Faculty Diversification Fellowship

Faculty Diversification Fellowship Program

Overview

The Faculty Diversification Fellowship Program provides post-baccalaureate STEM students interested in teaching at a 2-year college with an opportunity to participate in a mentorship collaboration with a Bakersfield College faculty. In addition, candidates will gain exposure to the community college culture, including best practices for teaching and supporting the diverse group of students enrolled at a rural California Community College.

Background

Bakersfield College is part of Aspire's Regional Collaboratives (RC), a network of geographically related 2- and 4-year institutions. Currently, there are ASPIRE regional collaboratives in Southern California, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Southern Wisconsin, Central Massachusetts, Southern Ohio.

Please visit the ASPIRE information page for more information

In this model, institutions work together to share and develop programs and experiences that work towards two primary goals:

1. Increase the number and diversity of the pool of graduate students and qualified professionals pursuing a teaching career in STEM at 2-year colleges;
2. Expand and strengthen the skills of future, early-career, and current STEM faculty to teach the diverse student populations.

Leaders from each Regional Collaborative meet regularly and are supported by a national backbone structure and national disciplinary organizations, developing shared goals and metrics, sharing resources, and collaborating on strategies for successful implementation and evaluation of regional initiatives that include internship/practicum experiences, workshops, and training, open house and informational meetings, and marketing and communication improvement efforts.

As a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), Bakersfield College served 70% of students identified as Hispanic in the 2022-2023 Academic Year. Yet, data from Fall of 2023 also show that faculty at Bakersfield College are not representative of the student demographic. Data comparing student demographics compared to faculty racial makeup (both adjunct and full time) show that white faculty are overrepresented while Underrepresented Minorities (URM) groups are underrepresented, as shown in the chart below.

Institutions that serve a large demographic of URM students, like BC, have a responsibility to hire faculty and staff that mirror their student population because institutions with faculty of color typically serve students of color with a deeper sense of belonging, which leads to higher test scores, and higher persistence rates.

Program Objective

To meet workforce demands and the needs of the student population, Bakersfield College requires a qualified diverse faculty group. The college has a growing number of students of color and it is imperative for the college to implement practices that will aid in the recruiting and retention of those students, and faculty of color is vital to the success of underrepresented minorities.

Therefore, the Faculty Diversification Fellowship provides post-baccalaureate STEM students interested in teaching at a 2-year college with an opportunity to participate in a mentorship collaboration with a Bakersfield College faculty. In addition, candidates will gain exposure to the community college culture, including best practices for teaching and supporting the diverse group of students enrolled at a rural California Community College.

The Faculty Fellowship Program allows the college to recruit and train qualified candidates in an effective and fiscally responsible manner. More importantly though, it is a contribution to the community to hire candidates from the San Joaquin Valley, and the surrounding areas, to teach for Bakersfield College.

Program Model

The mentorship and development of faculty of color is equally important as the development of our students of color. It is not enough to diversify the hiring process; it is vital to also foster and cultivate newly hired URM faculty. Therefore, the Faculty Diversification Program provides candidates with both exposure to the classroom, as well as mentorship from an established faculty member. Additionally, once candidates are recruited and trained through this program, exemplary candidates can be recruited to assist with campus-wide efforts such as rural initiatives, the rising scholars program, early college, dual enrollment, and others.

This is a 1-year intensive program that provides fellows with a mentor to gain in-classroom teaching experience. Selected fellows move on to teach their own course load in the second half of the program.

This program is built on four fundamental pillars:

• Onboarding Professional Development
• Mentorship and Shadowing
• Pedagogy/Andragogy Enhancement (EDUC B15NC Course)
• Fieldwork/Course Load

At the core of our program are three Equity Driven Practices:

• Diversification of Thought
• Inclusive Teaching Practices
• Faculty Mentorship

This program is a cohort-based, highly contextualized learning experience that will provide valuable, guided learning experiences and subject area mentoring over a one-year period. Each year a new cohort is formed.

A single cohort includes:

• The Cohort Lead – An Education Department faculty member who guides the process, coordinates activities, and teaches the cohort class.
• The Faculty Mentor – A faculty member chosen from the subject area of the cohort, who mentors students in the course development, teaching techniques, etc.
• The Cohort Students – Postgraduate Students chosen from a broad subject area (STEM, Humanities, etc.)

The following table describes the typical program path by semester.

Regional Collaborative

Bakersfield College is part of the Aspire Network Regional Collaborative (RC), which focuses on preparing STEM graduate students to transition into teaching positions in community colleges. The Regional Collaborative (RC) will be composed of 4-year partners, which includes both public research-based and comprehensive institutions. In addition, an Advisory Board, which will be composed of key industry stakeholders in the Greater Bakersfield Area, will also be invited to participate in some capacity. Further, the RC follows a Collective Impact (CI) model between two and four-year institutions in the Central Valley region as described below.

Collective Impact Model

Co-Leads

• Outline the goals of the Regional Collaborative (Common Agenda)
• Collect data on faculty diversity in STEM areas (Shared Measurements)
• Establish and plan RC meetings and oversee the work in alignment with established goals (Mutually Reinforcing Activities)
• Develop and adopt a communication plan at the first Regional Collaborative Meeting (Continuous Communication)
• Utilize funding source’s timeline for support and accountability (Backbone Support)
• Rely on Project BEST’s model for the planning and development of the mentorship program (Backbone Support)
• Utilize the Achieve the Dream (ATD) platform to provide professional development opportunities for Faculty Fellowship Program candidates (Backbone Support)

Institutional Administrators

• Establish and document needs for the Faculty Fellowship Program (Common Agenda)
• Utilize disaggregated data collected to establish goals for recruitment and placement of Fellows (Shared Measurements)
• Ensure resources are available to successfully maintain the RC goals (Mutually Reinforcing Activities)
• Develop and adopt a communication plan at the first Regional Collaborative Meeting (Continuous Communication)
• Utilize funding source’s timeline for support and accountability (Backbone Support)
• Rely on Project BEST’s model for the planning and development of the mentorship program (Backbone Support)
• Utilize the Achieve the Dream (ATD) platform to provide professional development opportunities for Faculty Fellowship Program candidates (Backbone Support)

STEM Faculty

• Identify gaps in STEM faculty recruitment (Common Agenda)
• Establish goals for the Bakersfield College faculty mentorship portion (Shared Measurements)
• Ensure resources are available to successfully maintain the RC goals (Mutually Reinforcing Activities)
• Utilize RC partnerships to address areas of need (e.g. Math faculty recruitment; Recruit faculty (2-year) to participate as mentors in the program (Continuous Communication)
• Utilize funding source’s timeline for support and accountability (Backbone Support)
• Rely on Project BEST’s model for the planning and development of the mentorship program (Backbone Support)
• Utilize the Achieve the Dream (ATD) platform to provide professional development opportunities for Faculty Fellowship Program candidates (Backbone Support)

Education Faculty

• Focus on joint curriculum for the program (Common Agenda)
• Create curricular goals for the program (Shared Measurements)
• Ensure resources are available to successfully maintain the RC goals (Mutually Reinforcing Activities)
• Push curricular plan through governance boards for approval (Continuous Communication)
• Utilize funding source’s timeline for support and accountability (Backbone Support)
• Rely on Project BEST’s model for the planning and development of the mentorship program (Backbone Support)
• Utilize the Achieve the Dream (ATD) platform to provide professional development opportunities for Faculty Fellowship Program candidates (Backbone Support)

Rural Initiatives Team (BC)

• Identify placement of Fellows in high-need areas (Common Agenda)
• Set goals for addressing placement gaps in rural sites (Shared Measurements)
• Work with STEM faculty in identifying mentoring faculty that can help candidates transition to their assigned site (Mutually Reinforcing Activities)
• Push curricular plan through governance boards for approval (Continuous Communication)
• Utilize funding source’s timeline for support and accountability (Backbone Support)
• Rely on Project BEST’s model for the planning and development of the mentorship program (Backbone Support)
• Utilize the Achieve the Dream (ATD) platform to provide professional development opportunities for Faculty Fellowship Program candidates (Backbone Support)