Evergreen Valley College

NEW FALL COURSE NOW OPEN! - Counseling 001 - Cross-Cultural Identity Development

Explore what identity is and how it plays a role in understanding yourself and others.

In this engaging online course, we examine how culture, values, beliefs, race, gender, and life experiences shape identity and influence behavior, relationships, and life choices

Be sure to vote today in California’s Primary election!

Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Details for Santa Clara County: vote.santaclaracounty.gov

The JEWL Museum, housed on the EVC campus, recently received more literature from Ken Wesson, a professor of neuroscience who has spoken at San Jose State and the Stanford Research Institute.

Wesson, who is also associated with JEWL's advisory team, became interested in African-American history after reading "Before the Mayflower," a history of Black culture prior to the arrival of the Pilgrims in America.

This past week, we celebrated the College Connection Academy (CCA) graduating high school class of 2026, of which EVC was a big part of their academic journey. It is a program associated with Yerba Buena High School.

The 120 students in the program took classes at EVC; of those, 80 have been in the program since seventh grade, taught by educator and Trustee Clay Hale. Ten had perfect 4.0 GPAs, while eight also received an Associate's degree from EVC.

What’s next? Fifty-two are headed to UCs, and another 29 are headed to CSUs. Eight will continue with us at EVC.

Congrats to EVC employees Kara Has and John Ruys for winning two of the District's Diversity and Equity awards this year.

This year’s Bridge to Equity Award winner is: Dr. Kara Uy Has, in our mental health and wellness department.

Bridge to Equity Award: The Bridge to Equity Award goes to an employee who is recognized for “initiating and leading action to eliminate equity gaps for disproportionately impacted people and communities.”

Among other highlights, she was nominated for her “commitment to serving disproportionately impacted students and communities,” her leadership in advocating for students, and her work to actively confront barriers.

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This year’s LGBTQ+ Award winner is: Dr. John Ruys

LGBTQ+ Inclusion Award: This award goes to an employee who is recognized for “initiating and leading action to remove barriers and improve the campus experience and engagement levels of LGBTQIA+ students.”

On his nomination, John was noted for “driving student engagement and promoting self-exploration and allyship” via the Lavender Council, student LGBTQIA+ Club, Pride Center on campus, and leading inclusive programming.

The Robert N. Chang Foundation celebrates its 25th year supporting our District and its third year supporting our EVC students. Over that time, they have awarded $1.6 million in funds to 180 students.

This year’s recipients included Ahmad Anwar, an NSF biology scholars headed to Santa Clara University; Shahzod Bakhrieve, a San Jose State transfer student in computer science; Amy Jasso, a first-generation transfer student from a family of eight with degrees in child development and pyschology, headed to San Jose State; Van Le, a first generation transfer student to SJSU majoring in computer science; Thi Ngoc Giau Nguyen, whose parents were at the ceremony and who is headed to SJSU for Chemistry and Bao Chau Vo, a business analytics major headed to SJSU.

Each student is awarded a $10,000 scholarship.

This is the third year of their generous support at EVC, as we welcomed back Hoang To, now a graduate from San Jose State, who recently earned her Bachelor’s in Psychology and wants to go into academic counseling. Hoang was a part of our first class in 2024.

More photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/evergreenvalleycc/

Here are some recent photos from year-end projects in Engineering 030: Programming and Problem Solving. Here are the students:

Sergio Duarte, Civil Engineering major — Arduino Mega 2D Photogate (large wooden structure)

Davyd Semeniuk, Civil Engineering major — Unmanned Ground Vehicle (tank)

Minhjames Nguyen, Mechanical Engineering major — Automatic Conveyor Belt

Joseph Ballou, Biomedical Engineering major — Autonomous Driving Raspberry Pi Robot

Albert Sue, Mechanical Engineering major — Detection Robot

Evergreen Valley College celebrated its first set of graduates from the Green Cleaning and Workplace Safety certificate program with a bilingual ceremony on Wednesday.

It was never too late to learn for these seven custodial graduates, who continued working while earning this certificate. The program, over two years, taught students to use a computer, navigate college platforms such as Canvas, and perform their jobs safely from a workplace perspective. Classes also taught green cleaning, ergonomics, and disease prevention. The program addressed mental health, self-care, and communication with coworkers as additional soft skills.

The certificate is part of our Facilities Management Technology (FMT) classes. More information can be found by emailing [email protected].

More photos at flickr.com/photos/evergreenvalleycc/albums

EVC Men’s Soccer, which has achieved a No. 1 state ranking in each of the past two seasons and produced a 49-11-8 record over the last three seasons, will see 10 current and former players earn degrees or certificates.

In addition, Josue Lopez and Erick Luna Ramirez will both continue their playing careers by transferring to the University of the Pacific. Both players were recognized as JUCO All-Americans this past season. Ramirez, the Coast Conference Player of the Year was a first team pick and Lopez was a second team selection by the United Soccer Coaches.

2026 Spring Graduates

Jose Aguilar - (AA-T) Economics, (AS-T) Business Administration 2.0, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Mario Fregoso Bautista - (AA-T) Communication Studies, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Angel Castro - (AA-T) Social Justice - Chicano Studies, (AA-T) Social Justice - Ethnic Studies, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Daniel De la Cruz - (AA-T) Communication Studies 2.0

Omar Elshabasy - (AA-T) Economics, (AS-T) Business Administration 2.0, (COA) Cal-GETC

Josue Lopez - (AA-T) Communication Studies 2.0, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Phi Nguyen - (AA-T) Communication Studies 2.0, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Ariel Orellana - (AA-T) Economics, (AS-T) Business Administration, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Eusebio Rivera-Villalobos - (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth

Hugo Sanchez - (AA-T) Social Justice - Ethnic Studies 2.0, (COA) CSU General Education - Breadth