Analytical thinking skills. Knowledge of biology. Being thorough and detail-oriented. The ability to work on your own and with others. Good verbal communication skills. Knowledge of mathematics. Knowledge of chemistry, including the safe use and disposal of chemicals.
Those are among the key skills a biotechnologist should have.
Students at Vacaville and Wood high schools will have a chance to learn and retain such skills in the coming year on their respective campuses if they enroll in a dual option that is a newly announced partnership between Vacaville Unified and Solano Community College.
The biotechnology courses will be taught by a SCC instructor, allowing high school students to earn college credits while still in high school, Elaine Kong, the school district’s director of communications and community engagement, said in a press release.
Students who successfully pass the course will earn seven college credits from SCC and 24 high school credits, “giving them a head start on their college education,” she added in the prepared statement.
One of the unique benefits of this program is that students who complete the biotechnology courses will also be eligible for what she called “Honors GPA bonus,” providing them with additional recognition for their academic achievements.
“This is an excellent opportunity for motivated students to challenge themselves and excel in their studies,” she wrote in the press statement.
The biotechnology courses will help students toward their earning a certificate of achievement or an associate of arts degree in biotechnology. “With just 14 to 20 additional credits, students can qualify for a lucrative career in biotechnology, a rapidly growing industry with vast career opportunities,” added Kong.
VUSD Superintendent Jane Shamieh (Reporter file/Richard Bammer)
“The City of Vacaville has long supported a local bioeconomy,” said Vacaville City Manager Aaron Busch. “In addition to the city’s long-term investment in biomanufacturing, the enhanced partnerships with Vacaville Unified School District and Solano Community College are a testament to our collective commitment to creating local opportunities for our students and securing the talent pipeline for a burgeoning industry right in our backyard.
“The biotechnology courses will open doors for our young residents, allowing them to gain advanced knowledge and skills in an expanding field, setting them up for a successful future.”
Superintendent Jane Shamieh also weighed in on the latest district course offering.
“We are thrilled to offer this dual-enrollment option with Solano Community College, providing our students with an excellent opportunity to gain college credits and valuable skills in biotechnology,” she said. “This partnership will provide our students with a career in biotechnology, whether they choose to continue their college education or pursue immediate employment in the field right out of high school.”
Likewise, Ed Santopadre, the district’s associate superintendent for educational services, expressed enthusiasm and support for the collaboration.
Ed Santopadre, VUSD associate superintendent for educational services (Contributed photo/Ed Greaves)
“I am excited about our partnership with Solano College and the support of the City of Vacaville,” he said in a text message to The Reporter on Monday. “Our students will benefit greatly by taking these classes and it will also support our community in their biotech efforts.”
Kong said VUSD is “committed to providing innovative educational opportunities to our students,” calling the partnership with SCC an example of that commitment.
The district, she added, provides “a wide range” of academic, athletic, and extracurricular programs to prepare students for college, career and life success.
SCC’s biotech program started as a workforce program for Genentech, among the leading biotechnology companies in the world and one which operates a manufacturing center in Vacaville that is also one of the city’s top employers.
Jim DeKloe, director and founder of the Industrial Biotechnology Program at Solano Community College (Reporter file/ Richard Bammer)
In a February interview with The Reporter, Jim DeKloe, a professor of biological sciences and biotechnology at SCC, called Genentech “the largest cell culture manufacturing facility in the world. When I go to conferences, I travel all over the country, everyone has heard of Vacaville, California, if they’re in the biotech field, especially because of Genentech Vacaville.”
DeKloe, the founder of the industrial biotechnology program at the 2001 N. Village Parkway campus, said Genentech was one biotech center that provides a livable starting wage, the potential for upward mobility and serves a vital role in health and science.
“They often will make a medicine for a disease for which there is no treatment,” he said of Genentech. “Before that medicine is invented and manufactured, someone who had that disease would inevitably die. There’d be nothing that medical science could do for them. At the end of the day, if you work across the street (at Genentech), you are saving somebody’s mom. That is part of what makes biotechnology so fulfilling.”
