Transcript- Episode 98: How To Support Our Students’ Career Goals With Assemblymember Mike Fong Episode 98

Jul 18, 2023

00:00:00 Mike

And when we look at the future of work as part of our mission, we know that community colleges prepare students not just only for transfer to a four-year college, but also prepare students for careers and high-paying jobs. And it's work around workforce development, working with our industry partners to really bring them to the table to make sure that our curriculum and our community colleges and our higher education systems meet the needs of industry.
                

00:00:20 Mike

And we know that the labor market is changing rapidly. And so, now, working closely on the higher education issues for California and as the chair, we make recommendations on hundreds of pieces of legislation to look at issues on community colleges for our segments of higher education.
                

00:00:39 Christina

The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education.
                

00:00:51 Christina

But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So, how do we begin to predict the future?
                

00:01:02 Salvatrice

Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College, and host of this podcast.
                

00:01:10 Christina

And I'm Christina Barsi, producer of this podcast.
                

00:01:13 Salvatrice

And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships, and PCC students in the workforce.
                

00:01:28 Salvatrice

We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us.
                

00:01:42 Christina

We believe change happens when we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barsi.
                

00:01:50 Salvatrice

And I'm Salvatrice Cummo, and this is the Future of Work.
                

00:01:56 Salvatrice

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Future of Work Podcast. I am your host, Salvatrice Cummo.
                

00:02:00 Salvatrice

Today, we will discuss the California Higher Education Committee and what it does for education in California. We will also talk about barriers in higher education for students, and how we as a higher education institution can better prepare our students for the workforce. And we have the perfect person to have this conversation with us today.
                

00:02:22 Salvatrice

With that being said, we are very excited to welcome Assemblymember Mike Fong, representing the 49th District. Assemblymember Fong is the current chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, and serves on the appropriations, banking and finance, budget, budget subcommittee too on education finance, and arts, entertainment, sports, tourism, and internet media committees.
                

00:02:49 Salvatrice

He also serves as the Assembly Vice Chair of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. Prior to his election to the California Assembly, Assemblymember Fong served as a trustee of the Los Angeles Community College District, where he pushed forward policies that increased student success, improved educational access and equity, and expanded workforce education and high growth sector training programs at nine community colleges, serving over 250,000 students across Los Angeles and surrounding cities.
                

00:03:24 Salvatrice

Thank you for joining us today, Assemblymember Fong. How are you?
                

00:03:28 Mike

Good, how are you? Thank you so much for having me here today.
                

00:03:31 Salvatrice

Really impressive. As I'm reading all this, I was thinking about our work here and your work specifically, and in preparing for our conversation I thought, my goodness, there's so much that you have been a part of, that you have done and that you have pushed forward, and I want to take a moment to thank you for that, thank you,
                

00:03:49 Mike

Thank you, thank you for everything you do at Pasadena City College, and for everything you do in the community.
                

00:03:53 Salvatrice

You're very welcome. How about we just get started. The first thing I always ask at our podcast interviews is how we got to where we are. So, having been a long-serving public servant, if you can tell us a little bit about your career and what led you here.
                

00:04:12 Mike

Absolutely. Thank you so much again, Ms. Cummo for having me here today. And I've been a big fan of the Future Work Podcast at Pasadena City College for many years now, and so I'm honored to join you here today.
                

00:04:22 Mike

In terms of my career in the public sector, I've been inspired by my parents. Both my parents worked in the public sector. My mom served as a library assistant at the Chinatown Library for over 40 years. My dad worked at County USC Medical Center as a patient financial services worker for over 30 years. And from there, I learned the ethos of giving back and serving the community.
                

00:04:42 Mike

When I was in high school, I went to Bravo High School in the east side of Los Angeles. I got involved with student government during my high school years, and from there, when I went to UCLA, I got involved with the Community Service Commission at UCLA and got involved with student government, and it really gave me an opportunity to get involved in the community in the greater Southern California area.
                

00:05:00 Mike

And from there, I was very honored to serve the city of Los Angeles in a variety of roles; at the mayor's office, at a city council office, in the Economic and Workforce Development Department, in the Community Development Department, and the Department Neighborhood Empowerment.
                

00:05:13 Mike

And in those roles, I had an opportunity to work closely with our communities of Los Angeles and Southern California, but also, an opportunity to work on job training programs with the community colleges, and had an opportunity to take a run for the Los Angeles Community College District. And I was very honored to serve on that board.
                

00:05:30 Mike

And we know the power and promise of higher education, whether it's at PCC, whether it's at the LA community colleges, or any of our community colleges in California to transform lives. And I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for my parents actually meeting at a community college. They met at Los Angeles City College in the mid-sixties.
                

00:05:47 Salvatrice

That's beautiful.
                

00:05:48 Mike

And so, they were both the first in their family to attend higher education here in the United States. And I'm very grateful to the community colleges for bringing my parents together. So, I've been very honored to serve in the public sector, and now, very honored to serve in the California State Assembly.
                

00:06:01 Salvatrice

That's beautiful, I didn't know that story. I didn't know that your parents met at a community college, very good. Everything's always so interconnected and I love to hear the background stories because it shares so much more than what we can find on the internet, on paper. There's beauty behind the story and thank you so much for sharing that.
                

00:06:18 Mike

Thank you.
                

00:06:19 Salvatrice

Another beautiful highlight and impressive highlight is you were most recently appointed as the Chair of the Higher Education Committee. And as you just mentioned earlier, you're previously elected at one of the largest community college districts, LACCD, and your work there.
                

00:06:37 Salvatrice

What does that mean for you? What does that mean to you, I should say, to be a part of the higher education committee and most recently as Chair?
                

00:06:46 Mike

I'm very honored to serve as the Chair of the Higher Education Committee for the California State Assembly. And I'm very grateful to the speaker for that appointment, and the opportunity to serve and to continue to work around expanding access to higher education opportunities in California.
                

00:06:59 Mike

And as trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District, we worked hard to expand opportunities for first generation students, for students coming out of the justice system, for immigrant students, for students throughout Los Angeles and throughout the San Gabriel Valley, to really look at job training programs, to look at transfer programs, to look at opportunities for our students to have a better tomorrow by getting a better skillset to continue their education at a four-year university and beyond.
                

00:07:24 Mike

And at Los Angeles Community College District, had very much an opportunity to work closely with my colleagues, to work on LA College promise within Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on expanding opportunities to make community college free in Los Angeles.
                

00:07:37 Mike

And from there, we worked closely with Assemblymember, Miguel Santiago, who I currently have an opportunity to serve with.
                

00:07:42 Mike

When I was a trustee, I worked closely with Summer Santiago, and the legislature on expanding opportunities for our students in the Los Angeles Community College district to expand job training programs, to expand those associate degree for transfer programs and expand dual enrollment programs.
                

00:07:57 Mike

And now, as the chair of the higher education committee, I'm very honored to continue expanding those opportunities for students throughout our great state of California. And we know there's a lot more work to be done to expand opportunities for students in our community college system, and our CSU system, our UC system, and beyond, and all our independent colleges as well.
                

00:08:14 Mike

So, there's a lot of work to be done to expand opportunities for students here in California and beyond. I'm very grateful for that opportunity.
                

00:08:22 Salvatrice

Excellent. Are you able to highlight or touch upon the main priorities of the committee?
                

00:08:29 Mike

Main priorities of our assembly higher education committee, well, could be to continue to expand access and affordability for our students. And we know that whether it's at Pasadena City College or any of our community colleges, we needed to more expand basic needs, to expand housing opportunities, to expand opportunities for our students to transfer, to have those career technical education programs, to get the certificates to obtain a good paying job.
                

00:08:54 Mike

And also, in our University of California system, to expand a number of opportunities for in-state students to have the opportunity to attend a University of California campus, and to support community college transfers to our four-year institutions, including the CSU system as well.
                

00:09:08 Mike

And I'm very honored to follow in the footsteps of Assemblymember, Jose Medina, my predecessor who laid the groundwork for Cal Grant Reform. We know there's a lot more work to be done to expand access to financial aid.
                

00:09:20 Mike

We know it's not fully implemented yet, but I'll continue to advocate for full implementation of Cal Grant Reform and to expand opportunities around financial aid. And we know that it's a budget year of this year and we're hoping the state budget will be better next year, but there's much more work to be done to expand opportunities for our education here in California.
                

00:09:37 Mike

And when we look at the future of work as part of our mission, we know the community colleges prepare students not just only for transfer to a four-year college, but also prepare students for careers and high-paying jobs. And it's work around workforce development, working with our industry partners to really bring them to the table to make sure that our curriculum and our community colleges and our higher education systems meet the needs of industry. And we know that the labor market is changing rapidly.
                

00:10:02 Mike

And so, now, working closely on the higher education issues for California and as a chair, we make recommendations on hundreds of pieces of legislation to look at issues on community colleges for our segments of higher education.
                

00:10:13 Mike

And we know that two of our three public higher education institutions will soon have new leaders, including the community college system and the CSU system. So, look forward to working with them and working with them to continue to form solid working relationships to expand opportunities at all three segments of California's public higher education system, and to look at policies and procedures that will help our students and their student success in their journey here in California's higher education system.
                

00:10:40 Mike

And I'm very honored to serve in those roles to really make sure that we're meeting the needs and to work with my colleagues to expand opportunities for students throughout California.
                

00:10:49 Salvatrice

Thank you. You touched on it holistically, on what we as higher education institutions should be addressing and kind of keeping an eye on things.
                

00:10:58 Salvatrice

But if there were something very specific, I think through your lens that we as a body of higher education institutions should be addressing as it relates to systemic barriers, what's on your radar about that, and what do you think through your lens, things that we should be addressing as a holistic system?
                

00:11:17 Mike

In terms of addressing systemic barriers to improve student success, we know that each segment of California's higher education system has a duty to streamline those pathways to degree programs, and to help assist and meet our students in their educational goals.
                

00:11:30 Mike

And to really simplify that transfer process and to maximize student success in all three systems of higher education, we know that there's more work to be done around these issues.
                

00:11:40 Mike

And in the recent years, working with my colleagues in the California State Legislature and the governor, we've adopted graduation initiatives and policies to help maximize the use of resources, to help meet the needs of the workforce with additional certificates and degrees going forward.
                

00:11:54 Mike

But one systemic barrier that we can address is continue to look at the three segments and how sometimes they may be working in silos and how we can increase coordination between the three systems. And we know the master plan of higher education has done an excellent job in delineating the missions and purpose of each of the three segments of California's higher education systems.
                

00:12:15 Mike

We know there's more work to be done to further incentivize collaboration, to maximize our resources here in California, to really make sure that we're meeting the needs of the future of work here in California, and to have a highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of tomorrow.
                

00:12:29 Mike

And so, one of the issues that will be focused on is how we can continue to work together with all three segments of California's higher education system to really make sure that we're working better together and ensuring more collaboration to meet the needs of our students.
                

00:12:42 Mike

And we also know that we benefit from a higher education system that has multiple on and off-ramps to a degree program, and we know that we need to continue to work together to really make sure that our students know the options that they have, so that they have seamless pathways and options to meeting their respective educational goals.
                

00:12:56 Mike

Whether it's at a community college, whether it's at a CSU or at a UC, we need to continue to meet the needs of our students and meet them where they are.
                

00:13:04 Salvatrice

Great. I often wonder about how we as a system approach our enrollment issues. It was experienced through the pandemic, not many students were enrolling as we had hoped for, for various reasons. Various reasons that we all know of.
                

00:13:21 Salvatrice

Now, I'm wondering as we've come out of it and we're recovering and we still have a long way to go for recovery depending on who you ask. My humble opinion, I think we have quite a long way to go, but it's more about adapting to the new normal.
                

00:13:36 Salvatrice

And so, with enrollment being in the forefront of our minds, how do we increase student enrollment? In what ways do you think that the solutions that have been explored in your arena about increasing student enrollment?
                

00:13:51 Mike

We know that the declining enrollment and we saw very much a dip in enrollment during the pandemic and during COVID-19, and almost 20% decline in some of our community colleges. We know that it's starting to come back a bit, but we're not there and we need to continue to meet students where they are, and to reach out to students in their educational journey.
                

00:14:08 Mike

We also need to make sure that our curriculum is meeting the needs of our students for a career ladder training program or the additional skill sets that they may require to take a short-term program, whether it's a few classes that will lead to another degree, that will lead to a better paying job. We also need to look at flexibility in terms of our scheduling in our community colleges.
                

00:14:26 Mike

And so, some community colleges are doing a hybrid approach now when we look at in-person versus virtual instruction, versus a hybrid approach of including both, but also flexibility in terms of scheduling to meet the needs of our dynamic schedules of our student population.
                

00:14:40 Mike

And we know that while we're continuing to see a little bit better in terms of the numbers right now, community colleges are also doing innovative things across the state to increase enrollment, including partnering with our prison system to educate and provide training to folks who may be incarcerated to modify courses when they're offered and to offer a mix of in-person and online classes.
                

00:14:56 Mike

We also need to look at how we can continue to expand dual enrollment opportunities with our local education agencies and to really make sure that throughout our state that we're offering these dual enrollment opportunities in all areas of our state. And this is one area that we've been seeing that hasn't been a growth opportunity for our community colleges. Another opportunity is to look at housing and the possibility of doing student housing on campuses.
                

00:15:18 Mike

We know that a recent survey in Los Angeles community colleges showed that one out of five students was either housing insecure and to really make sure that we look at additional resources and housing navigators on student housing issues and to look at possibility of building housing on some of our campuses.
                

00:15:34 Mike

Orange Coast College has built student housing, Cerritos College has done some student housing. We know that those opportunities to build housing might be an opportunity to bring students back as well.
                

00:15:44 Mike

And recently, I was at a community college enrollment fair at East Los Angeles College, and just to make sure that folks feel engaged, that the community is at the table and the community colleges are open to our communities is so critical. We know that the majority of students who attend a community college come within the five mile radius of our community colleges.
                

00:16:02 Mike

So, having those partnerships with local school districts, with our partners in education at all levels to really make sure that we know that we're open. And so, when we look at the UC system, it's been very robust in terms of the number of applications going forward. Some campuses have seen an increase enrollment while other campuses have seen a decline in enrollment.
                

00:16:20 Mike

So, at our CSU system as well, they're working closely with our community colleges to meet those needs and to make sure that those pathway programs and those transfer programs are seamless and to make sure that students know what classes they need to take to transfer seamlessly.
                

00:16:32 Mike

So, those are opportunities for all levels and all three systems of higher education to work collaboratively to address the enrollment decline that we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, as a system, whether it's community colleges, UC or CSU, we need to make sure that our systems are available to all the students in the community.
                

00:16:50 Mike

So, this is something that we'll be very focused on and we'll be looking at how we continue to amplify these issues. We've had meetings on the state capital to address these issues and our education to finance committee in higher ED to talk about these issues, but also looking at how we can provide additional funds and a budget process for enrollment and retention of our students.
                

00:17:10 Mike

And we know that some community colleges have seen a boost in enrollment. I would like to see those community colleges work closer with some of their neighbors and other community colleges that may have experienced maybe a slight decline in how we can share our best practices, and to collaborate more in terms of our programming and to bring students back to our campuses.
                

00:17:26 Mike

So, I think there's a lot of opportunity there to make sure that we increase student enrollment from where we are now, and to make sure that we're meeting the needs of students so that students see the value in pursuing their higher education goals and continuing their educational journey here in California's higher education system.
                

00:17:43 Salvatrice

Thank you. Along the same thread, how do we help or assist this new wave of students that we're seeing in California overcome those barriers, specifically with first generation and students in marginalized communities?
                

00:18:01 Mike

Here in California, we know that we pride ourselves in being in an inclusive state. And we know that with inclusion comes the need to provide equitable access to our students and especially to our first generation students or students that are in disadvantaged communities.
                

00:18:13 Mike

We know that there's more work to be done to make sure that we're providing equitable access and making sure that folks have the support necessary for their educational journey. And whether that's support is in housing or in financial aid or in academic counseling or looking at transportation issues.
                

00:18:29 Mike

Right now, there's a bill in the California State Legislature that will provide free transit passes for every community college student in California. We know that Metro has worked with our community colleges in Los Angeles on this, but we know that there's more work to be done across our state on some of the basic needs issues.
                

00:18:44 Mike

I also have a bill, Assembly Bill 1096 that will allow colleges to teach coursework in languages other than English. If signed into law, this bill will allow immigrants to learn content, a trade, for example, maybe childcare or another certificate type of training program in their native language. And so, this is Assembly Bill 1096 and the Los Angeles Community College District is the sponsor of this bill.
                

00:19:05 Mike

And we've been working closely on this to expand those opportunities to teach coursework in languages other than English. And then also look at how we can provide additional support for our student success centers and to provide those opportunities for additional counseling and academic supports if students need it.
                

00:19:20 Mike

But also looking at how we continue to expand opportunities for undocumented students as well. Have a bill, Assembly Bill 1540 that would streamline the process for students when they fill out the affidavit form to have that in collaboration with the California Student Aid Commission so that the student just has to fill out one form, and that form would be distributed to all systems of higher education when the students apply for different admissions to different universities here in California.
                

00:19:44 Mike

So, there's more work to be done to help our first generation students here in California to really make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students and to really make sure that students know that our campuses are open, and we're here and we're here to serve.
                

00:19:57 Salvatrice

Thank you. It reminds me of an earlier conversation I had earlier today with Dr. Shannon LaCount from Mentor Collective, and she said something that really struck a chord with me, is we talk a lot about first generation students, but what about first generation professionals? We forget that these first generation students are also first generation professionals in their family.
                

00:20:20 Salvatrice

I'm curious about your opinion or your lens on how we as community colleges can work together in order to best prepare our students for the workforce, in many cases, first generation professionals.
                

00:20:36 Mike

In terms of first generation professionals and throughout their journey in higher education, we need to make sure that our curriculum is meeting the needs of industry so that students when they come out of a community college or when they they graduate from a higher education institution, that there's a job and a skillset that's waiting for them that they can apply for, and that's throughout the state as well.
                

00:20:55 Mike

We know that there's different pockets of areas of California that may have biotech or out computing or technology, but we need to expand those hubs across the state. And working with our strong workforce programs here in California, we know there's the LA Regional Consortium.
                

00:21:09 Mike

There's a lot of work to be done to make sure that our community colleges in partnership with different opportunities in the industry to really make sure that whether it's one program we did in the LA community colleges, we work closely with the California Cloud Computing Workforce Program and that trained students in Amazon Web Services curriculum where students were able to take a number of courses, maybe five or six courses, and it led to an AWS certificate which led to a job.
                

00:21:34 Mike

And so, when we look at opportunities for students to best possibly enter the workforce at our community colleges, it's important to make sure that our curriculum is meeting the needs of industry.
                

00:21:42 Mike

One of the program I'd like to highlight is a program we did at LA Trade Technical College in Southern California with Grifol's biotech company in the El Sereno area of Los Angeles bordering Alhambra - where we looked at a lab tech training program, students were able to take courses at LA Trade Tech, at East Los Angeles College, and a number of institutions to look at how we can provide those opportunities for students to get a job at a biotech facility.
                

00:22:07 Mike

And when we look at the future of automobiles, when we look at electric vehicles, we know the number of community colleges are starting to offer coursework in EV and really make sure that those opportunities are there, and we know the healthcare workforce shortage here in California.
                

00:22:20 Mike

So, whether it's nursing programs or other healthcare fields and allied healthcare fields, our community colleges have these high demand programs and how we can continue to expand those opportunities for students to receive these degrees and to take classes in nursing and different allied healthcare fields to meet the needs of our healthcare workforce shortage, especially with a lot of our healthcare workers, experiencing burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
                

00:22:42 Mike

And we're so grateful to all the nurses and to all the healthcare professionals for everything they've done during these very challenging times.
                

00:22:48 Mike

And so, to your question specifically about how we can continue to work closely with our first generation professionals, I think it's very critical that we provide them the skillsets necessary to get a good paying job and a career ladder program. It's the work that you highlight here on the Future of Work Podcast each and every time. So, we need to continue to do more to work with industry partners and to work with our community colleges and higher education partners to continue building out these high-growth sector training programs.
                

00:23:13 Salvatrice

Thank you. Speaking of high training programs and what comes to mind too is dual enrollment. That's a beautiful pathway into all three higher education, public institutions, is I'm thinking about is the committee looking at how dual enrollment and these vocational training programs that you just mentioned, several examples of that were doing really well in the area, but as a mechanism to promote student success. If you share a little bit of any kind of intel around that.
                

00:23:46 Mike

In terms of the work that our committee's doing, working with my colleagues, we know that the Strong Workforce Program and the College and Career Access Pathways partnerships are excellent programs to provide streamline pathways for our community college students, to provide vocational training and dual enrollment programs in their respective communities.
                

00:24:01 Mike

And I highly recommend any community college that is not doing this yet to continue to look at these opportunities as a means for expansion to build those programs out, working closely with our local school districts and working closely with our county Board of Educations.
                

00:24:14 Mike

These are opportunities across the state of California that we can continue to expand dual enrollment programs so that our students, whether they're freshmen or sophomores in high school, have the opportunity to take community college coursework and to take college coursework to give them that leg up when they do apply to colleges. It's so critical, especially for first generation students as well.
                

00:24:34 Mike

And as you mentioned, this is one of the areas that has been a growth opportunity in our community colleges and recently, with the new Chancellor of the Community Colleges, Dr. Sonya Christian who will be starting soon, she's indicated that dual enrollment and vocational training are a couple of her top priorities as she assumes office.
                

00:24:48 Mike

So, I'm excited to be working with her and her team, and their endeavors to expand these opportunities across California. And I'm always going to be here to advocate along with my colleagues for those additional dual enrollment opportunities.
                

00:24:59 Mike

Here in California, we know that it's working, it's a lot of good work and there's more work to be done to make these programs even better, and working to make sure that these programs are available and accessible to students throughout our state, whether somebody may be in a rural area, an urban area, suburban area, that our community colleges are open, they're accessible, and that they're meeting the needs for dual enrollment and vocational training opportunities.
                

00:25:21 Mike

And we know that there's a number of educational facilities bonds over the years in different community colleges, in different areas and across the state. And one bill we have right now's Assembly Bill 247, they'll look at additional opportunities for funding for community college facilities across our state of California from TK to 14 to our community colleges.
                

00:25:39 Mike

So, this is something that we're going to continue to look at how we can expand and to build out our vocational training programs, and the trades and to meet the needs of industry.
                

00:25:47 Mike

And there's more work to be done around these issues because we know that a lot of these programs lead to pathways, that lead to good jobs, and to good careers as well. So, I look forward to continue to expand student success in colleges and our workforce as we go forward and to look at how we can continue to expand dual enrollment vocational training programs in California.
                

00:26:07 Salvatrice

Absolutely. Well said Assemblymember Fong, thank you. I think as we come to the center of our conversation, I always like to ask this question because it's important and relevant to our work and practitioners in this arena, in our arena, is if there was one thing that you would like our listener to understand and take away from our conversation and the topics that impacts their future of work, what would it be?
                

00:26:36 Mike

We know that every decade, every century, especially in the last recently, has been marked by immense innovation that has led to drastic changes in our workforce. We know that a person during their lifetime will change jobs on the average of seven times.
                

00:26:52 Mike

So, with the expansion of the technology and AI and virtual reality, we know that the future of work is ever changing and it's happening at a rapid leap. But one thing that has also remained very consistent over the last decades and last century, we know the value of post-secondary education is so important to really provide that leg up for our students to move into the middle class, to have those skill sets to move into solid careers.
                

00:27:15 Mike

And we know that there's more work to do to, and to make sure that the value of the post-secondary degree continues to assist those who seek better lives and to really make sure that our campuses and our educational institutions have the curriculum to meet the needs of the future of work. And so, I encourage everyone to continue to persist in their educational journey.
                

00:27:33 Mike

Here in California, we know that's important. It's always been the one thing that can transform lives and generations here in California, is the pursuit of higher education and beyond, and lifelong learning. I encourage everyone to continue lifelong learning, whether it's in arts, in humanities or different languages.
                

00:27:50 Mike

It's so important to really have those opportunities and our community colleges are so critical to those lifelong learning opportunities as well, as well as our other segments of higher education here and know that we're here to serve you, work closely with our students, faculty and staff, and administration to continue to embrace the hopes and aspirations of our students here in the great state of California.
                

00:28:11 Salvatrice

Once again, thank you so much. If there are listeners who would like to connect with you, Assemblymember Fong, what's the best way for them to connect with you?
                

00:28:20 Mike

Thank you so much Ms. Cummo. Folks can connect with us through email. My email is assemblymember.mikefong@assembly.ca.gov. We're also on social media, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And the handle is @asmmikefong.
                

00:28:39 Salvatrice

Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for making the time to speak with me today, it's been absolutely lovely. And most importantly, thank you for your support and dedication to our community colleges, and being such a champion on public education, specifically higher ED. Thank you for being a public servant.
                

00:29:02 Mike

Thank you for your leadership and efforts at Pasadena City College with this podcast and the Future of Work. And thank you for everything you've done to uplift California here, really appreciate you.
                

00:29:13 Salvatrice

Thank you for listening to The Future of Work Podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday.
                

00:29:22 Salvatrice

You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show notes to collaborate, partner, or just chat about all things future of work, we'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the future of work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.