Board Reports

The North Santa Clara County Adult Education Consortium’s NSCCC Center for Health Sciences proposal is launching a regional, multi-agency alliance that creates coordinated, accessible pathways for adult English Language Learners with little or no prior college experience to enter and advance in in-demand healthcare careers, addressing persistent workforce shortages and systemic barriers such as language, transportation, childcare, and financial constraints through aligned curricula, contextualized ESL, and robust wrap-around supports. Bringing together five partners—Fremont Union, Palo Alto, and Mountain View–Los Altos Adult Schools, along with Foothill and De Anza Colleges—the Center will offer a single point of entry via a Welcome Center, integrated pathways in areas like EMT, Medical Assisting, Pharmacy Technician, CNA, Phlebotomy, and Community Health Work, and accelerated models including College Bridge, dual enrollment, Integrated Education and Training, work-based learning, and credit for prior learning, all undergirded by strong employer engagement and a sustainability plan that braids multiple state and federal funding streams. We are thrilled to share that this English Language Learner Healthcare Pathways (ELL): Round 3 (FY 2026–27) proposal has been successfully funded at approximately 2.4 million dollars by the State Chancellor's Office, a transformative investment that will support full implementation of this equity-driven regional Center and expand socioeconomic mobility for ELL adults across North Santa Clara County.

Longtime community college champions and Foothill-De Anza Foundation donors Swati and Vijay Advani have pledged one million dollars over ten years to support students in Foothill College’s Respiratory Therapy Program, a gift that will fully fund tuition, fees, books, and a small cash grant for nearly one-third of the program’s students in each two-year cohort. Chancellor Lee Lambert and President Kristina Whalen expressed deep gratitude for this transformative investment, emphasizing its power to expand economic mobility, strengthen the region’s healthcare infrastructure, and embody the best of what is possible when philanthropy and public education unite around equity and opportunity. The Advanis’ pledge also includes support for all second-year students’ licensing exam preparation, reflecting Swati’s personal connection as an asthmatic and their shared belief that graduates of this high-quality program will build meaningful respiratory care careers that serve patients and communities for generations to come.

The Pre-Law Studies Certificate is a seven-course, credit-bearing, and stackable credential that strengthens students’ abilities in legal reasoning, research, writing, communication, and ethics while providing mentorship, advising, and experiential learning opportunities. Designed to expand access to legal professions for nontraditional students, graduates of the certificate program receive special recognition as a Cal Law Scholar, backed with enhanced advising, application fee waivers to participating partner law schools, and special admissions review consideration. The certificate program and accompanying support services are intended to facilitate a seamless pathway from Foothill College to law school for all students committed to pursuing a legal career. 

The ninth annual Research and Service Leadership Symposium featured 195 teams presenting their projects and research. Several hundred PAUSD students joined the symposium on campus.

The winning team this year was TravelReady, an app designed to make the legalities that come with traveling worry-free for everyone. 

The student team members were: 

• Anna Prudchenko
•  Julia Soultanova
• Veronika Zubko 

We had brainstorms on eight questions for two days, with the opportunity to contribute thoughts either online or in person. We had a total of 273 contributions.  We then hosted three design workshops, 2 in person and one online. We had 71 participants in 15 teams working on refining a focused idea from the brainstorm suggestions. Across these sessions, consistent themes emerged that will be the focus of on-going discussions. These deliberations will inform any structural changes that improve and support how we do our work.  These themes were discussed in the Mission Informed Planning Council on Friday, May 1st, 1901. See the agenda on the MIPC website.   

Congressman Sam Liccardo visited campus on May 1st to hear a presentation for his recent intern, and Foothill College student, Ved Valmiki. Ved discussed his work in Congressman Liccardo’s office. A huge thank you to Asha Guha for organizing this opportunity. We are currently recruiting for the next internship opportunity in Congressman LIccardo’s office. 

The PA Middle College High School will grow to 120-125 students this year. The school is still processing applications and will add more students before the summer. They will hold their first graduation ceremony on June 2 in our very own Smithwick, and about 35% of their students have opted to stay at Foothill after graduation. The school is growing according to their initial enrollment plan. As Principal Emil Garrison noted last quarter" Our integration into the Foothill College campus continues to yield incredible results. During fall quarter 2025, PAMC students took 89 unique courses through Foothill College. Overwhelmingly, PAMC students enjoy the educational opportunities and college experiences available through Foothill. This January, at the Winter Quarter Club Day, three PAMC trailblazers launched a brand-new college club they founded themselves. Optimism is everywhere—from the excitement of starting a new term of classes to the simple, daily joy our students find in the atmosphere at Foothill.... The success of our students is more than just academic—it is truly inspirational. At PAMC, we aren't just witnessing growth; we are watching the next generation of leaders realize their own potential. The great achievements our students are experiencing are also due to the incredible partnership and support provided by Foothill College, including all faculty and staff. Thank you, Foothill!"

Foothill recently launched its first EMS–ESL collaborative workshop, a hands-on exchange designed for real-world impact. While EMT students practiced taking vitals and teaching CPR, they gained vital experience communicating across language barriers—a skill they will use daily in the field. Simultaneously, ESL students practiced English in a high-stakes, practical setting while gaining essential life-saving skills and learning how to respond in an emergency. 

The energy in the room was positive, and the success of this event was a true team effort.  

The faculty is excited to continue building this next quarter, with plans to expand the partnership by having ESL students participate as patient actors in EMT and paramedic training scenarios. 

Zach Cembellin, Karl Welch, Ron Zinger and Laurence Lew presented at the League of Innovation Conference on March 15th. They shared how our existing programs, including Foothill's Innovation Challenge, Research Service and Leadership Symposium, Science Learning Institute, and Emerging Technologies Institute, collaborated across divisions and with industry to develop an incubation program for students. The program aims to give students the opportunity to gain real-world skills in transforming their ideas from conception to fruition and, eventually, to pitching their products to industry leaders. The session detailed how such an infrastructure can be scaled and how students can utilize these opportunities to enhance their credentials both on paper and with real-world learned skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, conflict resolution, and project execution.

The Science Learning Institute's STEM Impact Team of student leaders presented a workshop titled "Nuestro Lugar en STEM" at Lakewood Tech Elementary School in Sunnyvale. The event consisted of two concurrent activities: a workshop for Spanish-speaking parents on preparing for higher education and the benefits of STEM education, presented by two student leaders entirely in Spanish. The other activity was 3 hands-on STEM activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (the children of the parents in the other workshop), such as slime making and building a tower out of marshmallows and dry pasta. The STEM Impact team members, all of whom are first-generation Latinx students, wanted to share their own knowledge and love of STEM with the community in a way that would have benefited them and their parents when they were young. Seventeen families from the school attended for a total of almost 50 children and parents. It was an amazing collaboration with the city of Sunnyvale and the Columbia Neighborhood Center. 

Sixteen students and three faculty/clinical instructors from the Radiologic Technology Program attended the Association of Collegiate Educators in Radiologic Technology (ACERT) Conference in Las Vegas, NV, on Feb. 4th–5th. This is a national conference representing both bachelor's and associate-level Radiologic Technology Programs.  Attendees were comprised of didactic and clinical educators as well as students.  There were around 1000 attendees this year, most of whom were students.   
Students from the Foothill College Rad Tech Program competed in the Student Bowl on Wednesday evening.  Five second year students made it into the top 100 (Kevin Antolin, Ryan Hanning, Hailey Hiett, Summer Le, Jayson Agibuay).  Jayson Agibuay made it into the top 30 out of over 430 students competing.  
All second-year students competed in the poster competition with posters they created in their RT62A research class taught by Melissa Wu.  There were two categories in the competition: literature review and original research.  Foothill College students earned rankings in both categories out of 32 submissions from across the country: 

Literature Review 
Second Place 
PMCT: Gunshot Edition 
Riley Neill, Nicole Hill, Rhea Alexander 
  
Second Place 
Theranostics: A Dual Approach for Treating Thyroid Cancer  
Samantha Davis, Aundria Vargas, Erwin Rodriguez  
  
Third Place 
A Breath You Can’t Take Back  
Edheleen Adres, Elizabeth Godoy, Luis Martinez  
  
Original Research 
First Place 
Breaking the Cycle: The Impact of Improper Sani-Cloth Use on Microbial Contamination 
Sydney Emerson, Bridget Foley, Chris Jao 
  
The rad tech students are looking forward to applying to participate in the upcoming Research & Service Leadership Symposium to share their work with our campus community. 

The new Foothill College website has been designed to exceed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA in advance of the national April 24 deadline. The new site is easy to navigate, mobile friendly, and rich in videos and images. It is also welcoming and designed to communicate Foothill’s ethos of Love. Once live, the website will continue to be built out with new video content and images.  

Thank you to the Marketing team and to all the faculty and staff who have worked so hard to update their content. 

The Foothill Speech and Debate Team competed at the Bernacchi Invitational at Diablo Valley College, where our students faced a field of 22 competing schools and delivered truly inspiring performances. For many of them, this was their first collegiate tournament, yet they demonstrated confidence, professionalism, and remarkable poise.  

🏅 Jonah Copeland – 4th Place, Novice Extemporaneous Speaking 

🏅 Jian Cabungan (Dual Enrollment Student) – Finalist, Novice Prose Interpretation 

🥇 Garifalia “Gigi” Tsiglieris – Gold Medal, Novice IPDA Debate 

Foothill College’s Tools for Transition & Work (TTW) program has received state approval for a new Certificate of Achievement in Independence and Career Readiness, creating a formal, transcriptable credential that recognizes the work neurodivergent students do to build independence, career readiness, and skills for adult life. 

 The one-year, cohort-based program includes more than 40 units of coursework in communication, digital literacy, financial and life skills, health and wellness, work experience, and personal development, helping students strengthen executive functioning, self-advocacy, and workplace readiness. This milestone follows a five-year effort to modernize and streamline the curriculum in collaboration with faculty and students across the college, resulting in a clearer and more intentional pathway. 

Press Release

President Whalen attended a day-long internship program at the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital on March 13 with other community leaders. She learned about the use of AI in health care operations, toured the facility with its innovative use of art as wayfinding, and went on three “rotations” with health care professionals, which included radiology, pain management, and technology. 

On March 17, the Student Services Division held a division-wide retreat focused on strengthening interdepartmental collaboration and cross-training. The day was designed as an interactive experience, with learning facilitated through retro game show-style activities that encouraged engagement, connection, and shared problem-solving across departments. Staff were introduced to new tools to support their work, including training on NotebookLM and a homegrown resource, Foothill SHARE (Staff Help, Answers, Resources, and Essentials), designed to streamline access to information and improve coordinated student support. The retreat also featured a keynote address by Alecia Barillas, who emphasized the importance of growth mindset language in all student interactions, reinforcing our commitment to fostering a culture of care and equity in Student Services. 

The ACCJC peer review visit centered on Foothill’s newly designed and deeply integrated Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) process, and our college shone brightly. The review team conveyed deep reverence for the level of engagement, sense of ownership, and genuine appreciation for professional growth and learning they heard throughout their conversations with faculty and deans.

Chancellor Lambert and President Whalen visited SJSU on March 27th.

We lunched while discussing some dual admission and other opportunities and toured the recently opened AI Center for Civic & Public Good in the campus and community MLK Library. We also visited the Interdisciplinary Building Cyber Lab to meet for a brief demonstration of their humanoid and caninoid robots.  

Please note that appointments are required for all office hour visits. Walk-ins are welcome on Wednesdays only.

On March 27, Foothill College staff and administrators attended and supported the annual Los Altos Rotary “Past for Vets” fund raiser. Foothill veterans, both past and present, shared their powerful stories and the event raised over $60K to support our Veterans. Thank you to Chancellor Lee Lambert for joining the event. 

On Sunday, March 29, over 250 people gathered in the Smithwick Theatre to remember Dick Henning, former director of the Foothill Celebrity Forum. Dick lived a full and active life and was remembered with great fondness by all attendees. The event was emceed by Stan Scardino. Kristina Whalen welcomed the crowd full of Dick's family, friends, and colleagues. Dick's son provided family remembrances, and Bernadine Fong provided a robust retrospective of his time at Foothill College, the beginnings and growth of the Celebrity Forum, and the many people he took on an African Safari. Ann Chocktow rounded out the program by recounting Henning's contributions to Rotary, including the integration of women. A toast to Dick took place in the courtyard during a reception. 

Foothill College proudly invites the community to a special building dedication and renaming ceremony honoring Dr. Jean Thomas. This historic event celebrates her enduring legacy as a Counselor, founder of the Pass the Torch program, and her profound contributions to student success, equity, and belonging long before those values were widely centered in higher education. This dedication will represent the first building named in honor of an African American and woman within the Foothill-DeAnza College District.

Please join hundreds of community members as they visit Foothill to learn about our programs and services. There will be campus tours, workshops, and a chance to meet faculty and staff...and we’ll feed you too.