The campus community is invited to participate Professional Development's B.U.I.L.D. Series college-wide book group meetings to discuss Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. This book examines decision making, and connects with the work the college is doing for Guided Pathways and students’ decisions regarding coursework choices. Professional Development will also be working with the District to launch an online professional development portal called Cornerstone in the coming months. Stay tuned for more updates!

Congratulations to Monarch Basketball for reaching the CCCAA Southern California Men's Basketball Playoffs! They play the first round of the playoffs on February 27 at 7 p.m. at Ventura College.

Congratulations to Men's and Women's Basketball on their strong finish beating Glendale, Women's Swim's Caitlyn Heckler for finishing 1st in all three of her events at the Golden West meet, Men's Swim's 800 freestyle relay team on their 3rd place finish, NS  

Come cheer on our Monarchs at home this week! Softball will play a make-up game versus Harbor on February 18 at 10 a.m., Baseball will go against Harbor on February 19 at 7 p.m., and our Basketball teams will play its final regular season home game on February 22 (men play at 5 p.m. and women play at 7 p.m.) against Glendale. #GoMonarchs!

The LAVC Athletics department invites the campus community to cheer on our Monarchs at an upcoming home game. Men's Basketball plays Antelope Valley on February 13 at 5 p.m. and Victor Valley on February 16 at 3 p.m., Women's Basketball plays Antelope Valley on February 13 at 7 p.m. and Victor Valley on February 16 at 5 p.m, and Baseball plays Moorpark on February 1 at 2 p.m. #GoMonarchs!

Don't miss your chance to cheer on the Baseball at their home games this week! Monarchs Baseball plays at home versus Moorpark on February 5 at 2 p.m., versus Oxnard on February 7 at 2 p.m., and against Antelope Valley College on February 8 at 2 p.m.. Free admission to home baseball games. #GoMonarchs

LACCD held a public forum on the LAVC presidential search with Chancellor Rodriguez on February 8. Monarch Hall was filled with more than 75 students, faculty, staff and the public who came to hear about the search process for a permanent LAVC president, and participated in a discussion on the desirable qualities and characteristics for our new permanent leader. The District is putting together a search and interview committee, which will finalize the job posting and screen the candidates. The committee's finalists will be forwarded to the Chancellor, who will then forward a smaller group of final candidates to the LACCD Board of Trustees. The District hopes to select a new LAVC president on or about July 1, 2019.

Did you know that there is an LAVC Historical Museum on campus? Established in 1975, it houses an amazing collection of treasures from San Fernando Valley's 100-year history including historical photos, artifacts, oral history recordings and more! The LAVC Historical Museum invites students, faculty, staff and the general public to its Spring Open Houses on February 28, April 25 and May 23 from 1-2 p.m. in LARC 204.

In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting the efforts of our LAVC Black Scholars program to help increase the academic success of African-American students at Valley College by providing providing a mentorship-based learning community on campus. This month, it is also coordinating LAVC's Black Heritage Week activities including a The Hate You Give screening with panel discussion on February 25, a keynote address by Nate Howard of Movement BE on February 26, a Black Heritage Cultural Celebration on February 27, and more.

The campus community is invited to the first B.U.I.L.D. Series lecture on Choice Architecture by LAVC Professor Tyler Prante on February 14.  Professional Development will also soon begin implementing the objectives of our Our Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) plan. To recap last month, Professional Development kicked off the new year with two Strengths Finders Inventory Trainings (one with the college leadership team and the other with classified staff) as well as held a successful Winter Tech Fest featuring presentations on a range of topics including Photoshop, Outlook, Canvas, Podcasting and more. Stay tuned for more activities this Spring!