It’s the final countdown to Santa Barbara City College’s commencement ceremony on May 17.

In this season of wrapping up the academic year, it is a time to reflect, adjust for the future, and appreciate all that has happened in my first nine months as superintendent/president of SBCC.

This past month we invited local high school seniors from Gaviota to Carpinteria to our campus for our first ever Promise Registration Rally.

We bused more than 560 students to campus to welcome them to the SBCC community, register them in person one on one, and share this sense of belonging with our community.

A huge thank you to our local school districts, Jump on the School Bus , and our SBCC team of more than 125 employees who worked to make this a reality.

As you may know, the SBCC Promise is a (purely donation-based) program administered by our SBCC Foundation that provides local high school students free tuition — including books and supplies — for two/three years at SBCC.

Since it began in 2016, more than 7,000 students have benefited and reached their academic dreams.

We continue to thank our SBCC Promise donors! Click here to become a donor .

Last Friday, I brought our entire SBCC team together to reflect on their years of service in a longevity pinning celebration and recognition awards.

We gathered in our cafeteria for breakfast and we acknowledged all staff — full time and part time — who have worked at SBCC, some for over 50 years!

I salute my amazing team and their dedication to SBCC.

In addition, our team was able to nominate and select — outside of my office — recipients of the SBCC Recognition Awards in six categories. The winners include Blake Barron , Mark Broomfield, Erin Coulter, Lisa Draper, Elizabeth Imhof, Paulmena Kelly, Kirsten Mathieson, Randy Smith and Cristina Garcia Otero!

Additionally, we took a moment to honor our 11th California Community College Hayward Award for Excellence in Education winner: Melissa Menendez Ph.D. (pictured left) – who is one of four honorees statewide.

Congratulations, Dr. Menendez, for your hard work and dedication working toward developing a first-year experience in conjunction with iRAICES: First Year and Beyond! empowerment program!

April 26 was a busy day on campus as we also took a moment to lower our SBCC flag in a ceremony and remembrance of Benny Schurmer . He tragically lost his life last September falling from a cliff in Isla Vista.

Close family and friends spoke on his behalf, and I was honored to present his parents with his diploma in honor of his spirit and what he brought to SBCC in such a short period of time.

That same day, we also invited community members to hear our annual SBCC Faculty Lecturer , featuring Nathan Kreitzer for his “Everyone Can Sing” lecture.

He had the audience arranged from altos to tenors/bass to sopranos all up on their feet singing in harmony. Congratulations again Nathan!

This past weekend, we partnered with the Santa Barbara Unified and Goleta Union school districts for our second annual Black Grad Celebration!

The celebration included more than 100 black-identifying graduates from TK to SBCC! We were happy to host such a joyous and harmonious occasion that brought more than 200 people to SBCC!

Finally, May will mark the end of the first cohort of our SBCC Leadership Academy. The program is designed to invest and develop 25 of our internal leaders on campus.

Congratulations to Ryan Alexander, Denise Aranda-Cedillos, Jeanette Chian, Cecilia Contreras Martinez, Holly Eubank, Jesse Felix, Julia Hand, Kyle Hernandez, Brittany Herrera, Olga Jones, Sergio Lagunas, Andrew Lopez, Renato Marques, Chris Miller, Nicole Oldendick, Liliana Olguin, Regina Reese, Jef Richardson, Melanie Rogers, Rammy Salem, Julie Samson, Alisha Sanchez, Luann Swanberg, Jorge Trujillo and Jonathan Ward!

There is so much happening at SBCC, and whatever your educational dreams, I hope you will engage with us to turn them into tangible realities. Start at MySBCC.org .

And if you are an SBCC alumnus, please join our alumni community and newsletter with SBCC Alumni Connectt!