The crowd cheered when Michelle Booher-Poggi was presented with the Employee of the Month Award. She brought along her entire family to share in her celebration. She gave a small acceptance speech to include giving thanks to her mother and twin sister, both of who attended.
The SRJC Board of Trustees meeting was held on Tuesday April 10 in the Girvin Family Student Activities Center. The noteworthy items discussed included an exuberant Employee of the Month, singing foreign exchange students, the discontinuation of four classes and an announcement of a new commuting program for students and all Sonoma County residents.
The exchange program has brought 21 Swedish students to SRJC this spring. This year marks a decade since the Swedes began coming to SRJC and the program has shown marked success. 78 percent of ex-Swedish JC students still keep in contact with their host families.
Many of the current students spoke in appreciation of the board for the program. One saying, “This stay here will always be a wonderful experience that we will hold close to our hearts for the rest of our lives.”
There were only 17 students present as they sang a song about Swedish summers titled, “Summertime” and presented each board member with a bouquet of flowers.
After the presentation, SRJC President Dr. Chong added a personal anecdote by saying, “The Swedish people are very nice; you just have to get a little beer in them.”
SRJC’s Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary Kay Rudolph presented the board with a proposal to discontinue four programs: The psychiatric technician, jewelry, medical assisting and aeronautics. Rudolph said, “If they are not needed, in an environment with fewer resources, we need to be able to get rid of them [the programs].” The board voted unanimously to discontinue the programs.
Associated Students President Jessica Jones revealed a new carpooling program called WeGo Sonoma. This program was created to help individuals carpooling between Petaluma and Santa Rosa along the Hwy. 101 corridor. It combines state of the art computer programs with smart phone apps to allow easy communication between drivers and riders, to instantly match rides with routes.
The plan also gives individuals an easy way to save money on fuel, reduce their impact on the environment by cutting greenhouse gases and help to free up congestion on our highways. Jones said, “SRJC plans on rolling out our own carpooling program for students by the beginning of the Fall semester.”
