Teaching for Tomorrow
Teaching and learning at CSM is a continuous journey of equity and innovation, where faculty pursue professional development and tenure milestones while engaging with leading voices. Our Spring 2025 Flex Day programs, or professional development days, included Dr. Gina Ann Garcia who spoke with the College about our HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution) identity, and Dr. Keali‘i Kukahiko who shared thoughts on the imperatives of AANAPISI (Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution) designation. These reflections on our federal designations strengthened our mission and educational planning, ensuring alignment with the needs of our diverse students. Meanwhile, students carry this excellence forward, from groundbreaking STEM internships to hands-on industry tours, showcasing how CSM prepares learners for transfer, careers, and leadership in their communities.
Enseñanza Para el Mañana
La enseñanza y el aprendizaje en CSM constituyen un camino continuo de equidad e innovación, donde el profesorado avanzó en su desarrollo profesional y en los distintos logros de título mientras conectaban con voces líderes. Nuestros programas de Flex Day de la primavera de 2025 — jornadas de desarrollo profesional — incluyeron a la Dra. Gina Ann Garcia, quien conversó con el Colegio sobre nuestra identidad como HSI (Institución al Servicio de los Hispanos), y al Dr. Keali‘i Kukahiko, quien compartió reflexiones sobre los imperativos de la designación AANAPISI (Institución al Servicio de los Asiático-Americanos y Nativos de las Islas del Pacífico). Estas reflexiones sobre nuestras designaciones federales fortalecieron nuestra misión y la planificación educativa, garantizando la alineación con las necesidades de nuestros estudiantades de diversas comunidades. Mientras tanto, nuestros estudiantes proyectan esta excelencia hacia el futuro, desde prácticas profesionales innovadoras en STEM hasta visitas técnicas a la industria, que muestran cómo CSM prepara nuestros estudiantes para la transferencia, las carreras profesionales y el liderazgo en sus comunidades.
Faculty Who Never Stop Learning
CSM faculty translated research into practice through transparent grading, accessible course design, and belonging-first pedagogy refined in the Equitable Grading Labs. The work aligns with our HSI & AANAPISI servingness and scales through peer-led Redesign for Equity & Accessibility Lab (REAL) cohorts and a growing repository of templates, fostering better teaching, stronger outcomes, and lasting change.
Berkeley School of Education Professor Dr. Gina Ann Garcia (far right) with CSM’s Dr. Julieth Diaz Benitez (left) and Dr. Heidi Bonilla (center).
Research Starts Here
CSM’s MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) program supports first-generation, low-income, and historically under-represented students in STEM on the path to transfer and bachelor’s degrees. MESA students returned from summer internships at top Bay Area labs and shared projects in artificial intelligence, biology, and engineering. They presented the tools they used, ranging from data pipelines and wet-lab protocols to rapid prototyping, as well as what they learned about research culture. Each came back with mentors, results, and a clear plan for the next step.
STEM Presentations by MESA Students
Where Coursework Meets Careers
Guided by faculty, business students toured Adobe's San Jose HQ to see how product, finance, and marketing teams operate day-to-day. Adobe professionals guided students through a real-world corporate work environment, observed high-level collaboration across multiple functional teams, and addressed career-related questions. Students left the site visit with a clear understanding of how the coursework and group assignments in their classroom relate to what they observed at Adobe. Industry touchpoints like this open doors to possibilities for our students.
Business Students Tour Adobe’s San Jose HQ
Mapping a Future in Computational Biology
Honors Project learning community scholar KyiLei Aye earned a Stanford Winetraub Lab internship through Stanford's CCOP-CORE (Community College Outreach Program — Opportunities in Research Engagement), a paid 10-week research internship for community college students. She contributed to computational biology research, analyzing skin images with machine-learning models to support non-invasive cancer detection, earning third prize at the Stanford Undergraduate Research Conference and co-author credit on a scholarly paper. Read more at collegeofsanmateo.edu/kyilei.
KyiLei Aye