How Alumni Involvement can help a Biotech Program: MiraCosta College
I had the chance to speak with members of three community colleges (City College of San Francisco, Austin Community College, and MiraCosta College) who are working on building their programs’s connections for the benefit of all. This blog details the information about MiraCosta College, please read my three other blogs to hear about what Austin Community College and City College of San Francisco are accomplishing as well as an intro to Alumni Engagement!
Joanna Gomez, MiraCosta College
Joanna’s title is Biomanufacturing Baccalaureate Program Student Success Specialist. She works with Barbara Juncosa and Dominique Ingato at one of the original 15 community colleges that have 4-year Baccalaureate Programs in California, an innovate program that began in 2017. Joanna’s job is to make those vital connections with the cohort of biomanufacturing students before they even start the two-year program, to set them up for success. Joanna’s background in education and experience with the program (she knows every one of the students that have gone through the program, 6 cohorts in all so far) means she knows how to evaluate obstacles to learning and provide opportunities to overcome them. And the students deliver—approximately 95% of the graduates of the program go directly into the field (for a breakdown of employment visit Biomanufacturing at MiraCosta College). Alumni are becoming instrumental in hiring new graduates—Joanna told me about a graduate of the program who has since hired 6 more graduates to their team! Being a connected alumni means being able to get job candidates you can have confidence in. Joanna also said that when she asks for alumni volunteers to attend events, mentor students, or help with outreach to local grade schools, she never hears a no. She uses the program “Constant Contact” to reach out, and then the students send information through their own app, but MiraCosta has a Biomanufacturing Linkedin group and Joanna agrees that could be a great infrastructure to use for alumni group. MiraCosta has built a culture of connection which helps each tight-knit cohort of about 25 students make it through their two years together with almost 100% retention. A key part to that retention, according to Joanna, is pairing a student in the second year of the program with one in the first year. That pre-graduation mentoring helps the new students realize that people just like them are succeeding in the program, and they can too!
Alumni are invited back to alumni hours during Biomanufacturing Department Hours and a highlight of the year is the Alumnight Event, held in the fall and sponsored by one of the local industry partners. Instructors, Deans, even the President of the College mingle with current students and alumni with a chance to hear talks from the sponsoring company and make valuable industry connections.
A ‘hidden curriculum’ at MiraCosta--opportunities that MiraCosta makes available to their students and alumni to strengthen the most critical skill of all-communication. Students and alumni participate in outreach to STEM local events in high schools and middle schools, conferences and local ISPE (International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering), PDA (Parental Drug Association), and ASQ (American Society for Quality) events. Their alumni have a message they want to share, and the students in the program want to hear it!
Although it is difficult to quantify the impact alumni have on this incredible program, since alumni have been involved since the programs first cohort, it is easy to see that the presence of those who can understand the challenges that current students might face, as well as show that it is possible to be successful, is a win-win for all!
Further on-line resources:
Read about alumni engagement at other colleges.
MiraCosta alumni have contributed videos of the biotech career journeys to Biotech-Careers.org, (https://biotech-careers.org/alumni-profiles).
InnovATEBIO has alumni videos and blogs of biotech career journeys. Go to InnovATEBIO.org and find the ‘alumni’ link in the Students drop down menu.
Attend the November 7th, 2024 InnovATEBIO Hub Reports Virtual event in which the Alumni Hub will have a 10 minute report on their work on building networks and engaging alumni.