Barstow, CA – April 5, 2024 – Barstow Community College (BCC) celebrates the ingenuity of its students in the Solve Community Challenges competition, where they tackled pressing local issues with inventive solutions. This week, BCC recognized the winners, who addressed homelessness, childcare, and affordable housing, with cash prizes and accolades from a panel of local business and community leaders.
The competition highlighted the power of collaborative problem-solving and leadership in effecting meaningful change. The solutions proposed by these teams demonstrated creativity, empathy, and a deep understanding of the challenges facing our communities.
Students, supported by faculty and staff from Barstow Community College (BCC), formed teams and collaborated through SolveCC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills among community college students. Under the leadership of Barstow Community College Superintendent-President, Dr. Eva Bagg, and SolveCC Founder, Mojdeh Eskandari, students demonstrated their commitment to identifying and addressing pressing challenges in the communities served by the college. “At BCC, we believe that the most powerful educational experiences channel students’ deep-seated interests with classroom learning and the opportunities and support to better understand the issues they care about and to go out and collectively generate innovative and actionable solutions for the betterment of themselves and others.”
Winning the top prize this year for the challenge to “identify a problem and propose a solution”, was Team Blue Horizon, led by Jason Dokie, a teacher from Barstow Unified School District and a BCC student. Comprised of 5th thru 7th graders, the team dedicated numerous hours to surveying and analyzing homeless concerns within their community. Dokie, with years of teaching experience and boundless belief in the capabilities of his students, expressed that Solve CC was a “great opportunity for students to get real world experience in applying their school knowledge and skills to improve and support their community.”
"We believe in the power of partnerships and collaboration to achieve meaningful change," added Harmony Griffin, Co-Lead of Team Downtown. "By working with local charities, businesses, and organizations, we can maximize our impact and create a sustainable model for addressing these critical issues."
Seeing first-hand the effect limited childcare resources has on BCC students, "Team Beauty & Brains” composed of BCC Teaching and Learning Support Center staff and students, focused on addressing the lack of childcare in the Barstow community. Team lead, Persephone Belle, noted that “Working at the TLSC, we see a lot of student parents struggling to balance being parents and going to college.”
Barstow Community College remains committed to nurturing the innovative spirit of its students and fostering positive change in the communities it serves. For more information about Barstow Community College and its initiatives, visit www.barstow.edu.
SolveCC invites students to be changemakers in their communities. Learn more at http://www.solvecc.org/.
Media Contact:
Amanda Simpson
Director, Public Relations, Communications, and Marketing
Barstow Community College
