Cerritos College News Release

Photo of Chris Sugiyama with the award plaque NORWALK, Calif. - October 29, 2009 - Chris Sugiyama, chair of the Counseling Department at Cerritos College received the Promising Outcomes Work and Exemplary Research (POWER) Award for excellent outcomes assessment in student services. The award was presented at the 2009 Strengthening Student Success Conference on October 7, 2009.

Sponsored by the RP Group & Academic Senate for California Community Colleges SLO (Student Learning Outcome) Assessment Cooperative, the first annual POWER Awards recognize exemplary work in outcomes assessment in 19 categories.

Sugiyama began her employment at Cerritos College in 1987 as a counselor and has served as Chair of the Counseling Department since 2005. She also serves as Chair of the Counseling Department SLO Committee at the college.

When asked what brought her the award, Sugiyama stated, “It was our innovative assessment method. Typically SLO student services assessment is done quantitatively by analyzing numerical data, but we used anecdotal data, which gave us richer, qualitative results.”

“We are very proud of our colleague’s accomplishment in education,” said Dr. Renée De Long Chomiak, dean of Counseling Services. “Her achievement is an excellent example of the great work we do here at Cerritos College,” - Renee Comments

“I was surprised and pleased to be selected for the Power award,” said Sugiyama. “It is recognition of the dedicated the work of the Counseling Department SLO Committee. Assessing our SLO’s has given us the opportunity to reflect on our work and make meaningful recommendations to the department for improving services to students.”

The Annual Strengthening Student Success conference provides a unique opportunity for a wide cross-section of people—including faculty, deans, program directors, student services staff, professional development leadership, researchers, and planners—to gather and brainstorm ways to strengthen institutional effectiveness and student learning. The 2009 conference explored using evidence to improve practice, as well as the integration of curriculum with basic skills, student services, CTE, and college institutional effectiveness structures.

Cerritos College serves as a comprehensive community college for southeastern Los Angeles County. Communities within the college’s district include Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, La Mirada, Norwalk, and portions of Bell Gardens, Lakewood, Long Beach, Santa Fe Springs and South Gate. Cerritos College offers degrees and certificates in more than 180 areas of study in nine divisions. Annually, more than 1,200 students successfully complete their course of studies, and enrollment currently averages nearly 23,000 students. Visit Cerritos College online at http://www.cerritos.edu/.

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Cerritos College

Releases 2009