Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Antelope Valley Community College District

Community College has been my life. Since 1969, the year I graduated from University High School in West Los Angeles, I have been involved continuously in the California Community College System as a student, student worker, adjunct faculty and full time faculty member first at Santa Monica and later at Antelope Valley Community College. I was so eager to become a college teacher that I began teaching at the age of 21 at Santa Monica Community College under a Partial Fulfillment Credential, having completed only an AA degree, while working concurrently on two Bachelor's degrees and a Master's degree; a demanding load that was allowed only for students who were recognized as Departmental Scholars at UCLA. My desire to educate people extends beyond college to Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles where I lead museum tours to groups of all ages and to the National Park Service where I lead Ranger-Naturalist talks, hikes and campfire programs in Yosemite National Park. I have given hundreds of presentations to various community groups locally and abroad over the past 40 years. When funding was scarce I built my own observatory and weather station to facilitate educating my students. I have made excellence in education the single professional ambition of my life.

I enjoy teaching so much that for most of my 36 year tenure at Antelope Valley College I taught a double load + twice what is expected of a full-time instructor. I taught this load effectively using electronic polling devices know as "clickers" where I asked my students questions throughout my lectures to determine if they understood and also to determine if my communication to them was clear. My grade book was always accurate and current since clicker responses are automatically recorded in my computer. At the end of each class I knew which students needed help and we could deal with problems immediately. They walked out of class knowing more than when they entered, and I had the data to support that fact. I could identify students who needed help before they left the room; my students seldom fell behind. I have taught over 15,000 students in face to face classes and online at AVCC alone. The first lecture I give in every class has always been the same. It addresses why they are in college, why I am their teacher, and what it means to be an educated person. I have had students come back 15 years after completing their education at AVCC to tell me that this first lecture of the semester was the most significant lecture in all of their college experience. If they do not know why they are in college, how can they succeed?

I also served students outside the science classroom as the Faculty Advisor of The Antelope Valley College Christian Club for 27 consecutive years. My primary goal as advisor differed little from the goal of teaching science in the classroom; it was to encourage students to be prepared to defend personally what they know. To defend scientific knowledge and to defend spiritual knowledge both speak to the same characteristic trait of an educated individual; that they are able to explain what they understand. I have always been mindful that only natural explanations are appropriate to explain natural science phenomenon and supernatural explanations are only appropriate to discuss when outside the science classroom and only when the audience appreciates the possibility of the supernatural. I enjoyed the challenge of advising students from 10-15 different churches each semester. I love to interact with college students.

Every member of my family has taken courses at Antelope Valley Community College and they all value their community college education. My daughter is currently in the Nursing Program after graduating with her BA degree from Fresno Pacific College; my middle son is finishing his Residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and my oldest son graduated from AVCC in 2001 and has returned here to work the ITS trouble-call desk. Community college has not been merely a chapter in my life; it has been all of my professional life. I want to see California's Community Colleges flourish in the future because they are good for our communities.

I have no political ambitions beyond serving on the Antelope Valley Community College Board of Trustees. Only by serving the Community as a Board Member can I effectively encourage the College to better serve our community. For many years I have seen Antelope Valley Community College become more and more insulated from the Community. As a Board Member my desire will be to make the concerns of the community heard by the Antelope Valley Community College Board of Trustees so that AVCC can more effectively serve the needs of our community. The Board's first duty is to our community + that is why Board members are elected by the community, not just by the students or by the employees of AVCC. I want to serve in a capacity where I can remind the Board of this very important priority of community service first and foremost in all decisions. It is a priority stated at the bottom of page 45 of the Trustee Handbook published by the Community College League

I will make AVCC not only represent "Antelope Valley Community College", but also represent "Always Value Community Concerns" should I be elected to the Board.