“We anticipate great things for 2019.”
Note From the Dean
Happy New Year to our Extension Community!
As we ring in the New Year at UCSC Extension, we’re celebrating all that’s new.
In 2018, we launched 41 brand new and revamped courses, a new Procurement and Supply Chain Management certificate program, a blockchain technology series, and a redesigned Social Media Marketing professional award program. We welcomed three new academic program directors, seven new certificate program chairs and six new program advisory boards.
The changes reflect our mission to make sure Extension students have the high-demand skills that industry needs—not an easy task in Silicon Valley where industry changes at a lightning-fast pace.
Industry Partners
We are extremely grateful for Silicon Valley leaders who have stepped up to serve as chairs and advisors to some of our most popular certificate programs. New advisory board members have joined Administrative and Executive Assistants, Bioinformatics, TESOL, UX & Web Design, Procurement and Supply Chain Management, and Project and Program Management.
A Transitional Stage
I took the reins in July when our long-time dean, Lynda M. Rogers, retired. These were big shoes for me to fill. Over her 11-year tenure at Extension, she both streamlined our workforce development mission and expanded our services to include a top-notch professional online course production team. Smarter Balanced, a national assessment program, and UC Scout, an online college preparatory course program that serves students who might not otherwise get the courses they need to compete for college spots, also joined the UCSC Extension community.
While the national search for a dean is ongoing, we are working to keep pace with how fast life moves in Silicon Valley. We’re in a time of transition, but we’ve got our ear to the ground. We want to see what people are looking for. We’re paying attention to the real needs of the community and industry. We’re designing our curriculum for what’s coming down the pike.
To make this happen our new academic services department directors—Claudia Terrizzano (Business and Management); Derek DeMarco (Biosciences, Design, and Education); and Mayen Udoetuk, (Engineering and Technology)—have jumped in with both feet to evaluate programs, launch new courses, and partner with community leaders and industry.
Looking Ahead
At the end of last year, I joined colleagues from education, non-profit organizations, and government at the inaugural meeting of Silicon Valley Promise to talk about workforce development issues and to rethink how the key players in education are preparing people to find jobs in the region.
It was an exciting discussion about the integral roles each of us play in creating and maintaining a strong regional economy. We know that California can do a better job of aligning higher education curriculum to the regional demand for specific job skills.
Here at Extension, we’re up for the task. We’re an accredited 53-year-old organization that is uniquely positioned to work respond quickly to shifts in job markets.
Industry Career Events & Job Fairs
We already have a busy winter quarter calendar scheduled. Hundreds of people will be dropping in over the next couple of months for our exciting new industry career panels and job fairs, info sessions, and new courses:
- Machine Learning & Deep Learning: Applying Today’s AI Knowledge and Skills (sponsored by our AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning instructor team that is building a new certificate program);
- New Trends in EDA & Reactive Cloud-Native Networking (sponsored by Synopsys, the Association for Computer Machinery, and the Extension VLSI Engineering certificate program);
- Surviving an Audit of Your California Practice, a panel discussion sponsored by the Personal Financial Planning Student Forum and the Silicon Valley chapter of the Financial Planning Association;
- UCSC Extension Career Fair 2019;
- A new Blockchain intensive course series;
- Data Privacy: How Much is Left?, panel discussion on data privacy.
See you in Class!