Members of the LLCC Black Student Union (BSU) welcomed approximately 60 District 186 seniors to BSU Fest Friday, April 21, on the Springfield campus.
The event was held to help students explore educational options and enhance community connection and inclusion among Black students.
Participants toured campus; participated in sonography, poetry or natural hair care workshops; and heard from BSU alumni, faculty and staff.
Come see Julio Barrenzuela, the “Salsa Ambassador,” and learn how to dance the Salsa on April 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons.
Barrenzuela has been teaching Salsa for over 10 years in any place that he can, including nursing homes, facilities for those with disabilities and youth organizations. He says, “Music brings people together, and that’s what I want to do through my efforts. The hope is to make a difference by giving the community’s most unlikely people, be it from their wheelchair or jail cell, the opportunity to see themselves as salsa dancers and therefore members of a much larger ‘salsa community.’”
He is a veteran of the Navy and has a doctorate in cultural studies from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He is currently president of CIELO, a culturally integrated organization dedicated to promoting the education, employment and culture of Latino Americans in communities that are within about a 60-mile radius of Springfield.
The IDI-funded LLCC Diversity & Equity Fellowship Initiative (DEFI) is making great progress this spring. The grant was awarded to the diagnostic medical sonography (DMS) program as a faculty recruitment tool with the goal of increasing the diversity of the health professions faculty pool.
A DEFI fellow, Tracey Benn-Cockayne, was selected to assist with a curriculum proposal for a new cardiovascular sonography (CVS) AAS degree program. Tracey is a registered echocardiographer who is from a minoritized group. She serves as the co-chair for the CVS Planning Committee along with current DMS Program Director Leigh Giles-Brown.
During her short time as a DEFI fellow, Tracey has developed and administered a workforce needs analysis survey which identified staffing shortages and the crucial need for a CVS program to be established in central Illinois. Tracey serves on all subcommittees for the CVS program planning process and presented progress notes during recent DMS Program Advisory Committee and CVS Planning Committee meetings. “Her expertise is invaluable to crafting the many sections of the required ICCB Form-20. Tracey’s details and insights are helping us design a quality CVS program that will benefit students and the workforce,” said Leigh Giles-Brown. Currently, Tracey is contributing to the review of all CVS curriculum components for alignment with accreditation and industry standards. The target completion date for submission to the LLCC curriculum approval process is this May.
In addition, Tracey has gone above and beyond the expectations of the fellowship by identifying two prospective student recruitment opportunities taking place in April. These events will give the DMS program an opportunity to present the current sonography program to more interested students.
Come see Julio Barrenzuela, the “Salsa Ambassador,” and learn how to dance the Salsa on April 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in A. Lincoln Commons.
Barrenzuela has been teaching Salsa for over 10 years in any place that he can, including nursing homes, facilities for those with disabilities and youth organizations. He says, “Music brings people together, and that’s what I want to do through my efforts. The hope is to make a difference by giving the community’s most unlikely people, be it from their wheelchair or jail cell, the opportunity to see themselves as salsa dancers and therefore members of a much larger ‘salsa community.’”
He is a veteran of the Navy and has a doctorate in cultural studies from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He is currently president of CIELO, a culturally integrated organization dedicated to promoting the education, employment and culture of Latino Americans in communities that are within about a 60-mile radius of Springfield.
LLCC grant funding has promoted a partnership between the LLCC Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois. The grant initiative aims to increase diversity of OTA student applications by increasing community awareness of the occupational therapy profession. This funding has supported development of a first-year OTA student service-learning project in collaboration with the Boys & Girls Clubs after school program located at Dubois Elementary School in Springfield. The project, “Healthy Minds, Hearts and Hands,” brings engaging activities promoting fitness, emotional well-being and social language development for building student confidence and success at school. Additionally, the program offers traditional school-based occupational therapy strategies to help students who struggle with homework to build skills that will carry over into the classroom.
Thank you to the LLCC Foundation; Dr. Cynthia Maskey, dean of health professions; Tiffany Mathis, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois; Ms. Shamill Hill, Boys & Girls Clubs Site Director; and Hirut Harris, COTA/L, an LLCC OTA graduate and grant co-author, for making this service-learning project possible! The first session brought many smiles during Minion zumba, yoga, relaxation breathing and a craft activity called “Say Hello to Me.”
Yvonne Cosentino, OTD, OTR/L
LLCC OTA Program Director
The Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion Grant Project Team is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s IDI Grants! It is important to note that this year we received more submissions than all the previous years combined. All the projects examined dynamic aspects of LLCC with creative problem solving, but alas, we can only fund a few.
In partnership with the LLCC Foundation, we are pleased to be able to fully fund the Might Minds, Heart and Hands, service-based learning project proposed by Yvonne Cosentino, program director, occupational therapy assistant, in the areas of Training, Teaching and Learning, Recruitment and Retention, and Other Innovation Strategies. This collaborative and innovative project promotes OTA health care education through the creation of a community-based, service-learning program for at-risk youth. This project will give our students the opportunity to work directly with community children in need.
We are pleased to be able to fully fund a LLCC Diversity & Equity Fellowship Initiative project in the Recruitment and Retention strategy, proposed by Leigh Giles-Brown, program director diagnostic medical sonography. This project will aim to address the lack of diversity of LLCC Health Professions faculty and to provide positive representation to attract a diverse student body to health professions (and sonography in particular). The DMS program will use the funds to attract participation of a minority echocardiographer who will help develop the curriculum for a new cardiovascular sonography AAS degree program. The LLCC DEFI project will be used as a faculty recruitment tool with the goal of increasing the diversity of the Health Professions faculty pool.
Last, but not least, we are pleased to be able to partially fund the Hip Hop and Higher Education project submitted by Kimberly Williams-Wilson and written by Dr. David Leitner on behalf of Black Student Union club. This project falls under the Other Innovation strategies, but is aligned also with Recruitment and Retention. This project seeks to address the problem of retention, specifically the existing gap between the number of African-American students who enroll and the number who graduate. A series of activities will be created that align with significant cultural events that begin with Black History Month in February 2023. These events will continue through March and April to reinforce the spring semester drive to register students. Ultimately these events will be designed to close the retention gap by creating a sense of cultural and academic inclusion within African-American students enrolled at LLCC.
Congratulations to the winners again. We are excited to see these projects come to fruition.
The IDI Grant Project Team
Laura Anderson
Michelle Pulce-Flynn
Sonja Spencer
Jamil Steele
Adam Watkins
The window for applications will soon be closing! The application deadline for LLCC’s Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion Grant, which began in 2020-21, is this Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. It is an internal opportunity for any LLCC faculty, staff, department, student or student club, and can be used to address a need and/or to promote and celebrate diversity.
There is $3,500 available to be awarded in fall 2022. More information and helpful resources (standards of evaluation, project samples and more) are available on the Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion Grant SharePoint page (be sure you’re logged in to Office 365 to access).
Have an idea? Don’t hesitate to reach out to adam.watkins@llcc.edu with any questions.
IDI Grant Project Committee:
Adam Watkins
Laura Anderson
Michelle Pulce-Flynn
Jamil Steele
Applications for LLCC’s Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion Grant, which began in 2020-21, can still be submitted through Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022! It is an internal opportunity for any LLCC faculty, staff, department, student or student club, and can be used to address a need and/or to promote and celebrate diversity.
There is $3,500 available to be awarded in fall 2022. More information and helpful resources (standards of evaluation, project samples and more) are available on the Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion Grant SharePoint page (be sure you’re logged in to Office 365 to access).
Have an idea? Don’t hesitate to reach out to adam.watkins@llcc.edu with any questions.
IDI Grant Project Committee:
Adam Watkins
Laura Anderson
Michelle Pulce-Flynn
Jamil Steele
On Wednesday, Oct.26, Dr. Charlotte Warren sent an email to all faculty and staff regarding completion of the PACE survey. The PACE survey is a climate survey used to capture perceptions of the college environment and inform us on what we are doing well and what could be improved. PACE survey results are critically important in the work of the Campus Climate Team (CCT). This data provides CCT members insight as to areas that need further research and attention. After research and assessment, CCT may pass information collected along to a unit of the college who isbetter suited to address the needed improvement. In other instances, CCT may create a project charter and assemble a group of internal stakeholders to review and recommend action to improve.
One example of how PACE data was used by CCT for institutional improvement is the Professional Development Project Charter. In reviewing previous PACE data , CCT discovered that a disproportionate amount of classified and professional staff, as compared to all other classifications, were not satisfied with the availability of professional development and training opportunities. A representative group of campus stakeholders conducted further research and made recommendations for change that resulted in the following:
The CCT strongly encourages all employees to complete the PACE survey starting Nov. 1 and ending Nov. 23. Robust participation will ensure that CCT has quality data to continue their work of improving the climate and environment at LLCC.
LLCC’s Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion Grant, which began in 2020-21, is currently open for applications! It is an internal opportunity for any LLCC faculty, staff, department, student or student club, and can be used to address a need and/or to promote and celebrate diversity.
The IDI Grant application process is open through Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. There is $3,500 available to be awarded in fall 2022. More information and helpful resources (standards of evaluation, project samples and more) are now available on the Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion Grant SharePoint page (be sure you’re logged in to Office 365 to access).
Have an idea? Don’t hesitate to reach out to kyle.roughan@llcc.edu with any questions.
IDI Grant Project Committee:
Kyle Roughan
Laura Anderson
Michelle Pulce-Flynn
Jamil Steele
Adam Watkins