On the evening of May 10th in the Mendocino College Center Theatre, the Human Services (HUS) Programs held their First Annual Student Awards Ceremony. Guests, faculty, and honorees were welcomed with an array of food and coffee, very generously donated by local businesses. William Feather began the celebration with a heartfelt welcome and offered appreciation for the families and the many supporters of HUS students and faculty.
The student honorees at this first annual awards event included Otaka Redhawk, Amanda Coggins and Devi Kirsch. Otaka Redhawk was presented with the Student Choice Award and was recognized for her support of other students and her dedication to her family, community and her education. Well-respected HUS faculty, Christine Price, presented Amanda Coggins with the Academic Excellence Award. Dan Jenkins emphasized Ms. Coggins’ interpersonal perceptiveness, advanced skill-level, academic rigor, and dedication to her education in the face of extreme adversity. Hillary James, supervisor with Substance Use Disorder Treatment programs at Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency, presented Devi Kirsch with the Excellence in Service Award. James expressed her deep appreciation for Ms. Kirsch’s contributions as an intern with SUDT and her congratulations for Kirsch’s recent employment with the agency.
Kirsch described her experience at the ceremony, “I listened to everyone speak on behalf of the program, students, teachers and mentors, I noticed a theme: each person was faced with adversity, and overcame it, arriving at the conclusion that they must face it again and again alongside their fellow man. I saw the faces of many people who offered me guidance and inspiration throughout my life.” She went on to say many of her role models started out in the HUS/Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AODS) programs at Mendocino College which has inspired her to continue her education, working toward her Bachelor’s degree this fall, with the intention to continue on to obtain her Master’s degree.
Special acknowledgement was made to Darletta Fulwider, an administrative assistance in the college’s Students Services department and an invaluable support for many Mendocino College students, but especially Native American students. Native Americans comprise 33% of the HUS scholarship students, and 24% of the college’s total HUS students (compared to 5.5% of the students college-wide). The unprecedentedly large proportion of Native American students in the HUS programs, can, in part, be attributed to Ms. Fulwider.
Professor Dan Jenkins, Director of Cooperative Work Experience Education and founder of the Human Services programs at Mendocino College describes the program by saying, “Human service workers address the needs of people with behavioral health issues, substance use disorders, mental illness, homelessness, unemployment, poverty. They are the ones who provide the help to the marginalized, oppressed and disenfranchised, the victims of endemic racism and violence. They are the ones who fight for social justice every day, one person and one family at a time.”
In 2014 Mendocino College received a 3-year, $300,000 grant to provide access to education in HUS. Scholarship applications are being accepted for the 2016-17 school year. Many of the students recognized at this event are the beneficiaries of that grant.
Director Jenkins states, “It takes many people to make a program like this work. We have wonderful faculty, who deserve continued acknowledgement, but I also want to acknowledge the dedication and support of Dawn Banks, administrative assistant, who has been the glue holding this grant program together.” This wonderful event was organized by student ambassadors and program graduates Diana Billy-Elliott, Paul Murguia, William Feather and Corinna Avila, each of whom dedicated substantial time and energy to this program.