For decades, Diablo Valley College has hosted a non-credit program called College for Kids (CFK) during summer break, serving elementary and middle school students. Community education, on the other hand, invites young adults and people of all ages to explore broader educational and learning opportunities open to the general public.

Together, the programs have boosted community engagement while introducing  pathways for children to get excited about school.

“CFK offers a variety of real work, such as science, tech, engineering, arts, math, biology, watercolor, oil painting and so many more classes,” said Johanna Padilla, DVC’s director of community education and College for Kids.

“Every year, for two sessions a week, in June and July, for a total of about nine hours each, all these types of classes provide students with a way of getting familiar with the campus.”

 College for Kids specializes in offering “pure enrichment classes” that keep 3rd to 9th grade children active and motivated through both physical and non-physical activities during summer break, Padilla added. 

And the success stories are evident. Padilla said one student who was enrolled in the CFK program long ago, later attended DVC before transferring to a university in Los Angeles to study film. Now, that student has returned to teach film classes at DVC.

”These are the younger generations of the future DVC,” she said, adding that the school’s community education program has also provided a range of classes for students enrolled at DVC, and helped many who are pursuing a four-year degree.

“For years, this community education has been a big success for families, enriching 30,000 to 40,000 thousand students,” Padilla said. 

Charlie Shi, the school’s dean of business, computer science, culinary and community education, also emphasized the importance of the program for adults returning to bolster their education.

“Community education is actually a very important component of DVC,” Shi said, though “it may not be a well known program for a lot of students. We actually have to get our own revenue to pay for our expenses as a self-supporting, independent program to stay [profitable within] the college.”

Shi said the program is continually developing as it caters to the needs of students of all ages. 

“[We’re] always working very hard to better community education, actively taking feedback, looking to spread awareness about these services in the programs,” he said, adding that the school takes regular surveys to gauge the response from student and adult learners based on the job career and training programs they have taken, from music and business to cyber security and data analytics.

Shi said a number of students report that the very first time they got to know DVC was by attending the College for Kids programs when they were young. Many others come in later stages of life.

 “This is a community for adult students who want to retrain themselves,” he said. “We provide training programs in different fields at DVC. There are so many careers to pick from.”

Padilla highlighted the program appeal stating, “the program provided a non-credit class session, returning students are always looking forward to joining these classes for fun”. Physically, what is offered in this program is hard to turn down”.