Going along with the theme of a melodious goodbye, we want to say a few words about our first year as Chaparral Co-editors. You are very welcome that this little note was not set to the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, as we are more of a karaoke duo than the Von Trapp Family Singers.
Anyway, what a year this has been for both us and Chaparral! From the start, we were both excited and invested in being a part of our Guild in a more concrete way than mere membership. As new faculty members, we knew so much of our professional education came from our peers. This opportunity to be in conversation with Guild leadership, GCC employees, and our esteemed retired colleagues was too good to pass up. So, we took a leap of faith and became your Chaparral Editors!
We were so encouraged by the supportive feedback you have given us about our vision for Chaparral, so thank you to those folks. To every single reader, listener, and viewer, thank you for engaging with our work. It is so strange to create content hoping someone (really anyone) finds our work meaningful. Worried questions we asked ourselves included “Will people like this?” and “Will they care enough to complete our silly games?!” In true GCC fashion, our community showed up to remind us of our strength, creativity, and ability. You, our community, showed up and viewed our annual Chaparral over 4,400 times! That’s almost 13 times more than the previous year! While some of those views were us panic-checking our content for typos and grammar, the majority came from you. So, thank you for caring about us, this school, and the words and experiences of one another.
Lastly, we want to encourage you, as both a person and employee of GCC. The last few years have been challenging, to say the least, as we retooled and reorganized to make plans for the future in the face of new leadership and new legislation. Sometimes GCC may seem larger than all of us, making us feel like our individual effort is not impactful enough. But we want to remind you that you are an incredible individual: family, friend, confidant, colleague, educator, facilitator, and worker very last. Your consistent efforts to share your empathy and humanity make GCC what it is for all us, and that is its own incredible and impressive accomplishment. So, as we graduate students, congratulate retiring colleagues, and welcome new hires (future friends!), we hope you know how truly important you are to this work.
We appreciate you!
A special thank you to all our regular columnists, the editorial board, Deo Sy, Megan Torrey-Payne, Jeanette Farr-Harkins, Erica Perez, Jean Lecuyer, Tanner Farwell and all our readers and watchers of Chaparral.
Until next year,
Romy and Aisha
Glendale Community College | 1500 North Verdugo Road, Glendale, California 91208 | Tel: 818.240.1000
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