adding some very specific, more supported classes for CNA and medical assistant with this grant. But really, the bulk of our IET students, we ended up finding that as we spoke with students, you know, we tried to originally, I think in 2019, we tried to build a kind of a CNA, pure IET class, and we went into some of our vocational education classes for medical. 

And they said, yes, we're going to take CNA. And then only two of them signed up. Because they want to go to everything. They want to go to phlebotomy or medical assistant or they wanted to go to everything. So we found like how are we going to help all of them, not just this group that wants to go into nursing? 

And so we have four English language teachers here on campus, and they actually push into the class, or they pull out the entire class, not just our English learners. And they do a lot focused around soft skills, which all of our CTE students need. So just general soft skills, resume writing, interviews. They do a lot of patient scenarios, mock skills, simulations with them. 

So they do a ton around that, and that's really the focus obviously with the literacy being the background of that as our English language instruction occurs. Digital literacy, they do a lot of that too. So our teachers love it because they have somebody else in there that's teaching those skills that are missing for these students because they're really trying to focus on the content of the CTE course. 

So that's how we get that 502. So for all of our classes, they pull out the students for at least an hour, and then they push into the classes too. And so they all have little different schedules. And then we have workshops, and we have open lab hours where those who need additional support can come into. And I will say, while obviously it's English language focused, we get a ton of students that just struggle academically that are also supported through all of these ways that we do this. So we love that everybody gets a chance to be supported equally. 

Transition-wise. So I kind of, as the other two are talking, I think we have a lot of similar thoughts that I think transitions. We always think next steps, employer, and higher education. But really for us, I think the success of our programs is we do a ton of pre-transition work. Pre before they get into our programs. We do a general orientation that is mandatory. Every student has to attend. It is free. They can go online and do it. It's by Zoom. 

Or they can come here if they choose to. We do them every week as we get closer to our registration window. We sometimes are doing them two to three times a week. It's all of our office staff running them. And in that orientation, we have a team that are called our transition services specialist. We actually have Daisy with me here in this meeting. So you can meet one of them. 

And so it gives them an opportunity to connect with people who can do the hand-holding through all the details. And that general orientation, we go to our website. We show them. We have a comprehensive website where they can go and find pretty much anything they're looking for. But it also gives them an opportunity to have that contact. There's a survey at the end. About 50% of the people who take the orientation do ask that somebody from transition services reaches out to them. 

They can help them with foreign diploma because that tends to be a very big hurdle and barrier. They can connect them to financial support early. We can connect them to English language classes. So on our website, it's an optional kind of reading comprehension test that they can do. And it's scores aren't kept. It's just for them to go on and just kind of see where they're at. And then it just recommends where they might want to go next. So a lot of people take that too. 

And so we just give them the opportunity to really be fully informed before they even register for the class and have opportunities to step into the areas where they might need help is really our goal in onboarding. And then once we do those orientations, then when they register with us, they actually register for, we call them first class days. 

And that's the actual program orientation, which is about four to six weeks before the class starts. And there we go through details like immunizations, what the class is about, all of that. So there's a lot that happens on the front end to help them be successful when they get into the class. 

Transitions for employment. We do, obviously, every class has internships, externships, clinicals. We have been around for a long time. So we have over 90 partners, active partners. We have 140 approved on our list, but we use 90 of them, every major hospital here. We also do vet and pharmacy and dental and all of those locations. 

So we have a lot of partners. We have several partners that actually do intern to hire. So Walgreens, CVS. We have several of our dental offices. They pretty much hire everyone that we send them. And then Rady Children's Hospital and Sharp here also do intern to hire. So they have eight to 10 students every semester that they interview. So they go through the whole process of interviewing intern directly into being hired. So it's a pretty great relationship we have built. 

The other thing that we do is we do an open house and a career fair every semester because we have lots of especially skilled nursing facilities that reach out, and they want to talk to students. And so we send them all here. So we do tables. We make sure all of our students come. We make sure alumni come. We advertise it. And so we usually have about 25 to 30 partners that come and have tables. Sometimes, they're doing interviews on site. So that open house career fair has become a very big event for us. 

We also invite our high school health pathway programs. So students looking to get into the classes. They come, and they're able to also kind of be there and see what the opportunities are. So we've kind of had a pipeline developed through all of our programs. I would say though, these two areas, the employment and then to community college or programs is probably our weak area, just because we don't have a lot of personnel dedicated to this. 

So we bring the employers here. We have them. But we don't do job placement, right? We aren't helping them. Once they're out of our internship externship and going on to get jobs, we don't really have the personnel to support that. So that is one of the major things we built into the grant applications. We're really excited to have that. 

And then the college, we have a great partnership with our college. We just find that for our college programs, the prerequisites tend to be the biggest barrier. So they got to get through that anatomy, physiology, and micro, and all those things to get into these next allied health programs. And that's a huge struggle for English learners. 

So the other thing we built into the grant is an actual bridge program for the first time. So we're going to be bridging with their A&P and getting into their anatomy lab with an IET teacher to be able to support the students there. So we're pretty excited about that. 

And then we also help them through just the licensing process. I heard people talking the testing. We do testing here as well. Because I feel like if you can get them as much as we've done here, you're not going to lose them once they finish the program. So we do try to help them through that entire process start to finish. But as I said, the gap is actually getting them out into employment. 

And then I'm going to let Daisy jump in a little bit to talk about our transition services specialist because this they are the people that really support the transitions for students from the start to the finish. 

DAISY SANCHEZ: Thank you, Heather. Yes. Thank you, everyone. It's my first time here. My background is in transition services specialist. I'm now gearing into the program coordinator for the ELL Healthcare Pathway. So a lot of the background I've done is just moving forward with this grant, as Heather was saying. 

So we do support our students before they enter the program. That is very key to our students. Before entering a program, we like to know what the student's goals are and what are those barriers we're having. Barriers are such high in our population right now, not only language, but there is childcare, transportation. Most of our students do not drive. And if you know San Diego does not have the most friendly transportation with bus or anything. So it's pretty expensive. 

So this is where we'd like to catch our students first before they start thinking about going into these programs. Because as we all talked about is they're very rigorous. They have to be in class. They need to finish their hours. If not, they're out. So we have those honest conversations with our specialists before they go into a program. We like to know where they're at, if they're already in a community partner. 

Our community partners usually are UDW, which is the union for our caregivers. So we have a lot of those referrals. We also have the career centers. They're great support for financial bus passes, gas cards. We have the YMCA that supports students who are under 28 years old. They also support with the transportation. 

So we are going out into community and having those partnerships to ensure our students make it to class. Because we don't want the barrier. We know about the barrier while they're in class. We like to help them beforehand. While they're in class, there's another effort that we have, and that is with supporting IET as well, mock interviews, creating those resumes. 

Also like you spoke, Sonja, about that confidence. Pushing them and having those honest conversations. So that is happening before and after there are in our program. And then while they're in program, we you always go in to do class visits, a specialist. We go into class visits, let them know, again, about our services. And at that point, they're thinking about what our next steps, what do those transition is after this program. 

So we like to let them know that what are your thoughts after your program? If it's a CNA to an LVN, CNA to RN. And then they schedule those meetings with us, and we create a plan. That plan can also have those honest conversations about what those pre-reqs mean. They need help with just doing a college application or just scheduling an appointment with our counselor. 

We do have a counselor on-site of a different site, but in El Cajon, that can also help our students, specific students, and we are working into maybe having partnership with CalWORKs as well to help our students get those barriers addressed early on. 

Also, I'm not going to go into detail with some of the students that we have, but we have students who, like a student from Cuba who was a dentist. We have a lot of professional students who were dentists, medical. One from Iraq. She was a professor for a very high ranked university. So these students come here, 0 English. 

So we have to have that conversation about, hey, let's just get you started to these vocational courses. Let's get you started into driving. This is going to take about 20 minutes. It might seem so small. But these are the conversations you need to have to prep them before into these programs. 

And so yes, the student from Cuba. We made sure that she had the transportation. We offered her a vocational. She said no, I'm ready through IET. She was able to go through the program successfully. And now, in her internship, she was hired on part time. But it's all about that confidence that we were mentioning that we tell our students that they have the experience. It's just putting in on practice. 

But yeah. That's pretty much a little bit of what we do. And the support with IET, with our program. The instructors are really phenomenal into our support and coming into their class, referring them to us to helping these students be successful in their programs and then those transitions as well. Thank you. 

HEATHER PETERSON: Thank you Daisy. So wrapping up just quick. So what's working for us? I think that IET for us works very well. I will say, like 2021, 2022, as we were doing this, we saw much higher numbers. We actually had our IET students, our ELL students were finishing at a higher rate than everybody else on our campus, was very interesting. 

But we also found, as Daisy and I had discussed a bit, is that we were getting a lot of these very educated professionals coming here to take our classes. So that was part of it too. And we had students with zero English. One scored, I think, a 217 on the courses, and she got a perfect score in the dental assisting class. And she was a dental assistant from Ukraine. So they're absolutely capable of it. So it really made us rethink how we do things here. 

But I say that to say we threw a lot of paint at the wall. We did a lot of different things. I think it's looked a little bit different almost every year that we have done stuff, and it changes every year, and we adapt constantly. And I think the biggest success in that is that we have had teachers be part of that process through everything that we have done. 

And so them having a lot of say and a lot of stake in what's happening has really helped them to really embrace it. And they love this program where five, six years ago, it was not everybody who loved it. But I would tell you, everybody on campus loves what we're doing and loves the extra support. And just barriers, I think, that still exist for students. 

I think no matter what, it is hard to tell somebody who ran a hospital in Afghanistan that they have to start as a medical assistant or a CNA and go through that process. And I don't know what the answer is for that. I don't know that, California or nationally, those things are going to change, but it would be great if there could become a process where we're honoring the work that those people did in their home countries and bring that here. So I'm going to stop there for questions because I knew there was a lot of questions for our last one. So it gives everybody time to do that. 

JOY LEWIS: Thanks, Heather. That was amazing. Who's got a question for Heather or Sonja? We didn't give any time for that. But just questions in general. We have two or three minutes. We can get through a couple. 

JENNIFER RINCON GONZALEZ: Hi. Jennifer, I had a question about support for ELL students outside of the classes. I know in here at the Whittier Union Adult School, we are trying to implement more ELL strategies into the CTE classes, but I'm wondering what support is there for students who didn't go through the ELL classes and just went straight through the program but are struggling now? 

HEATHER PETERSON: I can share. We have a referral process. So from the first week, if a teacher has a student who maybe doesn't do well on a quiz or test or is seeing, they're not participating, they automatically are sending an email to our IET team to connect. And because those IET teachers come in, they'll immediately connect with that student too. So I think early connecting them to that individual. 

And then we have hours, and they schedule scenarios. So I think a lot of students, a lot of times, when you tell a student, just go into this lab and get help, they don't really know what for. So they literally schedule very specific kind of scenarios that they're going to be covering. Like in taking a patient, vitals for a patient, whatever it might be, right? And they try to make it something that will fit across all the programs. Patient communication tends to be a very big one. 

Digital learning skills, right? So how to send an email? How to do all of those little things? And so I think once they get them in the door and what you're doing is effective, they come back. They're committed. But it's getting them in the door. And I think it's really hand-holding them, almost walking them over to that. 

We also build, I heard some people talking about how they give the exact hours for the class. We build in a lot of extra hours. And so that allows for the IET and it allows for them to dental assisting. They can actually pull out, and during the class time, to do it rather than on their own time, which has been a very big deal too. So that would be mine. 

JOY LEWIS: Great. Any other questions? OK, Katrina, go ahead. You can unmute. 

KATRINA TRAN: Hi so I was at the ELL convening about two weeks ago. And one of the biggest takeaways I got from that is to be able to show strong outcomes and metrics to what our grants and our funds are doing to help these students. So in particular, I'm looking at employment and salary outcomes. I'm wondering what our other colleges and other institutions are doing in terms of a following up method that has actually worked for you once they have exited the program. So I'm thinking is it some kind of exit survey? Is it some kind of calling them and contacting them afterwards, or is it matching to another data source that you're using as well? And then the second part to that question is who owns that followup? 

JOY LEWIS: Great question. 

SONJA WYCHE: I can answer really short answer, which is we have a big spreadsheet and we email and call and follow up with the students. And it's myself and the project specialist. And we try to rope other people in as much as possible, but it's an area that we want to improve in getting more data. We still have many students who don't respond to our calls and emails and surveys. So that is a challenge for us. 

KATRINA TRAN: Thank you. 

DEBI PEZZUTO: And to respond to your question too, Katrina, yes, yes, and yes. Yes, there is a survey. So Title 2 programs know that they have a survey. They reach out to students at the second quarter after exit and the fourth quarter after exit, and that's just to maintain their funding. And that's for all students, not just Healthcare Pathway students. 

Yes, what we've seen throughout the state is that there are different methods of keeping track of their students. But pretty typically, like what Sonja said, somebody who oversees or coordinates the Healthcare Pathway program has a sheet and is tracking the students and trying to find a system that works best for them to contact those students to follow up. 

And I forget the third option, but yes. In my head, I remember saying yes. That people are really struggling with getting students to respond back after they complete programming with their employment outcomes and their wage. Oh, it was the wage file. That's what I was going to say. Yes. They do data matching to see if they have a Social Security number on file. Then we can actually look up and see their wage file and see if they've gained employment, but that's not always reliable either. 

But this is a national issue that we have with following up with adult education students to get them to tell us if they've got a job or if they have increased their earnings. And so to tie it all back, Joy, look, I'm going to bring it all back because we got to close out right on time today. 

I really appreciate everything that you shared, Eric, Sonja, and Heather. And it really paints a great picture of how much pre-work we have to do in order to ensure smooth transitions later on and how much at the front end we do. And part of that, Katrina, is building those relationships at the beginning, so that when we call them or message them to say like, did you get a job? How's it going? How much did you make? They'll actually respond to us, and we're not robots, and they know that they can trust us, right? 

And so I just wanted to touch on a few of the things that I heard because they're so good. So much about orientations and onboarding as a best practice for students, to prep them for the ELL Pathways, even if it's not something that they're entering into yet, but then also to prepare them for the type of work and the type of skills that they would need for those specific occupations. 

So they're not blindsided. That's always where I sorted students out between the blood and guts people and the non blood and guts people. I have courses for both. The digital literacy skills and the different skills support and connecting with the employers to figure out what those skills are. We heard a little bit about that, a lot about that at the convening too, directly from the employers, talking about what are the skills they need just to get the employees in the door, and then what skills they're going to work on once they're hired. 

The internships and externships value, working with the workforce boards and really sometimes just calling local employers to see what relationships you can start building and helping them to see the value and the return on investment with working with our students. Very much from the how can we help you as the employer? We have all these wonderful students. How can we help you? 

And utilizing the resources at the community colleges. So that shared effort approach to working with our students and helping our students transition and move on. And career fairs and on-site interviews, that is fantastic. I love anytime you can get a student to do a quick interview. That's great practice for them and great for the employers to see that we have highly competent, very highly skilled students. And now, I'm going to let Joy share the screen, so we can look at upcoming events, and we can wrap up this awesome COP. 

JOY LEWIS: Yeah. So in addition to the things that Mandilee posted, please grab the link to the little evaluation that she posted as well as the other events. But you can also see some of that by these links or QR codes here. And so save the date for December 7 is when we will do our next community of practice. And we always take things we hear at the communities of practice and turn those into the topic or the focus area for the next community of practice. So we will keep all of these things in mind and open to suggestions and ideas and things that we hear office hours or other times that we want to bring people together to share. 

So just wanted you to have note of that. And this is the link. You can grab this QR code. I'm going to drop this tiny URL in the chat. Oops. I can't do that while I'm sharing my screen. If somebody could drop the resources. This is a link to all the community of practice resources that we have. So I recommend grabbing that and just saving, bookmarking that page. 

And a huge, huge, thank you, again to Eric, Sonja, and Heather for sharing. We're always looking for folks, depending on the topic, to share again. And it's OK to have repeat shares, but we're really want to hear from a lot of different programs at all of these communities of practice. And I know it's 59 past the hour. So we're going to wrap up and say a huge thank you to everyone for sticking around and hearing from everyone. Have a great rest of your day. 

MANDILEE GONZALES: Thank you, WestEd and IRC. And for those that are still on, you can grab the chat to capture any questions and answers, any contact information. And we hope to see everybody back online at the next COP and then the next ELL Open Office Hours. Have a great, oh, my gosh, Monday, rest of your week. Bye.