Santa Rosa Junior College faculty, students and community members gathered at SRJC’s Roseland campus to celebrate the school’s increased access to vital information and resources in the newly renovated welcome center.
Roseland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and resource fair Saturday.
Before the event started, community member Mike Von der Porten, 69, said, “I think we want to encourage more folks to go to the junior college, and if we can be out in the community, that’s good. If we can bring more good classes, where they’re easy to get to and you don’t have to drive to the center of Santa Rosa or to one of the other locations, that’s good. The more education we get into our community, the better off we are.”
Edna Torres, 48, is a basic needs coordinator at SRJC Roseland. She helped set up the Roseland event and was one of the main workers coordinating parking. Torres describes the resources of the Roseland campus, “We have the student service center, and there is a basic needs program in there as well. We have snacks for students in the evenings. We do a food pantry every Wednesday.”
About 80 attendees conversed over coffee and conchas before the ceremony.
Robert Holcomb, vice president of student affairs, introduced Danza Azteca Xontotl to kick off the event. The dancers wore feather headdresses,brightly colored clothing and performed next to the seats while two drummers played in front of the dancers.
Next to perform were the Thunder Clappers, a Pomo peoples performance group. Two singers sang while dancers in traditional Pomo headdresses and feathers performed.
After the event, Dr. Angélica Garcia noted how students hoped for a proper land acknowledgment with the opening of the welcome center. “Students were talking about honoring it with the opening of the four directions for the Latino America Mextica component. We had students who said, ‘Can we include Native American tribal to again ground it?’ And so we did that because it’s what students in the community wanted.”
Dr. Garcia reflected on the event, “I love it because I feel like we were listening to the community, listening to students, listening to what it needed to feel like so that they could know that this is their college, this is their campus,” she said.
After the performances, Garcia introduced Board of Trustees president Ezrah Chaaban and clerk Mariana Martinez for a land acknowledgment. Chaaban and Martinez made separate statements in English and Spanish.
Before cutting the ribbon, Garcia thanked those who contributed to the creation of Roseland’s welcome center and emphasized its importance. Everyone involved with its creation gathered at the front after Garcia’s speech to cut the ribbon as the attendees cheered.
Afterward, attendees were invited to look inside the welcome center and join the resource fair located behind. Organizations such as SRJC’s tutorial center, SRJC construction training center and SRJC libraries took part in the exhibition.
“It was a very informative and beautiful event,” said Ceci Barragan, who works at the disability resources department at the Petaluma campus.
Joey Favaloro, 46, of HKIT Architects, who helped create the building, said, “It’s always really nice when we get to celebrate one of our new buildings. I thought the ceremonies and blessings were nice and depicted the community that we were trying to design for the whole time. So it was nice to see everyone participate.”
Sean Winchester, who is also part of HKIT Architects, 55, said, “We just hope that there are many years of service and happy students and faculty that get to enjoy this.”
