It is certainly the best time of the year, especially for our community colleges, Laney and Merritt colleges, College of Alameda and Berkeley City College.
Finals are being completed and students and faculty are ready to spend the winter break celebrating the holidays with family and friends. As the semester winds to an end, the spirit of giving was clearly evident at the Peralta Colleges this December.
This month, the Laney College library staged a gift-wrapping station to help the Laney community wrap gifts. The station included free wrapping paper, ribbons and bows – and even a few boxes, too. Do-it-yourself craft tables were also set up to get everyone into the holiday spirit. Nothing like wrapping holiday packages to get into the spirit of the season.
Meanwhile, over at Berkeley City College, December was a big month for student activities. The college donated 110 items to the Alameda Food Bank, so that people in need would have something for the holidays.
With the cold weather in mind, students and faculty worked hard to make 12 tie blankets in just two days. The blankets were distributed to those immediately around the college community who needed to keep warm this winter, and also to the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. This was the second year that the event was held, and this year, Rotary of Berkeley provided $450 to fund the blanket-making materials.
College of Alameda, in partnership with the Alameda Fire Department, has a Toys for Tots drop-off box on campus. The box is located in the F Building. If you are inspired to help kids during the holidays who might not be getting a gift, please bring unwrapped toys that will put a smile on a child’s face. This year, the program is especially in need of crafts, sports balls and other items for the older children.
Scholarships, too: Carlos Jimenez, a third-year student in the automotive technology program at the College of Alameda, recently received the Ozzie Day Scholarship Award for his accomplishments over the past semester.
Jimenez has a 3.5 GPA in his automotive classes at COA and is currently in his final semester in the program, taking classes at the college while working as an automotive technician for the U.S. Postal Service.
Jimenez, who has been interning at the California State Smog Referee station located at the college, hopes to open his own repair shop some day in the future. The Ozzie Day Scholarship is a $500 scholarship, which is given each semester to the student with the highest grade point average and the most units in the A-Tech program.
The scholarship was set up in memory of Ozzie Day, the founder of automotive engineering and a longtime member of the COA Automotive Advisory committee. For more information about the program at College of Alameda, call the A-Tech Department at 510-748 2267.
Don’t forget classes are beginning in January and here is one you might enjoy: The Laney College Geography Department will present a new and highly relevant global climate change course (GEOG 019) in the spring 2018. This class will examine the science of climate change in the past and present and future, the urgent global challenges we face now and in upcoming decades, current remediation efforts underway worldwide, and the political debate that continues to thwart accelerated global action.
The class, which is helped on Monday and Wednesday mornings, begins Jan. 22. For more information, email the instructor, Michele Forman at mforman@peralta.edu. You can also enroll online at www.peralta.edu.
Have a great holiday season and a wonderful New Year.
Contact Jeffrey Heyman at jheyman@peralta.edu and follow him on Twitter at @JeffHeyman.
