By 1977, Palomar was operating Bilingual Centers in San Marcos, Escondido and Fallbrook. The program continued to grow and, in 1986, added citizenship and other classes to enable students to meet U.S. residency requirements under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. In 1994, enrollment had grown to nearly 1,900 students.<\/p>\n
Throughout the last 40-plus years, the program steadily expanded to include more services, reach more off-campus locations, and serve more of North County\u2019s growing Spanish-language population.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the process is trying to take away the barriers people encounter,\u201d said Palomar\u2019s ESL Department Chair, Tracy Fung. \u201cThe college has shown strong support for our ESL students, who are extremely diverse. All of that is key to supporting the most vulnerable students in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most recently, Fung said, the program has expanded its non-credit offerings\u2014courses and programs designed for students who want to learn English but don\u2019t need academic credit. One ESL class has also been added that fulfills a college composition requirement, equivalent to ENG 100. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge step for our college: transfer-level composition with English language support,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Today, the ESL program includes dozens of employees, including faculty, advisors, and staff who help with registration and other processes that can be a barrier for those who don\u2019t speak English and aren\u2019t familiar with the higher education system. There are ESL offices at the main campus and the Fallbrook and Escondido education centers. And, under normal circumstances, Palomar provides ESL classes in a wide variety of community locations across the district.<\/p>\n
Maritza Koeppen, Superintendent of the Vallecitos School District in Rainbow, said that Palomar started providing ESL classes at her district\u2019s location just south of Temecula two nights a week after she met with Dr. Kahn to request ESL support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like being able to support your child is important for their success, and parents who are eager to learn English may not have the time to go to school during the day,\u201d said Koeppen. \u201cI think the benefit really is for them to be able to support their kids, and also communicate in English with people in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koeppen said her staff promoted the program to parents, but also at the commercial nurseries near the school in Rainbow Valley. In her previous capacity as Director of Special Programs for the San Marcos Unified School District, she worked closely with Palomar\u2019s ESL program, and she said she sees the college as a force for positive change in the communities it serves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always appreciated Palomar\u2019s involvement, its willingness to participate, and its diversity,\u201d said Koeppen.<\/p>\n
Reaching Out to Local Families: Tarde de Familia<\/h2>\n
Alongside the rapid expansion of ESL programs, faculty and staff on campus began to identify a new set of needs to be met outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n
When Rodolfo Jacobo arrived at Palomar in 2011, he recalled, \u201cA lot of the students in my Chicano Studies courses reminded me of myself at their age\u2014first-generation college students, working while taking classes. When I would ask them about transferring, not many of them would raise their hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that education was the key to breaking the cycle of limitations and low income,\u201d said Jacobo, who is now the chair of the Multicultural Studies Department.<\/p>\n
So in his second year, Jacobo created a series of Palomar-hosted events\u2014one per semester\u2014to help give students and their families a vision of what higher education can do for them. Tarde de Familia, as it is still known, began humbly, with about 25 people at the first event: \u201cThen it began to grow,\u201d said Jacobo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was to have an event where Latino professionals, who came from the same background as my students and myself, would speak to them,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe began to go out and invite Latino professionals from different careers\u2014engineers, firefighters, people with MBAs.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were asked to discuss their backgrounds, college experiences\u2014especially what it takes to overcome obstacles\u2014and their professional careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was not only to help students see themselves in the future, but also to create a network,\u201d said Jacobo. \u201cI would tell my students, \u2018I want you to go up after the talk, engage with these professionals, and get their business card.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The other aspect of the program\u2014and what provided its Familia<\/em> name\u2014was inviting parents to participate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really felt it was important for the parents to come to campus and feel that they had some ownership of the academic space themselves,\u201d said Jacobo. \u201cWhen I was in college, my mom and dad felt really disconnected from the system. It was very important to invite parents to come and meet the faculty, see the campus where their sons and daughters were taking classes.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobo recalled that, when Dr. Kahn came to Palomar as an academic dean, he invited him to Tarde de Familia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had about 140 people show up. We didn\u2019t fit in the room,\u201d recalled Jacobo. \u201cDr. Kahn took this to the next level\u2014he said, \u2018This is a great thing, let\u2019s do it in a bigger space and bring in more resources.\u2019 We began to have 300, 400, even 600 people show up.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Palomar was taking the program off campus, to other strategic locations.<\/p>\n Kiki Bispo, Family & Community Engagement Network Lead for the Vista Unified School District, said she started talking to staff at Palomar about hosting Tarde de Familia in Vista.<\/p>\n \u201cAn obstacle for us, especially with first-generation, Latino students\u2014and particularly those who are impoverished\u2014was that, even though Palomar provided this wonderful event with food and networking and speakers, our families still couldn\u2019t get to campus,\u201d said Bispo. \u201cPalomar said, \u2018We\u2019re going to leave our campus, and we\u2019re going to bring our resources out into the community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The event was held at Vista High School in early 2019, said Bispo: \u201cIt was really cool to host a Palomar College event within our community to provide greater access.\u201d<\/p>\n Tarde de Familia at Vista High School.<\/p><\/div>\n Bispo said she has also helped facilitate Palomar campus tours for families from Vista, and recalled, \u201cI\u2019ve actually seen parents enroll at Palomar, or take some other action for their personal development, after visiting the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she considers Palomar a powerful partner in the work of dismantling social injustice in North County: \u201cOur two organizations work so well together because we share an understanding: this is what society looks like, and this is what career and college looks like for our marginalized students. It takes all of us working together to address reality, to see how we contribute to the negative stereotypes, and what we need to change.\u201d<\/p>\n As the effort to dismantle racism and exclusion gained momentum at Palomar, it drew support from various groups, including the Pride Center, whose supporters have been an active and vocal presence on campus.<\/p>\n In the late 2000s, a group of students, faculty and staff formed the Palomar College Committee to Combat Hate (PC3H), which was focused on supporting the LGBTQ population on campus.<\/p>\n Many of the problems the committee was confronting were shared by other groups, and from the beginning, said Pride Center Director Abbie Cory, her team was collaborating with the Black Student Union, M.E.Ch.A. and other race- and ethnicity-based organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople of color have always been part of the LGBTQ community at Palomar and other places,\u201d Cory said. \u201cWe frequently have queer people-of-color discussion groups, and we try to think, plan and program with all of our various constituents in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Cory, whose Pride Center has grown from a single small faculty office to a 600 square-foot space, said that she is encouraged by the antiracist efforts now underway at the college.<\/p>\n \u201cI think since the events of this past summer, we are making amazing change,\u201d she said. \u201cI see all of the statements of support for the antiracist work that is happening on campus, and Dr. Kahn and other leaders are doing so much to support people of color and lead that change.\u201d<\/p>\n In the last several years, as Tarde de Familia saw participation rise sharply, a team of Palomar faculty and staff launched ALASS, the Association of Latinos and Allies for Student Success.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a way of connecting the community to Palomar College,\u201d said Izabel Solis, Counseling Services Supervisor and the president of ALASS until last spring. \u201cWe want our Latino students to feel that our campus belongs to them\u2014that they belong here.\u201d<\/p>\n Together, the group created new events, like the Undocumented Student Week of Action, and continues to strategize about how best to create a welcoming campus for students like Dreamers, whose residency status under the DREAM Act has recently been threatened.<\/p>\n Leslie Aguilar, who serves as an Outreach Specialist in Palomar\u2019s Extended Opportunity Programs & Services (EOPS), said that ALASS is focused on helping students see what education can do for them.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the last couple of months, there has been an open dialogue (within the campus community) about the experiences of different cultures,\u201d said Aguilar. \u201cWe\u2019ve also been talking about how we can shed light on those voices that maybe didn\u2019t have a place to voice their concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure every student feels that their culture and their needs are reflected in the campus experience,\u201d added Aguilar.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, the work that Palomar has started,\u201d said Solis. \u201cHowever, we still have a lot of work to do. But people are willing to learn and willing to share what they learn\u2014and that\u2019s a big accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who were involved in the effort to open Palomar\u2019s campus in the 1990s, \u201800s and \u201810s say that the work often advanced without much fanfare.<\/p>\n But whether it was taking ESL classes into the community, partnering with allies at the Pride Center, or bringing families together to celebrate higher education, their efforts positioned Palomar College to become a truly inclusive and welcoming place for all students.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1<\/sup> \u00a0A detailed history of the origins of the ESL Department in the early 1970s was provided by Zevin in her doctoral dissertation, \u201cAn Interdisciplinary Approach to Bilingual Bicultural Education: the Palomar College Model\u201d (United States International University, 1977). The relevant portion of Zevin\u2019s dissertation and a brief history of the ESL program by Katheryn Garlow appear in Palomar College Golden Jubilee<\/em>, published in 1995, pp. 426-427.<\/span><\/p>\n This is part three of a series of stories examining the history of antiracism at Palomar College. Subsequent stories will appear on Palomar News, and in the index below, as they are published.<\/em><\/p>\n 1. Introduction and Story Index<\/a><\/p>\n 2. The Early History of Antiracism at Palomar College<\/a><\/p>\n 3. Opening the Campus Doors to Marginalized People (current page)<\/p>\n 4. A Deepening Commitment to Antiracism<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2020\/10\/IMG_4297-300x225.jpg\")
Collaborative Support from the Pride Center<\/h2>\n
New Directions, New Opportunities: ALASS<\/h2>\n
A Brighter Future on the Way<\/h2>\n
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\nSERIES INDEX<\/h3>\n