{"id":3591,"date":"2016-09-20T20:36:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T04:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pre-production.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/?p=3591"},"modified":"2016-09-20T20:36:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T04:36:01","slug":"meet-the-interim-vice-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.taftcollege.edu\/echo-online\/blog\/2016\/09\/20\/meet-the-interim-vice-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Interim Vice President"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Bailey Vega<\/p>\n

Primavera Arvizu, who was originally hired as\u00a0a dean last April, is now the new Interim Vice-president of Student <\/span><\/span>Services\u00a0at Taft College. She has a master\u2019s degree in counseling with a concentration in student affairs as well as twelve years of experience in higher education at both two and four year institutions. Before coming to TC, she worked at Bakersfield College for nearly a decade, and over the years her career has involved various responsibilities such as working with state and federal funding, engaging in advisory and outreach professions, and working as a program director and an administrator. In every job position, Arvizu\u2019s goal has always been \u201cto make sure students are successful,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Supporting students and ensuring their comfort and success is Arvizu\u2019s highest priority. She describes herself as a \u201cstudent advocate\u201d and is passionate about connecting with the people who attend and work at Taft College. She strongly feels that she can associate with and provide assistance to students because she recalls very clearly what it was like to be one on a college campus for the first time. \u201cI remember being a student on the BC campus and feeling so lost,\u201d she said, noting that this feeling even brought her to tears at times. Because of this, one of her main goals as the vice president is to help students who may feel similar to the way she did, which inspires her to makes an effort to say hello to students on campus and to open conversations with those who may be feeling unsure of themselves in a college setting. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our interim vice president really has a heart for working with people as further evidenced in her response to being asked what her favorite part about working at Taft College is: \u201cThe people here.\u201d Since the responsibilities of Arvizu’s job center on student services and advising and supervising other faculty who head programs at the school, she takes advantage of the opportunity she has to make personal connections with others. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Although Arvizu\u2019s position is interim, meaning she is the vice president until the college finds a person to fulfill the position permanently, she fully intends on building productive momentum in order to keep things going forward smoothly for Taft College students now and in the coming years. Concentrating on \u201cmoving the dial of student success,\u201d \u201calways asking what comes next\u201d as well as being aware of the \u201cstudent life-cycle\u201d (what Arvizu describes as the different stages of being a student) are key points in her aim to continue making effective and positive progress at Taft College. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Arvizu\u2019s enthusiasm for aiding and encouraging students on their various educational paths is summed up well in her statement of what her\u00a0mission is for the school: \u201cMy vision for Taft College within student services is to focus on student success and moving the dial. And how do we do that? Well, we have to understand the student life-cycle; we have to understand their momentum points and which points in time in their student life-cycle we can enhance. [We also have to understand] barriers and obstacles we can try to remove so that students can be successful on campus. It\u2019s the community, it\u2019s the students, and it\u2019s the people; it\u2019s the staff and it\u2019s the support that we provide to make it happen.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n