Chabot College

Program Review Report

2015 -2016

1. Where We’ve Been 

The Passion & Purpose Initiative is the result of an evolution in the thinking of faculty and students. In Spring and Summer of 2013, a student-created film, “The Passion Project,” spurred a student-led movement to explore the possibility of bringing to life in the classroom the education ideas found in the film. In Summer 2013 one group of students focused on classroom pedagogy, while a second group of students—the Opportunity and Freedom Group—conducted research into issues our local community faces. In Fall 2013, with the support of Title III funding, these two groups of students, armed with new ideas and research, facilitated a series of workshops for faculty who might be interested in teaching a Passion & Purpose course.

  In Spring 2014 the first Passion & Purpose courses were offered. We could not have predicted the energy and enthusiasm of the first crop of students. This is only a one-unit course (which we are currently in the process of making 2-unit through the curriculum process), but you would never know it from the impact the course made that semester in the lives of students, college and community at large. One of the features of the class is that students are given the opportunity to develop projects and initiatives that impact the larger community. The sheer number and variety of such endeavors that cropped up is mind-boggling. In the 10 months that we have been on the class schedule we worked with AC Transit, Ruby’s Place, Dig Deep Farms, four high schools (with two more coming on line soon), two middle schools, Hayward Promise Neighborhood, California Native Plant Society, South Hayward Parish, Alameda Food Bank, and many more.

  In addition, throughout the Spring and Summer, Passion & Purpose students created projects that positively impacted Chabot College: Knowledge Garden, Koi Pond, Outdoor School House, UC Transfer Event, Outdoor Movie Series, Art Doors, and many more.

  It is important to note that throughout the spring and summer, aside from paying for the courses, the college had not yet stepped into the position of supporting the Passion & Purpose Initiative. This is not because the college has not expressed interest but rather because the program was a pilot. But, perhaps a second more important reason is that the initiative itself had exploded so much and so quickly that it would have been impossible for any institution to keep up in real time. Now that we have had time and perspective to take more stock of the Passion & Purpose Initiative’s successes, we hope that this Program Review can serve as a forum for scaling up the Initiative with the college’s support and guidance. 

2. Where We Are Now - 

In 2014 we offered six open sections of the Passion & Purpose class, one section themed for the Business FYE Pathway, and one section themed for the HPN FYE Pathway.  Students who wanted to be involved in the initiative for a second semester enrolled in the Passion & Purpose leadership class.  The classes explore ideas and emotions as students work to incorporate their passions into their education.  In their own words:

“Passion and Purpose is a real life application that takes what you have learned in school and apply it to the real world.”

“It's where you take your passion(s), transform it into a real life application through self-discovery and peer supported exploration of personal projects.”  

“Passion and Purpose helps bring self-awareness to students/participants by creating a safe environment for possibilities through peer and teacher support in personal projects.” 

Projects currently ongoing include:

• Organic Garden 

• Vote 60 by 50 (voter registration)

• Art Doors/Art Gallery Exhibit

• Poetry Slam

• Passion  Monthly Magazine

• Black Experience Mural

• Volunteering in the Community or Abroad

• Community Fitness

• Mentoring/After School Programs

• Transportation--Bus Pass Initiative

• K-5 Tutoring

• Impact Academy

• Outdoor Classroom

• Music (K-12 teaching)

• The Great Debate

• Striving Black Sisters

• Adopt a Hayward Block

• Chabot Peer Support Group

• Ruby's Place backpack drive 

• Food Insecurity/Food Locker

As the P&P students’ impact has been recognized, their assistance has been sought by other campus projects – working with HPN to work with middle school students as mentors and literacy coaches, working with William Hanson and Sara Parker to raise the number of students registered to vote, working with the Student Senate on a literacy drive, recruited by Jason Ames to participate in The Great Debate.    When asked,  Passion students SHOW UP (in both physical attendance and in active participation).

The class was given a temporary home in the 1600 building, a space the students made over into what is fondly referred to as “The Passion Pit”.  They love their space because it is comfortable, stimulating, and it belongs to them.  But, we have already outgrown the space (class meetings have students sitting on the floor) and our temporary residence will end when the building is renovated.  Thus, a new space is needed.  Finding another temporary space is an urgent need, while finding a permanent home may not come until buildings 100 (Library & Learning Connection), 200 (Civic Engagement Center), or 2300 (Student Center) are rebuilt.

3. The Difference We Hope to Make - 

The Passion & Purpose Program is based on three goals that we strive to reach:

1. We recognize that education is only one aspect of our students’ lives and that all aspects are inseparable.  They reside in a single person. We can provide access to rich classrooms, to chances for information enrichment, and to personal support, with an eye towards influencing all aspects of a student’s environment.

2. Each student has an amazing capacity and each brings a skill set that should be tapped and developed.  They may not know this yet.

3. Students can thrive when provided with an environment that makes them believe that they belong to a community.  In this environment, students will often amaze us—and themselves--with their ideas, their energy, and their dedication.

What initiatives are underway in your discipline or program, or could you begin, that would support the achievement of our Strategic Plan goal?

A primary goal—and a central theory of change behind the Passion and Purpose Initiative—is that students who enroll in Passion and Purpose Initiative courses will persist and succeed at higher rates, both in the semester they are enrolled, and in subsequent semesters. Below are just two of the initiatives we have developed to help reach this goal:

1. The Passion and Purpose Initiative has already developed a rich and varied suite of curricula in its first 2 semesters, and we are planning to add to this over the next years. The fact that all our courses are team-taught, from faculty from across the disciplines, serves to infuse the Passion and Purpose courses with a wide variety of educational theories. We will continue to reach out across the college, bringing in new teachers each semester.

2. Our college and community initiatives—some of which were bulleted in the section above—are a central part of the fabric of the class, and we will continue to support our students as they develop these initiatives.

Over the next three years, what improvements would you like to make to your program(s) to improve student learning?

 Although this program is new, we are already seeing the contours of evolution: we would like to continue to deepen our connections to both college and community; we hope to offer more sections each semester, including FYE sections; we are in the process of increasing unit value of the course, as well as leveling it, thus creating a 5A/5B; we hope to move into a larger facility; we envision the Passion and Purpose Initiative supporting a wide variety of other efforts across the campus; we plan to deepen our peer mentoring culture, so that 5B students can support new 5A students. These are just some of the plans we hope to put into play over the next year or so.