Southwestern College Welcomes nine new tenure instructors to staff roster

A shrinking faculty got a fresh infusion of talent this semester with the hiring of nine tenure-tack assistant professors. Southwestern College lost 16 professors last June when it offered a sweeping early retirement plan. Not all of the retired professors will be replaced.

Jessica Whitset
Assistant Professor of ESL

UCSD graduate Jessica Whitset interned at San Diego City College and found her passion for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). She earned a Master’s in applied linguistics from SDSU.

“I’ve attended both of the universities and fallen in love with San Diego so I don’t think I’ll ever leave,” said Whitset, a native of Louisiana. “This is home now.”

Her teaching career began in 2007 in an SDSU the writing program that served local community colleges including SWC.

“I’m fully committed for the long term,” said Whitset. “I think one of the wonderful things about getting that tenure-track position is the ability to vision long-term.”

Intrigued with the enriched diversity SWC has to offer, Whitset became enthused about teaching the multi-cultural population.

“I came on this campus and saw the students that were represented here and I knew I wanted to teach here. ”

Anna Belanger, 31, undecided major, said Whitset is a fine teacher.

“She is always well organized and very well prepared for every class and she is really concerned about our class topics,” said Belanger. “It’s not only talk, it is her lifestyle.”

Whitset works also with Universidad Tecnologia de Tijuana with ESL teachers to share ideas and best practices.

Kevin Roof
Assistant professor of fire science

Former fire-fighter Kevin Roof earned his bachelor’s in communications with a minor in business from the University of Arizona. He earned a paramedics certification from Palomar College. He worked for the cities of Oceanside, Del Mar and most currently Coronado, retiring from its fire department after 14 years of service.

Roof’s new priority to educate future firefighters.

“I envision getting involved at different levels at the school where I know my qualifications will best fit the school,” said Roof. “I know on the short term I’m trying to be a co-advisor for the Southwestern Fire Science Club.”

Roof is talking with fire chiefs in the county, about making SWC a certified Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) location using Sweetwater High School.

Former students of Roof give back by volunteering their time to new students.

Johnathan Feliciano makes time on top of his duties as a firefighter paramedic for the city of Coronado to mentor new students and show his appreciation for Roof’s guidance.

“He’s a great resource, I mean, for one he’s in the field,” said Feliciano. “Whenever you have someone who teaches what they do as a profession, they have that experience and education behind them.”

Ruben Castaneda, 20, fire science major said he is happy to take courses with Roof.

“He’s very informative, I like that a lot actually,” said Castaneda. “He’s always open for questions, he always tells us there’s no stupid question because you don’t want to be stuck somewhere and not know what’s going on.”

Rob Shaffer
Assistant Professor of Reading

With a master’s degree in education from UCLA, and another in literature from UCSD as well as 14 years of experience with the American Language Institute at SDSU, Shaffer is full time after four years as an SWC adjunct.

“It’s very rewarding working with the students here,” said Shaffer. “It’s a lot of people trying to improve their lives and lift themselves up, It sounds kind of corny, but it’s more rewarding and I thought I’d have more of an impact on the state of California and make things better by being here.”

Shaffer also serves as part of the Sustainability Task Force founded by former Intern Superintendent Denise Whittaker to secure an environmentally-efficient campus. Shaffer has also volunteered for Terry’s Tutoring Table, a tutoring program in commemoration of former tutor, Terry Shartz, who is terminally ill.

“We’re doing that as a tribute to her,” said Shaffer.

Joyce Bayles
Assistant Professor of English

When she became a mother at the tender age of 19, Bayles dropped her pursuit of becoming a writer for an Associate’s degree in accounting to support her daughter. She went back to school to get her bachelor’s in accounting from SDSU.

“By then my daughter was grown and I really thought ‘what am I doing?’” she said. “I really loved English and literature and writing, so I decided to go back and get my master’s in English and changed careers.”

In 2004 Bayles graduated with her master’s and began her teaching career at SDSU’s satellite campus in Imperial Valley. She moved back to San Diego to teach at other community colleges, the design institute and USD before landing a position at SWC.

“That’s been my goal all along, to obtain a tenure-track position,” she said. “So that’s what brings me to where I am today.”

Teaching is just a small part of Bayles’ new career. She is a Puente mentor and part of the P.A.I.R learning community teaching new or struggling college students skills to be successful.

“We’ve had great success with that program because we have a little bit of data to show that students in the learning community do better than the students that take the stand-alone content courses,” she said.

Bayles predicted a long and fulfilling career at SWC.

“I like the feeling of community here,” she said. “All of my fellow faculty members are very supportive and we talk to each other about our teaching and how to make things better and what works.”

Silvia Garcia-Navarrete
Assistant Professor of Reading

Silvia Garcia-Navarrete is a local girl made girl. She entered higher education at SWC as a teenager and is a freshly-minted Ed.D from SDSU.

“Getting my doctorate for me, was a dream,” said Garcia-Navarrete. “I didn’t think I’d ever accomplish that because it just seemed it was not even in my reach.”

Garcia-Navarrete said she is a firm believer in the innovated teaching strategy, she helped develop called, Our Reading/Writing Toolbox. Garcia-Navarrete said she is here to give back to students and to satisfy their need for quality education.

“I want my students to be able to walk away with this knowledge,” said Garcia-Navarrete. “I make learning real for them, make it come alive.”

At the beginning of each semester she ask the students how they are going to grow as a learner. “Do you want to be an oyster or do you want to be a sausage?”

“An oyster has life, there’s no life in a sausage,” she said. “An oyster starts with a little grain of sand and the oyster with its own muscles will start to work and work and with all the polishing that it does to it, it eventually turns into a pearl and that jewel is priceless.”

Garcia-Navarrete’s teaching is based on the students who want to be the oyster.

“If you’re a grain of sand coming into this class and you continue to work polishing your skills, polishing your knowledge, you’re going to be a priceless jewel by the time you leave my class,” said Garcia-Navarrete.

Maria Olivas
Assistant Professor of Math/science.

Maria Olivas got her push into the math field by former SWC Professor Richard Linder, convincing her to change from art to numbers.

“I remember him explaining everything so clearly and his writing on the board was so neat, it made everything so easy to understand,” said Olivas. “I kept thinking, ‘wow, once you find an instructor that knows how to present the material in an easy-to-learn manner, math isn’t so bad.’”

Linder’s lessons live on.

“If it hadn’t been for Professor Linder,” added Olivas. “There’s no way I’d be teaching math.”

After earning her bachelor’s in math from SDSU, Olivas taught at the high school level, but soon returned for her Master’s to teach at the college level.

Using her art background, Olivas emphasizes on neatness and creativity of numbers and formulas.

“I try to show things very neatly,” said Olivas. “I try to use a lot of color because I’ve got my art background. I’m using things like YouTube and I’m trying to reach students lots of different ways.”

Michael Buckley
Assistant Professor of Theater Arts/ Technical Director

Michael Buckley is a renaissance man who is one of San Diego County’s best known and most decorated designers and actors. He has deisgned award-winning sets in virtually every major theater in Southern California.

Buckley said he has always had a passion for teaching.

“I taught when I was at graduate school, a million years ago, and I really enjoyed it but at the time I didn’t really have much professional experience,” said Buckley. “I didn’t feel that I had much to pass on to students at the time.”

Buckley, a UCLA graduate, stared his career as an actor and playwright, then gravitated to the technical side of theater. He is best known for his imaginative set and light designs for Lambs’ Players Teatre, Old Globe Theater and San Diego Repertory Theater. He wrote the popular comedy “The Hit” and starred as the Elvis Presley Pharoah in “Joesph and the Amazing Technizder Dream Coat.”

Buckley is working with Professor of Theater Mark Pentilescu to create a certificate program in technical theater at SWC.

“We are trying to ramp up our efforts in recruitment at area high schools to boost our number and to boost our reputation in the community because we feel like there could be a little more awareness out there about what were doing here,” said Buckley. “It’s a small program, but it’s a very live, vital program.”

Veronica Guaracha
Assistant Professor of Counseling and Personal Development

Veronica Guaracha said she has wanted to be a counselor at SWC ever since she was a student here.

“This is it for me,” she said. “This was like a goal I had from the minuet I had my first consular appointment.”

The same counselor is now her colleague.

“I’m blessed,” said Guaracha. “I’ve hit the gold mine.”

Her experience as an SWC student here helps shape the advice she gives students.

“I’m not really hard on students for taking their time, because I did,” she said. “You really have to like what you’re doing because you’re the one taking the exams, you’re the one doing the work. Sometimes we forget that we’re not just students, we’re parents and we work. We have to help students understand when they are choosing classes they have to put all that stuff into account.”

John Rieder
Assistant Professor of English

John Rieder earned a bachelor’s in creative writing from UCSD and a his master’s in English from the University of Illinois.

“This is my dream job,” said Rieder. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

The Jaguar alumni said he plans on giving back to SWC what he got out of it.

“We all have deep histories at this school,” said Rieder. “And so we’re not just showing up randomly, we have a commitment here that goes back years.”

Brittany Finks, 21, undecided, said Rieder is comforting.

“I think that he is a pretty great teacher,” she said. “He’s really good at making you feel confident about writing. A lot of teachers can make you feel kind of insecure and very hesitant about showing other people your writing.”

Much of this comes from the teaching style Rieder uses, which he adapted from his college professors.

“One of the things that I’m a huge proponent of is that a lot of writing class time needs to be given over to conferences,” said Rieder. “Lecture and discussion is great and important and it’s great that students workshop and share work with each other, but I think one of the things that I always valued as a student and one of the things I value as a teacher now is just being able to sit down a couple of times a semester with my students and talk to them one-on-one about their writing. So I’m a huge fan of the one-on-one conference. I try to bring in as many conferences as I can in the semester.”